Glan Gwna Hall

Glan Gwna Hall

Small country house of Elizabethan vernacular revival style, dated 1893. The building has a rambling plan with its entrance front facing south-west and a service range to the north-east.

The external walls combine Elizabethan-style timber framing on regularly coursed and dressed tooled stone lower walls, with timber windows to the upper levels and stone windows where set in stone walls. The roofs are of Westmoreland slate with carved bargeboards and finials. Tall red brick chimneys with decorated terracotta shafts rise from the walls, those emerging from stone sections having stone bases.

The south-west elevation is essentially symmetrical in form, though a crenellated stone porch is offset to the left. Wide gables flank either side, the right gable being slightly wider and bearing the date "1893" to the collar. Both gables feature concave jettying on carved brackets (several bearing carved grotesque faces) and square panels with lozenge decoration below the collars and herringbone patterning above. Inner narrow gables are attached to the outer gables, similar in detailing but with variations: the right gable is jettied below rather than above its window and has a cross-window to the stone section, whilst the left gable is windowless to the stone section and has three carved brackets supporting the timber-framed section above. The section between the inner gables contains a 7-light mullioned and transomed window to the first floor and a 4-light mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor, with a porch adjoining to the left and cutting into part of the left inner gable. The porch features a curved segmental arch-way over ribbed panelled doors, diagonal corner buttresses, and windows to the sides. Five-light mullioned and transomed windows sit beneath the jettying with quatrefoils below and herringbone framing to either side; the stone lower sections have 4-light mullioned and transomed windows. Ridge and lateral stacks feature twisted circular shafts, octagonal shafts, and circular shafts, all with moulded bases and capping.

The north-west elevation displays a wide concave-jettied gable projecting to the right, which is fronted by a canted bay window starting in stone on the ground floor and continuing in timber frame to the first floor, rising to the underside of the jetty on the left. A 3-light mullioned and transomed window sits immediately to the right of the bay window on the ground floor. A narrower projecting gable to the left of the elevation has a 5-light mullioned and transomed window to the front on the first floor with single-light windows to the returns, the pattern essentially repeated in stone to the ground floor. A band of square panelling below the first-floor windows displays a variety of timber-framed motifs.

The asymmetrical rear elevation follows similar detailing to the remainder. A wide concave-jettied gable projects to the right, fronted by a narrower gable at its left corner, with a comparatively short centre section from which a turret projects to the left. This turret is surmounted by an octagonal copper-covered cupola with weathervane; both ground and first floors are approached by timber steps. The wide gable-ended service range projects to the left of the turret, running on the same main axis as the principal house, with square lozenge-decorated panels to the gable ends. The range has an integral lateral stack to its outer wall and another brick stack with grouped shafts to the roof slope, with further similar stacks beyond. A wide round-arched doorway opens to the courtyard side of this range in the angle with the south-east return of the main house, which features close-studding to the first floor.

The interior is remarkably well-preserved, retaining the vast majority of its original layout, fixtures and fittings. The lobby to the main entrance porch has a mosaic floor and half-glazed double doors with stained glass, leading to a large Jacobean-style half-panelled staircase hall. This hall is open to an arch-braced and panelled roof in four bays on stone corbels, top-lit by high-level leaded windows, with curved braces rising from crenellated collars to the principal rafters. The staircase itself is of Jacobean style with carved newels, finials and pendants, and elaborate fretwork carving to the balustrade, rising in Imperial form to a landing with 3x3x3 tall round-headed arches with fretwork-carved balustrades to approximately dado height around the staircase. The principal ground-floor rooms all open directly from the staircase hall. The room to the right features timber panelling to a flat ceiling and a fine Jacobean-style overmantel to a marble and tiled fireplace. The room to the left has an even more elaborate and overhanging Jacobean-carved overmantel to a marble and tiled fireplace, together with a fine decorative plaster ceiling. The library is the most notable room, with decorative Jacobean-style panelling to the ceiling, another marble and tiled fireplace, and ribbed panelled doors, but its finest feature is the virtually full-height built-in bookcases lining the walls. These feature elaborate 15th-century Gothic-style carving with delicate miniature gabled canopies said to be based on the choir stalls at York Minster. Original detailing survives intact throughout the house: panelled doors, door and window furniture, fireplaces and ceilings with plain plaster cornices to bedrooms. Service areas retain larders and pantries with marble and slate shelving, water closets and wash stands, servants' bells, an iron safe and electrical fuses. The whole is remarkably complete.