Cors y Gedol Hall

Cors y Gedol Hall is a large multi-period gentry house with its historical core in the south-east range, which was successively extended to the rear and north-west. The building is constructed of roughly coursed rubble with large stones as dressings, slate roofs throughout, and tall stone stacks with drip-stones and cappings.

The original south-facing range retains the form of a late 16th-century 3-unit storeyed house. It has gable-end stacks in addition to the rear lateral chimney, and a later storeyed porch marking the position of the original entrance. To the right of the porch, three irregularly spaced stone mullioned and transomed windows light the hall and inner room. The principal chamber above is lit by round-arched mullioned windows of three and four lights. A small hipped dormer breaks the eaves line over the right-hand window, containing a two-light timber casement window with round-headed lights; below it is a date stone inscribed in false relief with "15- GV - KV - 92". The gable-end return has a sash window with lattice glazing and a date-stone on the shouldered chimney shaft dated 1610.

The porch, dated 1593, displays good Renaissance detail including a four-centred arched doorway with drop-ended hood-mould, a dated armorial panel with string course above, a pedimented hood to the first-floor three-light mullioned and transomed window, and a cross finial at the gable apex. Stone mullioned and transomed windows with hood-moulds occupy the lateral walls. Immediately to the left of the porch, on each floor a single sash window with octagonal small panes lights the staircase. A date-stone inscribed "V - 1660 - W M" records the remodelling of this range by William Vaughan. Beyond is a full-height canted bay, an addition dated 1782 with the initials E.Ll.V esq., added when this late 17th-century west unit was further reworked by Edward Lloyd Vaughan.

Set back to the north-west of this range is an 18th-century and later wing extending north-west. Its two principal phases are distinguished by differences in masonry character and window size. The first three bays are 18th-century, with trans-mullioned timber windows on each floor, and similar windows in the hipped-roofed storeyed porch occupying the angle with the rear of the original range. The 19th-century westwards extension comprises two bays with wider trans-mullioned windows flanking a small doorway on the ground floor.

To the rear, the lateral stack of the original hall range is partially obscured by an irregular row of three gables (the eastern one with projecting stack), probably dating from the early 18th century, with lean-to ground-floor 19th-century additions. Small-paned hornless sash windows light the first floor, with one trans-mullioned window to the attic. Advanced from the western unit of the original block is a substantial wing, also of probable early 18th-century date, with small-paned sash windows in its east-facing elevation and gable end. A later single-storeyed extension with tall gabled chimney extends beyond. This is abutted by a low 19th-century wing at the rear of the 18th-century north-west range, probably added when this range was extended further west, and contemporary with the long single-storeyed north ball-room wing.

Interior

The original south-east range retains elements of the layout from 1576. The hall itself survives intact, with a dated lateral fireplace and a fine ceiling with richly moulded cross beams and counter-changing joists. The arched fireplace bears a date and shield, inscribed "Sequere justitiam et invenias vitam" in the arch. The wall panelling may date from Richard Vaughan's early 18th-century work: it comprises raised fielded panels with bolection moulding. Similar panelling appears in the eastern room, which otherwise represents the late 16th-century remodelling of the original inner room and has a contemporary fireplace with engaged columns with long capitals flanking a shallow archway. The principal chamber (Kings Room) on the first floor belongs to the late 16th century, though it also features early 18th-century panelling. Over its fireplace is an ornate reset plaster overmantel bearing twin shields of arms dated 1592 with the initials of Gruffudd and Katherine Vaughan. The western unit of this range was rebuilt in 1660, and the staircase is probably substantially of this date. It has a heavily moulded closed string and rail, square panelled newels with later heraldic finials, and turned balusters. The western unit owes its architectural character to late 18th-century remodelling with delicate plasterwork decorative schemes in the Adam style. The north-west wing includes a coloured plaster overmantel of the arms of Elizabeth I, perhaps reset from elsewhere in the original house, and displays characteristic 19th-century decorative detail in the ball-room wing.