Pentrehobyn

Pentrehobyn

This is a three-storey house built of locally-quarried sandstone ashlar, roughly dressed, with a high plinth and roofed in large Welsh slates. It is notable for the completeness of its early 17th-century front, which features projecting wings flanking a recessed central block, an offset entrance in the medieval hall-house manner, and large mullion and transom windows all with hoodmoulds. The windows contain a mixture of diamond and lozenge pattern leaded glazing. Most windows are 3-light, though the gable end of the left-hand wing has 4-light windows, and the main rooms have larger windows still: the parlour on the ground floor and the great chamber above feature 5- and 6-light windows respectively. The third floor (attic) over the hall is unusual in having shallow windows set under the eaves, both front and back, instead of the more typical gabled dormers, creating a more elegant design but with the windows almost at floor level. The main entrance has a segmental arched head with a boarded door dated 1540 and inscribed 'ELI MLI'. The gable ends of the wings have large kneelers and conoid finials plus diagonally-set apex finials. The broad chimney breasts are positioned laterally at both ends with similar kneelers, though the original stacks have been separately replaced in yellow and blue brick; a stone stack survives to the rear.

The east side of the parlour wing shows evidence of earlier 16th-century work, with older masonry, different quoins, and fenestration in 16th-century style featuring round-headed lights, Tudor hoodmoulds and carved spandrels (now weathered). Similar windows survive on the rear gable end of this wing. An inserted doorway appears to the left of the lateral chimney. Single-storey and attic extensions beyond the gable ends flank a small stone-walled yard paved with Penrhyn slates (one of the Lloyd family served as agent to the Penrhyn Estate in the mid-19th century). This yard is closed on the north side by a single-storey outbuilding that includes stables, now partly converted to a garage.

The plan-form of the sub-medieval house is largely retained. The entrance opens onto a cross-passage, which retains a fine post and panel screen to the right. The horizontal members of this screen create a square-panelled appearance, and at its centre is a good example of a depressed double-ogee doorhead over the entrance to the hall. The first floor has been slightly lowered, obscuring the head-beam at the front. The hall itself is panelled with some reused 16th and 17th-century wainscotting, though the beams have been encased in 19th-century remodelling. The fireplace retains a fine overmantel with Ionic pilasters flanking the arms of Lloyd of Pentrehobyn and Morgan of Gwylgre, from which family Margaret married Edward Lloyd in the early 17th century. The parlour, beyond the dais end, retains an early 17th-century stone fireplace with a lively animal frieze depicting the 'chase' and further reused panelling. Above this, the great chamber has a similar fireplace, a simpler Jacobean frieze and apparently in-situ panelling together with simple plaster detail around the ceiling wells. On the other side of the screens passage, the service end was transformed in the 19th century into a dining room with stop-chamfered beams, panelled dado, a frieze copied from that in the parlour, and the reused overmantel described above. The staircase was moved at this time and has been moved again more recently, but retains its 17th-century turned balusters and dog-leg form. It features an unusually carved (described as 'barbaric') newel post and finial, said to be a reused bread trough from Glanhafon Fawr, Llanfynog, Montgomeryshire, and to have formed part of a piece of furniture in the form of a buffet. Various panelled doors, mostly 6-panel, appear upstairs. The attic retains the original 17th-century roof structure with cambered tie beams, collars and queen struts to the four central bays over the hall and passage, and arched braced trusses to the wings.