Foxhall Newydd

Foxhall Newydd is the ruin of a large, unfinished Renaissance house, dating to the early 17th century, forming part of a planned H-shaped design. Constructed from limestone with fine sandstone dressings, the building is roofless. Originally, the exterior was covered in a greyish, textured render with smooth, whitened plaster quoining around corners and windows, reflecting continental Renaissance styles. The structure comprises three storeys plus a basement and attic floor, with moulded string courses separating the floors. It features mullioned and transmullioned windows, full-height canted bays facing the garden (northwest) and at the southwest gable end (now collapsed). Short gabled wings and projecting chimney stacks run along the long sides.

Adjoining the main building to the southeast are the ruins of an earlier house, likely from the mid-16th century and also built of limestone. This earlier building has a projecting, gabled chimney with a wide hall fireplace and a smaller first-floor fireplace, with dressed jamb stones. A garderobe projection is evident at the opposite end.

The basement floor contains large fireplaces used as a kitchen and bakery. The first floor includes remains of plasterwork above and to the side of a fireplace in the northwest projecting wing. This plasterwork depicts Renaissance strapwork in relief, comprising a frieze and an overmantel panel dated 1608. The plain wall surface beneath the plasterwork suggests an original three-quarter panelling scheme, probably within the Great Chamber. Garderobes are present on both the first and second floors, with a privy shaft visible in the building’s northern corner. The fireplace in the northwest first-floor chamber has a brick hearth, indicative of the introduction of brick as a building material to the region. Deep, vertical pockets for ceiling joists are visible in the Great Chamber and Gallery floors, suggesting the original presence of decorative plasterwork ceilings.