No 4 Llannerch Hall

Large country house of irregular plan, mainly of three storeys plus basement, constructed in stuccoed limestone and red brick on a chamfered plinth with fine sandstone dressings. The shallow-pitched, hipped slate roofs feature lead flashings and are topped by tall 19th-century brown brick chimneys with oversailing courses and dentilated tops.

The main south-east front presents a symmetrical 3-bay primary section with a recessed central entrance bay flanked by full-height square projecting bays. A single-storey classical entrance section sits advanced and near-flush with the flanking bays, crowned with a decorative balustrade to its flat roof. A central Tuscan portico features a moulded, round-arched entrance with projecting key and imposts, flanked by columns and pilasters. Six moulded steps lead to 4-panel double doors with glazed upper sections and facetted lower panels, beneath a moulded entablature and cornice returned onto narrow flanking sections. These flanking sections contain plain 19th-century sashes with projecting stone sills. The flanking bays have tripartite sash windows on the ground and first floors; those on the first floor feature consoles and pediments, whilst those on the ground floor have moulded labels, with plain sill-corbelling throughout. Four-pane French windows grace the first-floor central section with simply-moulded entablatures; similar second-floor windows have volutes to their sides. A fine moulded and dentilated cornice, dating from the 1770s, surmounts the facade, with two contemporary lead downpipes featuring simple decorative hoppers to the inner returns of the projecting bays.

The north-east garden front displays plain, unhorned sashes and architraves. The main section extends 4 bays deep with return walls of the frontal bays, and a similar single-bay section to the right, respectively recessed and advanced either side of a 2-bay main section. Basement access features plain railings with a segmentally-arched entrance and window to the right, together with a part-glazed door. Adjoining to the right and advanced again is a 2-storey L-shaped addition with matching cornice. A plain tripartite window adorns the main ground-floor section, with paired sashes to the recessed single-bay section at the right.

The rear elevation displays random limestone rubble walling visible to the main block, dating from the Jacobean period, with cornice and 18th-century windows as before. To the right stands a tall 4-storey plus basement wing of red brick, an 18th-century addition with a modern upper storey beneath a flat felted roof. The first and second floors feature 12-pane windows near-flush with fine brick voussoirs. Blocked windows face left towards the north-east. A small light well between this projection and the rear of the main block contains 19th-century and modern single-storey additions to the front.

Adjoining flush to the main block on the south-west side is a 2-storey, 3-bay 18th-century range, stuccoed and roofed as before, with dentilated and moulded cornice. A parapet to the roof supports a 19th-century pyramidally-roofed wooden bellcote and tin louvre, together with two staged 19th-century brick chimneys. 18th-century segmentally-arched windows face the front on both floors with plain projecting sandstone architraves, their sills, heads and centres quoined, and projecting keystones. Stepped-down and adjoining to the left is a single-storey mid-19th-century addition of uncoursed limestone ashlar with a roof hipped to the left. A moulded cornice and plain stringcourse sit above a window matching the 1770s work; this has been lowered and now serves as a modern glazed entrance with a further modern window to the left. Four 9-pane sashes, modern replacements of 19th-century originals, occupy the south-west end with projecting sandstone lacing and a 2-stage brick and sandstone chimney. The long south-west side of this range comprises 5 bays with windows as before to the first three. The two right-hand bays accommodate a storeyed modern addition; a similar flat-roofed brick addition occupies the ground floor of the left bay, together with a basement addition at the right.

Adjoining this 18th-century range to the rear is an early 19th-century 2-storey red brick addition with a wide canted, storeyed bay to the south-west, featuring a hipped slate roof with lead ball finial and dentilated eaves. It contains 12-pane modern tilting sashes to original first-floor openings, with projecting sills, and modern windows and door to the ground floor. An early 20th-century hipped-roofed red brick garage addition adjoins flush to the left. A continuous mid-19th-century open slated pentice forms a single-storey covered way supported on cast iron columns sitting on low brick walls with sandstone copings, extending to the left to include a segmental carriage arch providing access to the rear.

The entrance hall features an 18th-century decorative floor of conjoined limestone flags with inset black marble squares. A dentilated plaster cornice crowns a compartmented ceiling with a classical frieze of triglyphs and rosettes, above a vertically-panelled dado. A 19th-century tripartite wooden vestibule screen contains tall 4-panel double doors with leaded upper panels and flanking classical pilasters, topped by heavily-moulded cornices and facetted decoration to plinths. A full-height cantilevered stone corkscrew service stair of 18th-century date stands at the far end, with panelled doors and panelled door and window reveals throughout.

A fine 1770s staircase sequence ascends from the ground to the second floor. The first section, from ground to first floor, was originally a narrow well stair with quarterpaces and a first-floor galleried landing; the well was infilled in the 19th century to form a service passage. The second stage, from first to second storey, comprises a large sweeping well stair with corkscrew flight. Oak treads and risers display scrolled and moulded tread-ends, with fine octagonal oak balusters featuring stopped-chamfered decoration. Elegant swept, moulded mahogany handrails end in spiral twists with columnar balusters. Large stair windows to each floor incorporate heraldic stained glass, those on the ground and first floors dated 1867. The ground and second floors also feature windows incorporating fine 17th-century enamelled quarries and 18th-century enamelled heraldic panels.