Birchgrove

Birchgrove is a smaller country house built in late Georgian style, constructed from rubble stone with slate hipped roofs and bracketed eaves. The building comprises a central block with later additions to the north and west, including a 19th-century water tower linked by a narrow passage.

The main east garden front is two storeys with four windows, each a 12-pane hornless sash with stone voussoirs and slate sills. The windows are larger on the ground floor, arranged in pairs on either side of the centre. The three-bay south entrance front is similarly proportioned. It features a circa 1900 gabled half-timbered porch with a lean-to extension to the right. The porch has glazing between posts, double doors and side-lights, and glazing within the gable struts; it has a slate roof with deep verges and painted brick low side walls. The lean-to extension to the right has glazing across four bays. The first-floor window over the porch is a sash but is blind. The centre of the roof ridge carries a large rendered chimney, with two further chimneys on the west rear roof ridge, and a central valley between the two roofs.

The north side has a blind first-floor window to the left above a 12-pane sash. A similar centre stair light occupies the middle position, with another similar sash to each floor to the right. A narrow link connects the main house to a pyramidal-roofed two-storey water tower added in the late 19th century, which has a small window on each floor facing north.

The rear west front has a 12-pane sash to the centre above an added rendered lean-to porch positioned between two rear wings. The north-west wing, dating from the 19th century, steps down toward the west in sections. The south-west wing is early 20th century painted brick. The north-west wing's first range has a two-storey section with two dormers and two 12-pane sashes with brick heads on each floor to the south; the ground-floor right sash is offset left of the window above to accommodate the rear porch. The next range westward has a straight joint with a through arch to the extreme right and a three-window range of 12-pane sashes and a centre door. The lower windows are smaller, hornless, with brick heads, and the top floor appears to have been added. A single-storey range at right angles has a louvred small lantern. The north side of the north-west rear wing has a larger block to the left with first-floor 12-pane sashes on each side of an 8-pane stair light over a door; the ground-floor door and left sash are within an added brick lean-to. The lower range to the right has a brick right-end stack, a throughway entry to the left, and a small structure built onto steps to a loft door with a 12-pane sash to the first floor right. A single-storey range beyond has a roof hipped at the north-west angle and a brick stack. The south-west wing has a lower roof with bracketed eaves, a small brick left-end stack with outside chimney breast, and two first-floor 12-pane horned sashes. The west end wall has a 12-pane sash to the ground floor left. The rear courtyard elevation has rendered ground floor and red brick above.

The interior employs a central passage plan with two principal rooms to the right on the east front and the stair at the north end. The passage has an elliptical hall arch, though the cornices have been removed. Panelled doors in pine appear to be reused from elsewhere throughout the house. The stair has stick balusters, scrolled tread ends, and a pine handrail scrolled at the foot.

The two principal east-facing rooms have back-to-back fireplaces. The south-east room contains a fine chimneypiece circa 1830 originally from Hafod, executed in white marble with paired yellow marble shafts carrying fine Corinthian columns (one capital missing). The entablature blocks project well forward of the centre entablature, which is finely carved with the arms of the 4th Duke of Newcastle. Square-headed shelved tall recesses flank the chimneypiece in moulded frames. The north-east room has elliptical arched recesses each side of a reeded chimneypiece with corner roundels, dating to the early 19th century but altered in the late 19th century with a heavy shelf. The plain south-west room has an early 20th-century fireplace and shutters to the windows. The kitchen to the north-west has shutters to the north window and a six-panel door to the service passage west. Service stairs with stick balusters are located in the north-west wing. First-floor bedrooms are plain, some with reeded chimneypieces. The attic contains two rooms with six-panel doors.