Penally House

History: Penally House is said to date from c.1834, but does not appear on the Tithe Survey plan of 1841, and was probably built during the 1840's. In the late C19 it was the first house in Pembrokeshire to be lit by electricity; the owner, Mr C Williams, also lit the Church. Recently the house has become the Penally Manor House Hotel.

Exterior: Rubble masonry rendered, scored and painted white. Roofs all slated with tile ridges. Rendered clustered chimneys. Ornamental bargeboards and finials. The house is of two storeys and an attic, asymmetrical composition. It consists of a main part ranging E/W, the gable of which forms the central feature of the E elevation facing towards the garden. It is oriented so that the main front is the garden front with its views over Carmarthen Bay. From this there are three side roofs on the S side, giving an entrance front of three gables, and two side roofs on the N. The garden front has a large central gable with canted bay window to ground floor, its awning-like roof with scallopped eaves carried forword on brackets. French doors open onto garden staircase (under restoration), 2-light mullioned and transomed window with a drop-ended hood-mould above. Similair windows in flanking bays, but with oriel window to first floor right.

Entrance front of 3 gables with doorway to centre: internal porch with scallopped Tudor arch; double doors of Tudor profile: Right hand gable has full-height canted bay window with small-paned sashes to ground floor, 4-pane sashes above. Oriel windows to first floor over doorway and to left. Leaded windows in the vicinity of the entrance and in the W elevation over the stairs are probably of the early C20.

The front and garden elevations are terminated by octagonal corner turrets, those on the garden front carried up to decorative finials.

Interior: Entrance lobby with ribbed ceiling. Glazed doors to the room at the left and to a corridor at the right, both with Tudor heads. A fine L-shaped staircase with a closed string, turned balusters and a moulded handrail. Gothick newels with turned finials. The stairs soffit and the soffit of the upper landing are ribbed. The front rooms at right and left are in Gothick style. At the rear, facing the garden, is a contrasting Georgian room including a fine chimneypiece with marble inserts. Walls and ceilings in decorative plasterwork.

Listed as a house in Tudor style with striking fronts to the approach road and garden, retaining good interiors.

Reference: Penally leaflet (Sparc, 1995).