No 3 Llannerch Hall

Large country house of irregular plan, mainly of three storeys plus basement. Built of stuccoed limestone and red brick on a chamfered plinth with fine sandstone dressings; shallow-pitched, hipped slate roofs with lead flashings. Tall 19th-century brown brick chimneys with oversailing courses and dentilated tops.

The main south-east front has a symmetrical three-bay primary section. This comprises a recessed central entrance bay flanked by full-height square projecting bays. The central bay has an advanced single-storey classical tripartite entrance section, near-flush with the flanking bays, and is topped with a decorative balustrade to its flat roof. The entrance features a central Tuscan portico with moulded, round-arched opening and projecting key and imposts. Flanking columns and pilasters lead to six moulded steps and four-panel double doors with glazed upper sections and facetted lower panels; a moulded entablature and cornice is returned onto narrow flanking sections. These flanking sections have plain 19th-century sashes with projecting stone sills. Tripartite sash windows light the flanking bays on ground and first floors, those on the first floor having consoles and pediments, those on the ground floor bearing a moulded label; plain sill-corbelling runs throughout. Four-pane French windows to the first-floor central section have simply-moulded entablatures; similar second-floor windows have volutes to their sides. A fine moulded and dentilated cornice, dating from the 1770s, runs across with two contemporary lead downpipes with simple decorative hoppers to the inner returns of the projecting bays.

The north-east (garden) elevation has plain, unhorned sashes and architraves as before, with a continuous cornice. The main section extends four bays deep with the return walls of the frontal bays, and a similar single-bay section to the right, respectively recessed and advanced on either side of a two-bay main section. A basement access with plain railings features a segmentally-arched entrance and window to the right, the latter part-glazed. Adjoining to the right and advanced again is a two-storey L-shaped addition with matching cornice. A plain tripartite window lights the main ground-floor section, with paired sashes to the recessed single-bay section at right.

The rear elevation shows random limestone rubble walling visible to the main block (Jacobean in character); the cornice and 18th-century windows remain as before. To the right stands a tall four-storey plus basement wing of red brick, an 18th-century addition; the upper storey is modern and has a flat felted roof. The first and second floors have twelve-pane windows (near-flush) with fine brick voussoirs. Blocked windows face left (north-east). A small light well separates this projection from the rear of the main block, with 19th-century and modern single-storey additions in front.

Adjoining flush to the main block on the left (south-west) side is a two-storey, three-bay 18th-century range, stuccoed and roofed as before, with dentilated and moulded cornice. The roof has a parapet with a 19th-century pyramidally-roofed wooden bellcote and tin louvre; two staged 19th-century brick chimneys rise above. The front elevation features 18th-century segmentally-arched windows on both floors with plain projecting sandstone architraves, their sills, heads and centres quoined, with projecting keystones.

Stepped down and adjoining to the left (south-west) 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 as before (copying the 1770s work); this window has been lowered and is now a modern glazed entrance with a further modern window to the left. Four nine-pane sashes (modern replacements of 19th-century originals) light the south-west end with projecting sandstone lacing; a two-stage brick and sandstone chimney stands above. The long south-west side of this range extends five bays and has windows as before to the first three. The two right-hand bays are occupied by a storeyed modern addition; a similar flat-roofed brick addition occupies the ground floor of the left bay, together with a basement addition at right.

Adjoining this 18th-century range to the rear (north-west) is an early 19th-century two-storey red brick addition with a wide canted, storeyed bay to the south-west. This has a hipped slate roof with lead ball finial and dentilated eaves, and twelve-pane modern tilting sashes light the first-floor openings with projecting sills; modern windows and door occupy 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 projects to the front, forming a single-storey covered way supported on cast iron columns set on low brick walls with sandstone copings. This continues to the left to include a segmental carriage arch providing access to the rear.

The entrance hall features an 18th-century (possibly) 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; the dado is vertically panelled. A 19th-century tripartite wooden vestibule screen with tall four-panel double doors (upper panels leaded with flanking classical pilasters) and heavily-moulded cornices is set with facetted decoration to the plinths. A full-height cantilevered stone corkscrew service stair (18th century) has panelled doors and door and window reveals throughout.

At the end of the entrance hall, a fine 1770s staircase sequence ascends from ground to 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, is a large sweeping well stair with a corkscrew flight. The stair features oak treads and risers with scrolled and moulded tread-ends and fine octagonal oak balusters with 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 to ground and first floors dated 1867. Ground and second floors contain windows incorporating fine 17th-century enamelled quarries, as well as some 18th-century enamelled heraldic panels.