Bodwrdda

Bodwrdda is a gentry house of mixed date, comprising a rubble stone main range with 17th-century red brick wings, arranged in a C-plan. The building stands two storeys high with an attic level. The main range runs east to west, with a formal north elevation created by the addition of projecting brick wings on either side of an older central section that was remodelled to match.

The north-facing elevation features uniform painted stone mullion windows with flush ovolo-moulded depressed-arched heads, some with leaded lights, and flat hoodmoulds throughout. The three-window centre section has been remodelled, with windows not quite aligned. The centrepiece is a depressed-arched flush-moulded doorcase with incised rosettes in the spandrels, a hoodmould, and a half-glazed door. On either side are two-light windows at slightly varied heights, with three two-light windows above; the left window contains a 20-pane sash replacing the original mullion, and the centre window is set slightly left but aligned with the eaves. A brick gabled dormer with a similar two-light window sits above. The wings are constructed of red brick with rubble stone plinths and similar windows. The return elevations facing the courtyard have matching centre eaves dormers with blank windows and a one-window range of similar windows set towards the outer angle; all are blank except for a 20-pane sash inserted in the first floor of the west wing. The gable ends are matching, with close eaves, painted quoins, and diamond-shaped gable plaques formerly painted with 'HB1621'.

The main range has small gable-end stacks—stone to the west, brick to the east (formerly tall but cut down since 1964)—and a tall wall-face stone stack to the left of centre on the south front. Three-light mullion windows, two to the main floors and one in the gable, appear on each gable end. Both wings have a large brick stack on the outer side wall; the west stack was rebuilt. A blocked two-light ground-floor window is visible on the outer west wall. The wings have hollow-moulded eaves cornices.

The south elevation has windows that are small and scattered: three 17th-century two-light windows appear on each floor, similar to those on the north front. The first floor has two windows to the right of the stack and one to the left; the outer ones have inserted casements, whilst the other has the mullion removed and replaced with a 16-pane sash. The ground floor has three similar windows: one to the right with a 20th-century window replacing all but the hood (aligned with the window above), one to the right of the sash above, and one to the left of the window above. A raking buttress runs in line with the stack, and a small 16th-century segmental-pointed window sits just to the right, now with an inserted 4-pane window. A small 16th-century single-light window with a segmental-pointed head appears at the extreme left. Possible 16th-century blocked openings above the two 16th-century ground-floor windows are evident; the left one formerly had the remains of a four-light timber mullion window.

At the extreme right is a small added bakehouse with a south stone stack, west door, and window. The east gable end has stone stairs to a loft door on the left with a brick head. A door at the extreme right has a brick head with a 9-pane sash above and a small loft light above, with two projecting slate slabs beneath the sill, perhaps for a former pulley. The absence of quoins suggests that the stone gable and brick north-east wing are contemporary. The west gable end has a blocked chamfered segmental-pointed light at mid-height and a first-floor left window of later 16th-century date: a recessed moulded two-light window with hood, missing mullion, and 9-pane sash. A 12-pane sash with a slab lintel sits slightly to the right. A blocked light appears in the gable.

The building is not available for inspection. It is said to have cellars beneath the east part with an early 19th-century stair. A projecting chimneybreast in the room west of the stair on the south wall contains stop-chamfered beams and joists. A post and panel partition between this room and the west room preserves an original doorway. The west room is divided by another partition, perhaps reset. A moulded 17th-century doorway leads into the north-west wing; the north-west room has panelled walls with ovolo mouldings to the posts and a frieze of foliate half-roundels. The first floor contains some reused 17th-century panelling and some 17th-century doorcases. Attic stairs occupy the south-west and south-east corners.

The roof structure shows considerable evidence of phasing. Four roof trusses over the west end are 16th-century arch-braced collar-trusses with raking struts over the collars, formerly open to the floor below. Those over the east are plain collar-trusses. The west roof may have been raised by 0.3 metres in the 17th century, and an arch-braced truss in the north-west wing may be 16th-century re-used material. It is reported that a 16th-century segmental-pointed doorway leads from the house into the south-east outbuilding, though this does not accord with the supposed 17th-century date for the east end.