Ffynone

Ffynone

A Grade I listed building of outstanding architectural and historical importance, Ffynone is a country house of two storeys and attic designed by John Nash. The original five-bay square house with deep bracketed eaves and pyramid roof dates from the early 19th century. It features a three-bay pediment on each front, with an off-centre diagonal apex stack and a large E-facing stack. The N front was significantly altered by a five-bay ashlar addition with Doric columns forming a broken forward centre porch.

Before 1902 the house bore plain stucco elevations over original roughcast, with arcading over the ground floor centre windows. Between 1902 and 1907 the building was comprehensively reclad in unpainted roughcast with heavy rock-faced grey Forest of Dean stone quoins and window surrounds featuring triple keystones. The pediment lunettes were replaced except on the E pediment, though Nash's original window spacings and 12-pane sashes were retained. The ground before the S front was excavated to expose Nash's basement as a full storey, built out with a five-bay balustraded terrace flanked by broad flights of steps and a carved ground floor doorcase. Single-storey four-bay wings were added to each side with arched windows and bracketed eaves cornice, raised on a high terrace.

To the E are roughcast two-storey service ranges forming a narrow kitchen court immediately adjoining the house and a larger stable court beyond. A timber octagonal clock-turret originally stood on the N ridge, replaced in 1828. The service buildings are generally plain with rendered walls, casement windows and hipped roofs, with some early 20th-century alterations.

Nash's original plan comprised a NE morning-room, NW drawing-room, SW dining-room and SE anteroom, with circulation via a small octagonal lobby to a rectangular inner hall fully open on the E to an apsidal stair hall. An addition of around 1830 enlarged the NE room, added a square bay to the hall and a two-bay space with basement stairs. The 1902–1907 work transformed the dining-room into a library and added an E dining-room and W ballroom within the new wings.

The original entrance is a tight octagon, plaster-vaulted with high arches to four sides and niches between. The centre rectangle has an oval fluted flat ceiling and broad arch to the stair-hall, which contains a rosette to the ceiling and a corniced window in the apse. A fine cantilever stone stair, made in Bristol, features a simple iron rail. The library retains the Corinthian columned E end from Nash's work, with a fine inserted timber fireplace of the 1820s by J Ramsden of Neath and early 20th-century doorcases to E and W. The anteroom to the E is plainer with modillion cornice and an Edwardian panelled plaster ceiling in c.1700 style, raised in the centre above a high fireplace. The dining-room is highly ornate, with a low and heavily panelled plaster ceiling of c.1700 character, raised in the centre in a high coved ridged rectangle. It features an Ionic W screen, panelled walls and a large E fireplace with cartouche above. The E ballroom is sumptuous, with crossed pairs of columns at each side of the N and S walls. At the W end is a Venetian window with ornate plaster over, matched above the E door and in the arched recesses to N and S, the N recess containing a monumental alabaster fireplace with giant swan-neck pediment and flanking swagged obelisks.

The upper storey retains Nash's plan with Edwardian-period details including fireplaces. The layout comprises a rectangular centre space with small apse-ended lobby to the S, main corner bedrooms with plain but inventively planned small dressing rooms between on the N, W and S fronts. Fine Gothick plaster work survives in the c.1830 entry and two-bay lobby to the right.

The basement retains Nash's plaster vaults and is extended beneath the terrace.