No 5 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 3-bay primary section. This comprises a recessed central entrance bay with flanking full-height square projecting bays. The central bay features an advanced single-storey classical tripartite entrance section, nearly flush with the flanking bays and topped with a decorative balustrade. A central Tuscan portico with moulded, round-arched entrance and projecting key and imposts is flanked by columns and pilasters, with 6 moulded steps leading to 4-panel double doors with glazed upper sections and facetted lower panels. A moulded entablature and cornice are returned onto narrow flanking sections containing plain 19th-century sash windows with projecting stone sills. The flanking bays have tripartite sash windows to ground and first floors; those to the first floor have consoles and pediments, while those to the ground floor have moulded labels. Plain sill-corbelling runs throughout. The first-floor central section has four-pane French windows with simply moulded entablatures; similar second-floor windows have volutes to their sides. A fine moulded and dentilated cornice, dating from the 1770s, crowns the front, with 2 contemporary lead downpipes bearing simple decorative hoppers to the inner returns of the projecting bays.

The north-east garden front has plain, unhorned sashes with architraves as before and a continuous cornice. The main section is 4 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 2-bay main section. There is basement access with plain railings; a segmentally-arched entrance and window to the right feature 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 faces the main ground-floor section, with paired sashes to a recessed single-bay section at right.

The rear wall shows random limestone rubble to the main block, of Jacobean date, with cornice and 18th-century windows as before. To the right is a tall 4-storey plus basement wing of red brick, an 18th-century addition; the upper storey is modern with a flat felted roof. This wing has 12-pane windows near-flush to the first and second floors with fine brick voussoirs. Blocked windows are visible to the left (north-east). A small light well lies between this projection and 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 2-storey, 3-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; 2 staged 19th-century brick chimneys rise from it. The front elevation shows 18th-century segmentally-arched windows on both floors with plain projecting sandstone architraves, their sills, heads and centres quoined; projecting keystones feature throughout. A stepped-down, adjoining single-storey mid-19th-century addition of uncoursed limestone ashlar with hipped roof to the left follows. This has a moulded cornice and plain stringcourse above a window matching the 1770s work; the window has been lowered and is now 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; a 2-stage brick and sandstone chimney serves this section. The long south-west side of this range is of 5 bays with windows as before to the first 3. The two right-hand bays feature a storeyed modern addition; a similar flat-roofed brick addition to the ground floor of the left bay stands alongside a basement addition at right.

Adjoining this 18th-century range to the rear (north-west) is an early 19th-century 2-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, with 12-pane modern tilting sashes to original first-floor openings bearing projecting sills; modern windows and door serve the ground floor. An early 20th-century hipped-roofed red brick garage addition adjoins flush to the left. Adjoining to the front is a continuous mid-19th-century open slated pentice 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 giving 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 decorates the compartmented ceiling, which bears a classical frieze of triglyphs and rosettes; a vertically-panelled dado runs around the walls. A 19th-century tripartite wooden vestibule screen with tall 4-panel double doors stands between the entrance and hall; the upper panels are leaded with flanking classical pilasters, heavily-moulded cornices and facetted decoration to the plinths. A full-height cantilevered stone corkscrew service stair, of 18th-century date, ascends from the entrance hall. Panelled doors and door and window reveals are found throughout.

At the end of the entrance hall, a fine staircase sequence dating from the 1770s 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 corkscrew flight. Oak treads and risers have 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 on each floor feature heraldic stained glass, those on the ground and first floors dated 1867. The ground and second floors also have windows incorporating fine 17th-century enamelled quarries as well as some 18th-century enamelled heraldic panels.