No 6 Llannerch Hall

No. 6 Llannerch Hall

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

The main south-east front displays a symmetrical 3-bay primary section. The central bay is recessed and contains the entrance, flanked by full-height square projecting bays. The entrance itself is a single-storey classical composition, near-flush with the flanking bays and topped with a decorative balustrade. A central Tuscan portico frames a moulded, round-arched entrance with projecting key and imposts. Flanking columns and pilasters lead to six moulded steps and 4-panel double doors with glazed upper sections and facetted lower panels. A moulded entablature and cornice are returned onto narrow flanking sections, each containing plain 19th-century sashes with projecting stone sills. The flanking bays have tripartite sash windows to both ground and first floors; those on the first floor have consoles and pediments, whilst those below feature moulded labels. Plain sill-corbelling runs throughout. Four-pane French windows on the first floor of the central section have simply-moulded entablatures, with similar second-floor windows featuring volutes to the sides. A fine moulded and dentilated cornice, dating from the 1770s, runs across with two contemporary lead downpipes adorned with simple decorative hoppers to the inner returns of the projecting bays.

The north-east garden front contains plain, unhorned sashes and architraves. A continuous cornice runs along this elevation. The main section is four bays deep with recessed return walls to the frontal bays. A similar single-bay section to the right is both recessed and advanced on either side of a two-bay main section. Basement access features plain railings, with a segmentally-arched entrance and window to the right and a part-glazed door. To the right, adjoining and advanced further, stands a two-storey L-shaped addition with matching cornice. This has a plain tripartite window to its main ground-floor section and paired sashes to a recessed single-bay section on the right.

The rear elevation reveals random limestone rubble walling of Jacobean date on the main block, with the cornice and 18th-century windows as before. To the right rises a tall four-storey plus basement wing of red brick, an 18th-century addition whose upper storey is modern with a flat felted roof. The first and second floors of this wing feature near-flush 12-pane windows with fine brick voussoirs. Windows to the left are blocked. A small light well separates this projection from the rear of the main block, in front of which stand 19th and modern single-storey additions.

Adjoining flush to the main block on the south-west side is a two-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, with two staged 19th-century brick chimneys. Both floors display 18th-century segmentally-arched windows with plain projecting sandstone architraves; their sills, heads and centres are quoined with projecting keystones.

Adjoining to the left and stepped down is a single-storey mid-19th-century addition of uncoursed limestone ashlar with a roof hipped to the left. This features a moulded cornice and plain stringcourse above a window copied from the 1770s work; this window has been lowered and now serves as a modern glazed entrance with a further modern window to the left. Four modern-replacement 9-pane sashes at the south-west end feature projecting sandstone lacing, with a two-stage brick and sandstone chimney nearby. The long south-west side of this range spans five bays with windows as before across the first three. The two right-hand bays accommodate a storeyed modern addition, whilst the ground floor of the left bay has a similar flat-roofed brick addition, together with a basement addition at the right.

Adjoining this 18th-century range to the rear on the north-west is an early 19th-century two-storey red brick addition with a wide canted, storeyed bay to the south-west. This features a hipped slate roof with lead ball finial and dentilated eaves, with 12-pane modern tilting sashes set in original first-floor openings and projecting sills. Modern windows and a 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 from 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 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, with a vertically-panelled dado below. A 19th-century tripartite wooden vestibule screen with tall 4-panel double doors features leaded upper panels, flanking classical pilasters, heavily-moulded cornices and facetted decoration to the plinths. A full-height cantilevered stone corkscrew service stair of 18th-century date stands nearby, with panelled doors throughout its reveals.

At the end of the entrance hall rises a fine 1770s staircase sequence ascending 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 during 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 feature scrolled and moulded tread-ends with fine octagonal oak balusters decorated with stopped-chamfered work. Elegant swept, moulded mahogany handrails end in spiral twists with columnar balusters. Large stair windows occupy each floor, featuring heraldic stained glass dated 1867 on the ground and first floors. The ground and second floors contain windows incorporating fine 17th-century enamelled quarries and some 18th-century enamelled heraldic panels.