Maenan Hall

Maenan Hall

This is a substantial storeyed T-plan house, built of rubble with shallow hipped slate roofs and coved eaves, topped with squat chimneys bearing moulded sandstone capping. The building dates primarily to the late 16th century, with significant later additions and alterations.

The garden front is symmetrically composed of seven bays with a central entrance. A wooden Ionic portico with a broken pediment and dentilation has been added as a modern feature. The central opening is fitted with 16-pane French windows set within a segmental fan. The flanking ground-floor openings were originally French windows but have been replaced with recessed 16-pane casements in the early 20th century, except for the second bay from the left, which retains a half-glazed French window. The first floor carries 12-pane sashes, all with slate lintels inscribed with fictive voussoirs. The northeast face of the primary range displays asymmetrically placed multi-pane sashes and casements, including a two-part 18th-century window to the upper hall and a tall stair light beyond a disturbed entrance. The southeast side has further small-pane windows. To the southwest, a 19th-century extension ends in a ground-floor canted bay window with elegant 12-pane sashes and a lead roof, topped by a 16-pane sash above. A glass and metal summer house known as the Crystal Room adjoins to the north of the garden front, designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (architect of Llanfrothen) around 1963. This structure features a hipped pavilion-type roof with urn finials and moulded eaves, with sliding doors to the front and clasping, open-work buttresses to the corners. A modern conservatory adjoins the southwest side.

The interior preserves substantial evidence of the original late 16th-century plan. The primary cross-passage features a stopped-chamfered beamed ceiling and a post-and-panel partition to the left with grooved decoration, likely dating from the late 16th century. Beyond this lies the former service bay, apparently originally divided as pantry and buttery, with evidence of original openings now infilled. Large-field double doors of the late 17th century provide access to both the outer room and the hall to the right. The opposing southwest entry of the cross-passage now has a late 17th-century open arch with panelled reveals, soffit, and moulded abaci.

The hall itself measures one-and-a-half bays in full height, with a single pair of large crucks forming an off-centre truss near the passage end. Above door-height, elaborate Elizabethan relief plasterwork covers all walls and roof surfaces. This includes heraldic and quasi-heraldic badges and rebuses, bold vinescroll motifs, the initials 'ER' (for Queen Elizabeth), the date 1582, and the initials of Maurice Kyffin. The floor is late 17th century, executed as a geometric stone design of conjoined octagons, with sections restored from a formerly corresponding floor at Maenan Abbey. Early 17th-century small-field panelling adorns the left section of the passage screen and the dado of the northeast wall, both having been relocated. A late 16th-century lateral chimney on the southwest side features a contemporary Tudor-arched stone fireplace, brought into the house around 1955 from the now-demolished Parlwr Mawr in Conwy. At the former dais end, the original primitive post-and-panel partition survives, with outer openings: the right opening retains its original plank door and Tudor-arched frame, whilst the left opening is similar but with a restored door-head.

In the original parlour space beyond, an early 19th-century well stair with simple rail and stick balusters has been inserted, with a modern balustraded landing to the right, outside the hall door. The original timber-framed wall dividing the hall from the parlour and solar section is visible in the stair well and bears further fragmentary plasterwork badges. The Music room contains a fine 19th-century Rococo-style fireplace in white marble, with early 19th-century reeded cornice and contemporary panelled reveals to windows. The chamber above the former services displays fine plasterwork as before, including the date 1582 and initials, with a canted ceiling adorned with plasterwork that is partly obscured by large-field late 17th-century panelling on all walls. Two-panel doors with original simple door furniture are present, that to the left leading to a small recessed space with window, probably a contemporary wig closet. Further similar panelling appears in a first-floor chamber in the northeast range, now converted to a bathroom.