Ceiriog Memorial Institute including retaining wall and railings

Ceiriog Memorial Institute

This Arts & Crafts style Institute comprises a front range with a gable-end façade and a substantial block to the rear, with entrances on the south side. The building stands on a site raised above street level.

The front range is timber-framed above a masonry base, roofed in slate with projecting barge boards. The gable-end façade has a rubble lower section with sandstone quoins and dressings, above which rises timber-framing with a collar truss and pegged narrow panels. A central 3-light window rises to the collar with flanking sidelights in a moulded wooden frame featuring a basket arch and transom, containing quarries and stained glass. A clock is fixed at right angles to the gable apex, and a bell is positioned at the south-east angle of the building. Below the timber section, a small 2-light window with quarries offset to the left of centre is set within the masonry, with a wooden notice board to its left.

An entrance passage runs along the south side, accessed by a flight of concrete steps. The timber-framing of the south side of the front range is largely covered in roughcast, with a visible post and arched brace to the right. A lean-to porch of rubble masonry and timber-framing stands in the angle with the rear range, reached by two steps. The porch entrance faces east with a segmental wooden archway, a quarry tile floor, and a boarded door with an 8-pane overlight set back. The south side of the porch has a large 3-light window and a glazed notice box to its right. To the right of the porch, the masonry section contains a further doorway with double boarded doors containing small lights under a concrete lintel. Two 3-light windows with flat heads are rendered to the right of the porch.

To the left of the porch stands a two-storey block with the front advanced and three gables, rendered in roughcast with slate-covered roofs and projecting verges. A boarded door with 8-pane overlight sits under a suspended porch canopy boarded to the underside, located left of centre. To the right of the doorway are two 3-light windows similar to those on the front range, and a 2-light window with transom to the left. The upper storey has a similar window to the right gable. The rear west side of the block has a 3-light window at its right end. The north side of the Institute is roughcast with four 3-light windows with flat heads.

An L-shaped wing dated 1929 adjoins the rear west side, accessed from the south, with further later additions. These ranges are also roughcast, featuring a brick stack, boarded and panelled doors at different levels, and a variety of wooden windows.

The gable-end façade is bounded by a small garden of remembrance with simple iron railings attached to a rubble stone retaining wall with chamfered stone copings. The railings are lower to the centre, revealing a stone tablet with a brass plaque recording the historical account of the Institute.

Interior

The front range contains an assembly hall and library divided by a movable glazed and panelled screen, accessible from the porch through double boarded part-lit doors. The interior features tie-beam trusses with vertical struts, ceiled at collar level, a wood block floor, and wainscot panelling. Above the movable screen, the truss is infilled with small-pane glazing. A stage occupies the east end of the hall with a panelled front and a decorated proscenium featuring small-pane glazing. The library contains a cast iron spiral staircase near the south wall leading to the attic, and a small arched fireplace to the north wall, both flanked by boarded window seats. Two panelled doors with sidelights at the west end lead to the caretaker's accommodation and billiards room beyond.

The stained glass windows are of outstanding artistic interest. The east window above the stage was donated by Sir Robert Jones, orthopaedic surgeon, as a memorial to John Ceiriog Hughes, Huw Morris and Reverend Robert Ellis, designed by H Gustave Hiller of Liverpool. The second window from the right on the north side is a tribute to the Welsh founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society, including a depiction of Mary Jones walking with her bible to Bala. The window to the right is a memorial to John Matthews, Doctor of Glynceiriog, donated by the community. In the library, the north windows commemorate Sir Thomas Myddelton of Chirk Castle, who funded the printing of the first Welsh bible, and Bishop Morgan who translated the first bible into Welsh. These windows are by Herbert Hendrie and were gifts of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. The south wall of the library displays a window to the Welsh Hymn Society, including a depiction of Ann Griffiths, and another showing Colonel W Cornwallis West MP of Ruthin Castle, whose family owned the Llanarmon estate. Double part-glazed doors on the south wall of the hall include busts of Lord Davies of Llandinam and Professor Sir Henry Jones of Llangeniew. The window to their left features a bust of Reverend Robert Ellis. The porch contains a window with the emblems of the principal banks of Britain. A rear window commemorates George Borrow, author of Wild Wales. Between the doorways in the west wall stands a large panel depicting "Saint David for Wales", a quarter-sized copy of the original mosaic in the Houses of Parliament.