Henblas

Henblas

An asymmetrical Renaissance house of three storeys and three bays, built in ashlar with a slate roof. The roof behind coped gables with ball finials is topped with stone stacks. The front elevation features three unequal gabled bays. Windows are mullioned and transomed with ovolo mouldings, set beneath hood moulds; some have been renewed in reconstituted stone.

A narrow storeyed porch is positioned offset left of centre, with a boarded door. Above the doorway stands a 2-light oriel on brackets rising from Doric wall shafts. These shafts stand on the hood mould of the doorway and have worn relief figures between them, while their outer sides display relief strapwork. Beneath the shafts are three small heads below the hood mould. The upper storey above the porch contains a 2-light mullioned window. Immediately right of the porch is a small window in a dressed stone surround, with a similar window on the first floor. The hall occupies the widest bay on the right with 3-light windows, while the parlour bay on the left has 2-light windows without transoms in the upper storey.

The left side wall of the parlour bay features 3-light windows. Beneath the gable apex is a round-headed niche containing a kneeling figure in relief, with spandrels engraved '1645 PF' beneath the hood mould. The short rear wall of the parlour bay has 2-light windows serving the parlour and the room above. Service rooms behind are rubble stone. On the right side facing the parlour are 2-light mullioned and transomed windows to ground and middle storeys, and a 2-light mullioned window in the upper storey beneath a gablet.

The rear elevation is double-gabled, with the left-hand gable wider and brought forward. It has 3-light mullioned and transomed windows, and a 3-light cellar window with plain chamfer. The right-hand gable has windows offset to the left, comprising 2-light mullioned and transomed windows lighting the stair, with a smaller dressed-surround window above. A 2-light window at the base of the cellar stair projects forward beneath a stone slab lean-to roof. Right of the windows is an added doorway with glazed door, and an added external stack on the right side.

The right side wall has a lean-to, set back from the front elevation, of rubble stone with slate roof behind a coped gable. Facing front is an iron-framed casement window in a stone surround. The lean-to's side wall has a 2-light mullioned window incorporating iron-framed casements and a boarded door on the right under a Tudor-headed lintel. A diagonal buttress is at the right end; further right are a rubble stone wall and added conservatory. In the middle storey, a 2-light mullioned window stands to the left, right of which is a massive projecting stack—its upper portion a 19th-century rebuild in coursed stone. A 2-light window stands right of the stack in the middle storey.

The interior follows a lobby-entry plan, opening into the parlour rather than the hall. The parlour has a fireplace with ovolo-moulded stone jambs and lintel. Spine and cross beams are ovolo-moulded with ogee stops, and plaster panels have mouldings at the margin. The hall features a wide fireplace under a segmental arch with voussoirs and similarly detailed beams. The rear service room has a 19th-century Tudor style stone fireplace.

Behind the hall and parlour runs a full-height dog-leg stair with turned balusters and larger turned newels with ball finials, moulded strings, and hand rail. On the left of the stairway is a full-height timber-framed partition. First-floor rooms retain beams and plaster panels similar to the parlour below. The upper storey contains a long gallery occupying the full length of the right side, with a 4-bay arched-braced roof. Windows have ovolo mouldings to the internal faces of the mullions, except at the stair where they are left unmoulded. The porch and base of the stairs retain lozenge-pattern stone paving.