Gloddaeth Hall

Gloddaeth Hall is a large multi-period country house built of stone with slate roofs and elaborate tall red brick chimneys. The building represents a complex accumulation of construction phases spanning several centuries.

The original medieval hall forms the core of the structure. It is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof, accessed by steps leading up to a forecourt between crosswings. The west end features a four-centred doorway with hoodmould and original door, flanked to the right by two three-light semi-elliptical headed windows with Perpendicular tracery.

To the right stands a gabled two-storey solar wing, refaced around 1700, with three-light mullion and transom windows on each floor and a basement doorway with a depressed pointed head and chamfered jambs. A recessed crosswing dating from around 1700 extends to the east, built of squared coursed stone blocks.

The south-east elevation rises three storeys with a gable. An attic window sits slightly right of centre, fitted with a 19th-century two-light mullion window. The first and ground floors each have two 19th-century stone transom and mullion windows. To the west of the original hall is a low two-storey single-bay wing featuring a two-storey bay window with parapet.

A south-west adjoining wing has a front wall of similar stonework to the eastern wing but includes a late 19th-century nine-light bay window with mullions and three transoms, surmounted by a half-timbered gable. West of this stands a larger and taller late 19th-century wing of four bays. The eastern two bays rise two storeys plus attic, with the right-hand bay featuring a half-timbered gable above a two-storey seven-light bay window and a ground-floor porch with centrally positioned doorway and side lights. The left-hand bay has paired three-light transom and mullion windows to the first and attic storeys, the attic windows crowned by two conjoined half-timbered gables.

The western two bays each rise three storeys and are surmounted by two half-timbered corbelled gables. The right-hand gable bears the inscription "Heb Dduw heb ddim; Duw a digon" (Without God: nothing; with God: plenty) and "Anno 1889"; the left-hand gable is inscribed "Auxilium Meum a Domino" and "MN". The right-hand bay has a canted side wall and a shallow storeyed oriel bay window with transom and mullion lights on both first and ground floors. The left-hand bay features a canted oriel five-light bay window with moulded corbelling on both second and first floors, and two three-light mullion and transom windows on the ground floor.

The west end of the front wing is enclosed by a stone wall extending to a single-storey lean-to with hipped roof at the north end of the west elevation. A shallow oriel with half-timbered gable terminates the west end of the front block. To the north is a very wide and tall segmental-headed entrance to a courtyard between the front and rear wings. A late 19th-century rear wing rises two-and-a-half storeys with gabled dormers, its west end marked by a half-timbered gable. Courtyard elevations are mainly rendered with pebbledash.

The south-west entrance to the main forecourt is approached through a pair of 19th-century stone piers with ashlar quoins and peaked capping.

The interior of the Old Hall preserves an open timber roof of three bays supported by four trusses with moulded archbraced collar beams carried on single hammer beams. A later 17th-century gallery to the west has a balustrade of helical balusters on an enriched beam, with wall painting to the rear. The floor is stone paved with a dais at the east end, and coving features wall painting with heraldic shields. A panelled partition separates the hall from the north-east solar wing, now occupied by the headmaster's study and staff room.

Above the partition is a plaster cove ornamented with wall paintings. A 16th-century stone fireplace in the north wall has a low segmented head and moulded jambs, with a heraldic shield and inscriptions.

The ground floor of the north-east wing, currently the headmaster's study, is lined with 17th-century oak wall panelling. It contains a late 16th- to early 17th-century transomed and mullioned window in the north wall and a fireplace with segmental head and moulded jambs bearing heraldic shields and inscriptions. Three ceiling beams are stopped and chamfered.

The upper room has 17th-century oak panelled walls with painting in the upper north-west section based on an early fresco discovered in 1880. The roof structure contains two trusses supported by corbels with ends stopped by two angels and two knights in armour. A north-west lobby features a plaster panel containing the monogram TBM 1673 above the entrance to the upper room. A concealed chamber is said to exist between the roof of this upper room and the upper part of the hall at its north-east end.

The eastern crosswing contains ceiling beams with chamfers and stops. On the lower floors, a staircase displays late 17th-century features including twisted balusters and a wire-moulded handrail. A fragment of an original early 17th-century stair with flat balusters and narrow handrail is said to remain in the attic. Some early 18th-century or earlier two-panelled wood doors with bolection moulding are found on the first-floor landing. The bay west of the Old Hall has ribbed plaster ceilings.

The former dining room, now used as a music room, features panelled dado, a fireplace with strapwork overmantel, and a ceiling imitating a formerly open roof, ceiled at first purlin level, with plasterwork including heraldic shields to the rear. Behind this room stands a fine 19th-century wooden stairway and gallery with a plaster ceiling designed by E. Nesfield, with the ceiling based on that at Plas Mawr in Conwy, executed in a style harmonising with the late medieval and sub-Renaissance features of the older part of the house. The rear gallery window contains good stained glass.