Gwerclas Hall

Gwerclas Hall is a double-depth square-plan house of three storeys with attics and cellars. The front is symmetrically arranged with three windows and is flanked by symmetrically-placed two-storey gabled wings advanced to the front. The main range and wings stand on a rubble stone plinth, possibly relating to a sixteenth-century predecessor. The construction is otherwise of random stone, though the front is brick-faced. The building is covered by a hipped tiled roof with modillion eaves and red brick chimney stacks.

The front elevation displays hornless sash windows with gauged brick heads. The central entrance is a particularly fine feature, comprising an open porch in classical style with a cornice and triangular pediment supported on round columns with Ionic capitals. The door itself is a replaced part-glazed panelled door set within a moulded doorcase. Flanking the entrance are tall round-headed sash windows. The first floor contains two tall Venetian windows, between which is mounted a large sandstone tablet bearing a stylised painted urn in relief. This tablet is inscribed with the date 1767 and the initials HH LM, said to refer to H. Hughes and Margaret Lloyd. The second floor has three 12-pane sash windows.

The fronts of the wings each have a central Venetian window to the ground floor and a pair of 12-pane sashes to the first floor, with a blind semi-oculus in each gable. The inner sides of the wings are finished with cavetto-moulded stone cornices. The north wing retains its red brick ridge stack; the stack of the south wing has been removed.

The sides and rear of the house are lit chiefly by wooden casements with lead quarries or iron glazing. To the south side, a two-light attic window to the left lights the stairs, whilst a second attic window to the right has been infilled with brick. A two-light stone window with ovolo-moulded mullion lights the cellar stairs, though this is probably not in its original position. The rear elevation has a brick ridge stack. A very tall stairlight on the right consists of continuous two-light casement windows with quarries, beneath which is a late twentieth-century boarded door leading to the ground floor. To the left are three-light casement windows to each of the three main storeys, not symmetrically arranged, fitted with timber lintels. A twentieth-century boarded door with small light is set at the far left of the ground floor. The basement storey has a two-light stone window with chamfered mullion to its centre, said to have been reused from elsewhere. The west side of the main block has two attic windows, and a long service range adjoins at right angles beneath.

The south side of the south wing is roughcast with no openings. A gable with stack was added around 1900, the original brick ridge stack having been removed. The west gable end of this addition has a three-light window to each storey. The north side of the north wing faces into a courtyard of outbuildings.

Internally, the house is arranged around a large central stair-hall with reception rooms leading from it. The staircase is a fine full-height open-well structure, contemporary with the house's construction. It features turned wooden balusters and newel posts with a moulded wreathed handrail and decorated tread ends, comprising some fifty steps in all. In front of the staircase stands a wide depressed archway with fluted pilasters, cornice and moulded keystone, with panelled moulded reveals. The stair-hall floor is laid in flagstone in a diaper pattern. The plastered ceiling incorporates a cross-beam with shallow chamfer. The doors leading to the surrounding rooms are panelled with raised fields, set within large panelled doorcases each bearing a classical-style frieze at the top between decorative capitals. The reception rooms themselves were not observed.