Ty Mawr

Ty Mawr

House of Bath stone and render with slate roofs and rendered chimneys with diagonally set small shafts. Two storeys and attic. A Georgian Gothic remodelling of an older building executed largely around 1820 in Strawberry Hill Gothic style, of square plan with gables featuring large ogee pointed recesses similar to those at Felin Newydd. The windows are predominantly Georgian Gothic with marginal glazing bars.

The north front features a centre projecting two-storey porch of thin coursed stone with fretted bargeboards, flanked by rendered and Bath stone gables also with fretted bargeboards. The porch has a plinth and string-courses, with a large first floor triple sash window of 4-12-4 panes with flat head, and a carved shield in the gable. Side buttresses frame a large segmental pointed moulded archway with hoodmould. The gables either side of the porch each have a hornless 12-pane first floor sash with hoodmould (that to the right partly lost), and two ground floor pointed windows with pointed hoodmoulds. The sashes display Georgian Gothic intersecting glazing bars.

The west side has a gabled crosswing to the right with two large ogee-pointed ground floor French windows and a moulded string course. The first floor has a four-light window with the centre two lights bearing marginal glazing bars and Tudor heads, the outer ones with flat heads, deep hoodmould and carved head stops. The attic gable contains an ogee-pointed window with paired casements with arched heads to the lights and marginal glazing bars, beneath a small diagonally-set gable shaft. A ridge stack with two shafts rises between this gabled bay and the bay to the left, which is framed by buttresses, the right one of ashlar bearing two incised crosses. Below the eaves runs a moulded string-course and plinth. The first floor features paired sashes beneath a double cusped head with centre pendant and mullion above a stone sill. The ground floor displays a broad four-light window with deep hoodmould and head stops, and a segmental-pointed head over two segmental-pointed two-light windows with marginal glazing bars and cusped quatrefoils in the heads. The left buttress is partly rendered with a ground floor incised cross and formerly carried a pinnacle, visible in old photographs.

The south side has two gables, the left one oddly asymmetrical, both with ogee sunk panels. A massive ridge stack with four diagonally set short shafts rises above. The first floor contains three three-light windows with blind-boxes and deep hoodmoulds, the lights having segmental-pointed heads and small-paned glazing. A string course runs above the ground floor. A centre timber gabled porch with half-glazed doors is flanked by windows, with large ogee-pointed four-light windows to left and right bearing marginal glazing bars, pointed heads to the centre French window and side lights on each side.

The east side has a gable to the left with an ogee attic window and first floor casement window offset to the right. A further first floor casement window to the right bears a hoodmould with altered glazing. A single storey extension with lean-to roof and a further 1½ storey garage are attached to the east side.

Internally, the house is planned with a ground floor containing a central north-south hallway with two rooms to either side and a central stair to the west. On the first floor rooms are divided over two levels around the central stair.

The north entrance door leads to a full-depth hallway with ribbed vaulting of seven bays with crocket capitals and shafts: four bays extend to the central crossing where the stair is positioned to the left, followed by three further shallower bays to the south. The south entrance has double half-glazed doors with marginal glazing and half-glazed panels flanked to either side, beneath an ogee glazed arch with intersecting tracery. The hallway is floored with oak boards. Doorways to the hall have deep moulded architraves and doors with applied Gothic mouldings.

Two doors on the right of the hall lead to the principal ground floor rooms. The southern room displays fine Strawberry Hill detailing with a deep enriched cornice, fireplace, skirting, window lining and shutters, and a pair of highly decorative Gothic timber door surrounds (one false) to the internal wall. The northern room retains more restrained early 19th-century fittings including fireplace, skirting and cornice. Two similar doors on the left of the hall lead to further rooms: the northern door opens to a small boot room, while the southern door gives access to another excellent Strawberry Hill room retaining a marble fireplace, enriched cornice, timber window linings and shutters, skirting, and a large niche with crockets, beside which stands a recess with a door. A further door in the north-east corner leads to the stair.

The stair is reached through a central door on the left of the hall via a short vaulted passage with the cellar door to the right. It is a top-lit timber stair with paired square balusters bearing quatrefoil discs with cusping between each pair, displaying similar vaulting and detailing to the hall. At the base of the stair, a door to the left leads to the kitchen, whilst a further door ahead provides direct access to the single storey extension on the east side. The stair rises a short straight flight to a landing and small balcony with cusped pierced panelling projecting into the hall, then turns to rise to the main first floor. A further short flight of steps from the landing accesses the room in the north-east corner. First floor rooms largely retain early 19th-century doorframes, doors and skirtings.