Bronpadarn

Bronpadarn is a Victorian Gothic house built in grey-brown rubble stone with grey sandstone dressings and slate close-eaved roofs topped with red terracotta ridge tiles. The building has a roughly square plan with two storeys and main fronts facing south and west. It features an ashlar front with yellow brick to the rear, a plinth, first floor sill course and moulded eaves. The extraordinary chimneys are particularly noteworthy: tooled stone bases support two large yellow terracotta ringed-column shafts with ornate capitals, each set at the ends of a tooled stone centre shaft, with terracotta cresting overall. Windows are mostly plate glass sashes.

The south front is divided into three bays to the left and a gable to the right. The left section features three eaves-breaking dormer gables (the left two closer-spaced) above two broad pointed first floor windows with stone voussoirs and iron flower balconies. The ground floor has two French windows in chamfered segmental-pointed surrounds with etched glass, set within a cast-iron hipped veranda with ornate brackets on twisted iron columns, with red and buff tiles to the floor and a stone step. A large Gothic porch constructed of tooled red sandstone with grey ashlar quoins sits in the angle to the right, featuring a tall pointed doorway with inset ringed angle shafts in red stone, a keel-moulded arch and hoodmould, and a half-glazed door with plain glazing to a pointed overlight. The gable to the right has a big ashlar canted bay with 1-2-1 light windows with top lights, chamfered surrounds and a ringed column shaft (carried across a very broad centre sash), sloping ashlar above, stepping back to a smaller but similar first floor bay with a column shaft but without top lights and a sloping ashlar parapet.

The west front has a recessed centre between two far projecting gables, with large stone and terracotta chimneys on the left side of the right gable and to the left of the centre roof (hipped to the north). The right gable features a large sandstone oriel of 1-2-1 lights with a hipped slate roof and iron cresting (now with 20th-century plastic glazing), with a moulded deep base carried on a large buttress with set-off. The buttress stands between two ground floor pointed windows with hoodmoulds extended as string courses on their inner sides up to the buttress. The north return is windowless. The centre section is relatively narrow, with a centre dormer gable over an eaves-breaking pointed window and a ground floor ashlar canted porch bay with bellcast hipped slate roof and moulded eaves. A French window with overlight faces the front; long sashes run along the canted sides. One small window appears on each floor to the right. The left wing projects further and is simpler in detail, with paired sashes and a relieving arch above, and a long triple window with sashes and relieving arch below. The south return has a ground floor door and overlight and a first floor 4-pane sash. The roof of this wing is hipped to the east.

The east side features an eaves-breaking dormer gable, a first floor pointed window and a small window to the right (both with iron flower balconies), and a ground floor pointed door into a conservatory in the angle. The conservatory has a low pitched roof hipped to the southeast, yellow brick walls and a band of cast-iron windows of two lights with arched heads, four full-height twisted iron columns with capitals, and a crested cast-iron gutter. A large projecting gable to the right has an apex plaque, a first floor 2-light window with flower balcony and a ground floor 3-light window. The sandstone jambs and mullions are surmounted by Bath stone lintels and grey stone relieving arches. A basement with a Gothic iron rail sits below. A hipped northeast angle section is windowless to the east and features a large wall-face stone and terracotta stack. The utilitarian north side is built in red brick with window surrounds, two storeys and an attic, moulded brick eaves and a slate-roofed dormer. The hipped east end of the left gable of the west front stands at right angles.

Internally, the large pointed south door has an etched glass single-pane overlight and double doors each with two Gothic glazed panels. A moulded hall arch within rests on massive carved leaf corbels, and the ceiling has brackets in cornices and thin lattice ribbing. A second arch to the stair hall features heavy ringed columns with capitals, and the stair hall has a moulded cornice. Timber square-headed moulded doorcases with brattished tops and corner finials open onto 6-panel doors that are chamfered and notched. Floors feature inlaid wood. The staircase has a closed string with a butterfly joint insert typical of work by Seddon, with panelling below and a timber Gothic rail featuring pointed arches between octagonal ringed column balusters and punched holes in the spandrels. The square chamfered newels have incised quatrefoil roundels and octagonal finials. The stair rises north to a half-landing, turns west with a short flight, then divides into short flights north and south. The moulded undersides of the south flight are supported by a landing carried on a timber beam with timber paired brackets. The south flight reaches the main landing with a broad cusped arch, while the north landing has a circa 1900 flat glazed ceiling with leaded coloured glass. The southeast room formerly had panelled walls but was not available for inspection in 2002.