Poyston including attached service ranges to NW.

Poyston is a country house consisting of a main range with a northwest rear wing. The main range is finished in unpainted roughcast over a stuccoed ground floor, topped by a slate hipped roof. An ornate timber eaves cornice from 1900, featuring dentils and modillions, runs along the three main sides and the added northeast library block.

Main Range: South Front

The main range forms an L-plan, with the east side longer than the west, and has two large chimneys on the rear wall. The building is three storeys high, with a stucco ground floor incorporating a plinth, moulded band, and thin surrounds to the upper windows. The windows are hornless 12-pane sashes on the main floors, 6-pane square sashes in the attic, and all have tooled stone sills.

The three-bay south front features a central fielded 6-panel door set within an earlier 19th-century frame with top-lights and side-lights separated by thin panelled piers bearing roundels at the intersections. Added around 1900, a five-bay timber lean-to porch is glazed with top lights and fan-traceried overlights over double half-glazed doors, topped by a low gable over three bays. At the right corner of the main front stands an ashlar sundial dated 1724, though with lettering from around 1900.

West and East Elevations

The west end presents a one-window range. An added projecting hipped two-storey section to the right dates to the earlier 19th century and formerly had a west porch. It features a matching eaves cornice from around 1900. The south side has a 12-pane sash on each floor, with two similar windows on the first floor west side and one below set to the left; a 20th-century window has replaced a former door.

The east end displays a four-window range with closer spacing, where the windows in the third bay are dummies. The first floor has relatively thicker glazing bars. The projecting northeast library block from 1900 is a matching two-storey structure with a hipped roof and dragon vane. Its south side has a tripartite sash on the ground floor, while the east end presents a two-window range of 12-pane sashes. The rear north elevation has a 12-pane sash to the left and a half-length window to the right with a 12-pane sash above, plus a rear west half-length window with a small sash above.

Rear Elevations and Northwest Wing

The rear north of the main range features nogged brick eaves, two large chimneys, and a large lean-to with an arched stair light. An added lean-to in the angle to the left provides access to the northeast wing.

The rear northwest wing has a two-storey, three-bay east front in painted render with brick eaves forming a rough dentil pattern, and an external north end chimney. This tall elevation has 9-pane sashes above and 12-pane sashes below, with those to the centre and right aligned, plus a blocked door and smaller sash to the left, not aligned. The north end's single-storey range has similar brick eaves, a board door, a casement pair window, and a lean-to on the north end. The west rear outshut has its north end extending further to a rebated gable, which once featured a large chimney, now removed, with a door in the rebate to the left. The west outshut has three first floor windows, a cross-window lighting the service stair to the right, and two 9-pane sashes, plus two small ground floor lights.

A garden wall runs north with a small outbuilding attached on the east side, with a door between two windows. This links to the rear of a whitewashed roughcast coach-house and stable built around 1902. The north front has a two-storey accommodation block positioned between projecting lower gables—the coach-house to the east and stable to the west. The coach-house has a long entry on the east side with a cemented lintel. Its gable faces north with a small casement-pair window. The central lodgings have two casement pairs on the first floor, a door in the angle to the left, and then two doors with casements in mirror formation. A ridge chimney sits where the main roof continues over the stable, which projects to the right with a central gable over an eaves-breaking first floor sash and ground floor paired casement. A double door stands to the left.

Ground Floor Interior

The entrance opens into the front hall with panelling from around 1900. To the left, a twin-arch opening from around 1900 leads into the southwest room, featuring elliptical timber arches on a turned column set on a high base. This southwest room contains a fine deep fireplace from around 1900: a bolection-moulded timber surround, Delft tiles within, a deep frieze, and modillion cornice. The chimneybreast displays fine Arts and Crafts embossed plaster work depicting a branching oak with the names of nine Napoleonic War battles on scrolls, framing a wreathed portrait of General Picton, with the Picton arms on concave-curved cheeks. The room also has a reeded earlier 19th-century ceiling border and earlier 19th-century panelled shutters.

The southeast room features a fine earlier 19th-century undercut acanthus cornice and floral scroll ceiling border between ribbonned reeded strips, along with panelling and a fireplace surround from around 1900, originally in unpainted oak but now painted. A shelf sits over an eared surround with the top moulding dropped like castellation, Delft-type tiles, and a fine embossed-brass and iron grate.

