Trewyn House

Trewyn House

Built of roughly coursed red sandstone rubble with Welsh slate and stone tile roofs. The building is constructed on a high terrace to provide a level site on steeply falling land, with Welsh slate applied to the inner slopes and east wing. It consists of two storeys and attics, arranged in an E-plan with wings at the rear, the centre one containing the staircase and the bottom one along the road projecting further than the top.

The main elevation is seven windows wide with the centre three windows set closer together than the others. All windows are cross-framed mullion-and-transom timber casements with leaded lights, though these are replacements dating from around 1900. A continuous dripmould runs over each floor. The central doorway has six panes over two panels in a classical surround, probably 20th century in date. A heavy timber modillion cornice is present, which, while in character, is said to be a modern addition. The hipped roof features three gabled dormers with 4-pane casements with Y-tracery, these being mid to late 19th century alterations, although the decorative bargeboards have been lost. Chimneys are positioned in the angles of the rear wings on the rear wall of the front block.

The garden elevation to the left has undergone considerable change since the mid-19th century. It presents a five-bay front with windows set unevenly, with both heads and cills at different levels. A central doorway in a classical surround with a part glazed door, reached up steps, represents an alteration of the 1990s. The windows are cross-framed casements, but again all are reproduction examples. A modillion cornice matches that on the main elevation, and the hipped roof carries three gabled dormers of circa 1700 type with cross-framed casements, these having been added in the 1990s. The left end elevation of this wing displays a cross-framed casement on the first floor with a 3-light example above and a small casement above that. A tall rendered stack, possibly a Victorian alteration, stands external to the building, with the modillion cornice ending against it. The roof is hipped.

The road elevation to the right preserves the 1692 build as only one bay of this front, gabled with modillion cornice and a string at first-floor level. This gable end is blind, its only feature being a late 19th-century doorway with cambered arch head and flanking 1-over-1 sash windows with similar heads, all individually recessed into the battered red sandstone wall. The remainder of the elevation is cement rendered and dates from circa 1870, constructed to provide improved kitchens and other services. Three recessed arches occupy the ground floor, which functions as the lower ground level of the house. The first floor contains five windows and the second floor four, these being casements of varying sizes, some cross-framed. An external stack on brackets serves the second floor, with a further stack within the roof to the left.

The rear elevation displays gables to each of the wings, to the stair tower, and a pyramid roof to the granary extension. The left wing has a cross-framed casement with a 3-light example above. The stair tower is obscured by the glazed roof of the now-enclosed courtyard, with a back door beneath. The granary, probably added in the late 19th century, is timber-framed with rendered infill panels in a two-by-three arrangement, topped with a Welsh slate roof. This structure is raised to first-floor level over a rubble ground floor, with a lean-to extension to the right.

The interior has seen considerable changes, and many surviving features have been relocated or reintroduced. The Oak Room, for instance, displays apparently early 18th-century raised and fielded panelling alongside a Regency marble fireplace. The entrance hall is stone paved, features an introduced early 18th-century fireplace, and opens onto an altered staircase with the bottom flight added to provide access to the new doorway off the road, added around 1900. The central courtyard was roofed in the 1870s. Corridors were introduced on the first floor during the late 19th century to improve circulation within the enlarged house, and the attic rooms have been altered by the added dormers. Considerable redecoration and improvement occurred in the 1990s. Despite these changes, many rooms are of good quality and retain their early 18th-century character, though the features are not necessarily original. A vaulted cider cellar lies beneath the 1870s wing.