Talacre Abbey

Talacre Abbey

A castellated Tudor-Gothic country house of ashlar with slate roofs and stone stacks, built in two storeys with nine bays. The symmetrical entrance front faces east. It has wider projecting outer gabled bays with polygonal angle turrets and a continuous upper-storey sill band. The projecting outer bay on the left-hand side is marred by the later church built against it. A central three-bay castellated and buttressed porte-cochere has Tudor-arched openings and pinnacles, with similar arches to the sides. Inside, the porte-cochere is rib-vaulted. The windows to the main elevation are mainly cross windows with hood moulds, retaining small-pane glazing and pivoting lights above the transoms. The central bay has a canted oriel window. The right-hand outer bay has a three-light mullioned and transomed window in the lower storey.

The five-bay right-hand garden front overlooks the garden and the Dee Estuary to the north. It has mullioned French windows in the lower storey opening to an arcaded terrace, and cross windows above with an oriel to the centre. In the arcade below are narrow vents to the basement. The seven-bay rear elevation has projecting outer bays similar to the entrance front, the right-hand southern side being obscured by the service wing. The left-hand north bay has a seven-sided conservatory that overlooks the garden. This has buttresses with pinnacles and battlements, and French doors (partly boarded up) with Gothic tracery to the overlights. Below it the basement has a central doorway with flanking doors, all boarded up.

The rear elevation has a basement facing a walled service court. In the five central bays the windows retain some small-pane glazing, while others are plate glass replacements. An advanced central gabled bay has a large three-light mullioned and transomed window with small-pane iron-frame glazing lighting the principal stair, and cross windows to the lower storey and attic. The basement has a panel door and overlight. The remaining windows are cross windows. Immediately right of the left-hand outer bay is a doorway with mullioned overlight and panel door. The return of the right-hand outer bay has a replaced basement window.

The left south side of the entrance front houses an original five-bay chapel in the projecting left-hand bay. In its south side wall it has three two-light Tudor-headed windows and a half-lit panelled door to the left under a hood mould. A similar doorway in the right-hand bay is obscured by the later church. In the upper storey are three two-light windows under square hood moulds.

The long service wing further left is mainly two-storey with paired sash windows and plain parapet. Immediately behind the chapel is a single bay set back, with basement windows incorporating pivoting lights. Further left it is set forward with a two-window return wall with boarded door and vertical ribs under an overlight, lower right. Then the main elevation has a higher three-storey polygonal bay flanked by narrow single bays. At the west end, set further forward, is a three-storey gabled bay with a sash window lower left and boarded and ribbed door lower right, with a narrow bay set back on its right side.

A single-storey castellated projection is set back at the west end of the service wing. Its west wall has Tudor arches flanking a single-storey two-window flat-roof projection added in the mid 20th century. The right-hand of the arches has glazing and a French door; the left-hand has inserted double boarded doors and brick infill. Above the castellated projection is a balcony entered from the west end of the service wing, which in the middle storey has small-pane French doors and paired sashes and three upper-storey windows beneath gablets.

The north elevation of the service wing has a basement and faces the service courtyard at the rear of the main house. It has mainly paired sash windows. From the left end, behind the main house, are two two-storey bays incorporating a panelled basement door with overlight lower left, then a higher polygonal three-storey bay, to the right of which are two further bays incorporating a panelled basement door lower right. Above it is an added projection at lower-storey level carried on a stone pier. Further right is a wide gabled bay with a panelled door and overlight to the basement.

The church, built against the left-hand bay (the original family chapel) of the entrance front, is of scribed render with slate roof. In the north wall is a central bellcote with four simple pointed chancel windows to its left and four three-light nave windows to the right, above a seven-window roughcast lean-to aisle with two buttresses. A northeast campanile, built in 1952 (date on tablet in south wall), is brick, of five stages with two-light belfry openings and pyramidal roof. The east window is four-light Perpendicular below a niche with Virgin and Child. The south wall has four buttressed bays with simple pointed chancel windows, left of which are two projecting half-hipped bays with two-light windows, the left of which has a projecting gabled porch with double boarded doors. Further single-storey projections are to the left southwest.

Interior

The principal rooms are on the right side of the entrance hall, with the main and service stairs behind, and the private chapel to the left. The service rooms are mainly behind the chapel.

The entrance hall has panelled wainscot and a fireplace with stone Tudor-headed surround. The ceiling, behind a Gothic cornice, is panelled with heavy moulded ribs and incorporates diamond panels bearing heraldic shields. The doorways have panelled reveals and stepped hoods with shields over the doors. The rooms immediately right and left of the entrance have similar detail, the room to the right having a Jacobean-style wood-panelled ceiling.

The drawing room and dining room are arranged ensuite with the conservatory on the north elevation, and open to a terrace giving spectacular views over the Dee Estuary. They have moulded timber doorcases richer than the remainder of the house. Both rooms have marble chimneypieces with Tudor arches, relief foliage to the spandrels, and keystones with rampant lion (northeast) and shamrock (northwest). They are flanked by panelled buttresses with gablets to the caps (missing on right side of the northeast room, and missing completely from the northwest room). The plaster ceilings have diamond panels incorporating mouchette decoration in relief, while the rich cornices incorporate friezes of basketwork, foliage, and an openwork trail. The rooms are linked by large double-panelled doors (awaiting re-hanging at the time of inspection), while a glazed screen incorporating a door leads into the conservatory.

The wide bay at the south end of the entrance front houses the original family chapel. This has a wide five-bay tierceron vault on wall shafts rising from moulded corbels, of which the end bays are narrower. At the west end is a gallery with a panelled front of cusped arches. Below it are Tudor-headed doorways right and left, and a central corbelled stoup in a cusped recess. The south wall has a single stained glass window.

The main stair is behind the entrance hall. It is open-well with square newels incorporating blind cusped arches, and has a balustrade of open lozenges with cusped ornamentation. The stair leads to a first-floor landing with balustrade in a similar style. The stair well has a cornice with foliage enrichment, and similar enrichment to the heavy ribs of three panels. On the left side of the main stair is a narrow open-well service stair with plain balusters. On the right side of the entrance hall is an L-shaped corridor leading along the back of the principal rooms to the door on the rear elevation, and has a plaster rib vault. The corridor is also built around a smaller room, possibly a study, with a Tudor stone chimneypiece.

The windows retain panelled shutters. The doors are panelled and have panelled reveals.

The church has a seven-bay segmental plaster ceiling with heavy ribs.