An elliptical arch connects the entrance hall to the rear stair-hall, which contains a single flight on the north wall from around 1900, with a heavy turned newel topped by an acorn finial and turned balusters. The large arched stair window holds fine leaded armorial glass, mainly displaying arms of places associated with Henry Owen from 1900, by A. J. Dix.

A fielded-panelled 6-panel door opens into a small northeast study, which has a boarded dado and a fireplace with an oak surround from around 1900 featuring the Owen arms in a panel. The cornice and frieze are stepped over, with the motto "Trwy Gymmorth Dyw" in the frieze.

A corridor with dado panelling runs north to the library, which is actually a two-level room with bookcases in an upper gallery inaccessible from ground level; the ground floor was probably a dining room. The room features a six-panel door, panelled shutters, and dado rail matching the front rooms. Very fine late 17th- to early 18th-century style woodwork includes a large chimneypiece on the south wall, a gallery on four sides, and a deep-coved first floor ceiling. The fireplace has a green stone bolection-moulded surround, Delft tiles, a timber shelf on modillions, and an overmantel with the carved Owen of Henllys boar and hollybush, panels of roses, Prince of Wales feathers, leek, and "HO 1902".

The gallery projects far out with ornate console brackets beneath, a moulded front beam with cornice under a fielded panelled front with applied armorial cartouches—two on each side and two on each end. The centre north and south sections break forward with a little minstrels' gallery featuring curved sides and a panel front. Panelled pilasters separate the panels. The gallery has four corner columns with entablature blocks supporting a raised centre ceiling with heavy late 17th-century style moulding linking the columns, a deep cove, and a rectangular panel with a plant trail border and raised octagon in the centre containing a painted relief Welsh dragon and motto.

The upper level, accessed from the first floor, has bookshelves all around lettered A to S, with thin pilasters and a frieze and cornice broken forward over the pilasters. Similar lower shelves project, some with hinged flaps. A fine Arts and Crafts fireplace features a bolection-moulded black stone surround and Delft-type tiles, a shelf on modillion brackets (as below), and an overmantel in five narrow panels, each divided in two. The lower sections have copper and iron candle-holders, while the upper sections display embossed copper Art Nouveau flower motifs. Art Nouveau motifs also appear on strips between panels and on the frieze above, along with the "HO" initials.

The hall behind the stairs has a fielded 2-panel door under the stairs leading to the cellar, where nine steps descend to two stone vaulted chambers. An earlier to mid-19th-century glazed door with sidelights opens to a passage running west to a former side door, now a toilet. A fielded-panelled door on the north side of the hall enters the east rear wing.

First Floor and Attic

The main range first floor has landing rails and dado panelling from around 1900, with an arch through to the front block. Early 19th-century 6-panel doors and panelled shutters are found throughout. The southeast bedroom has a fireplace from around 1900 with Delft-type tiles. A fielded-panelled door opens into the centre bathroom. The southwest room is plain. A fielded-panelled door leads into the rear wing.

The attic stairs, located to the east of the southwest room, curve with stick balusters and a moulded rail ramped up to a square newel. The attic has a corridor on the front with fielded 2-panel doors fitted with HL hinges and brass locks. One room contains a 19th-century iron grate.

Rear Wing Ground Floor and Service Areas

The rear wing ground floor has a small room on each side—a scullery to the east and breakfast room to the west—followed by three steps down to a long kitchen with a lowered ceiling and a north end fireplace with 19th-century brickwork. Two doors on the west wall open into a parallel west rear wing, and a window is blocked in the northwest corner. The north door to the right enters an outer service room with a remnant of the northwest corner chimney. West doors open into the service stair and rooms of the west rear wing, which contains two rooms divided by a thin brick wall. Rough joists support a floor of thick broad floorboards, with the undersides crudely cut back for the joists. A deep recess at the north end was a chimney with insloping masonry on the left side. Marks of a blocked opening appear on the west wall. The dog-leg service stair appears rebuilt using old timbers. The first floor has various panelled doors, some with old hinges, and a fielded 2-panel door into the first bedroom.

Coach-house and Stable

The coach-house and stable range from around 1900 have a high roof to the coach-house and cast-iron stable fittings in the stable.