Treberfydd (also known as Treberfedd)

Treberfydd (also known as Treberfedd)

A mansion in Tudor Revival style with an asymmetrical L-shaped plan that incorporates the core of an earlier house within its large central hall. The building is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with Bathstone dressings, roofed with plain and fishscale tiles and terracotta ridge tiles. A multitude of tall chimney stacks, most paired and of varying designs—some octagonal, some square, and some angled—feature decorative cresting and terracotta pots, many embattled or with raised bands, mostly straddling the ridge. Gables are topped with large finials and copings are wide and raised. All windows are cross-frame, many with moulded surrounds and deep hoodmoulds with decorative stops; the proportions between upper and lower sections vary. Metal frames contain quarries with decorative leading in different patterns.

The lake frontage comprises five main bays at different projecting levels. Centre left stands a three-storey projecting entrance tower, embattled and topped by a tall chimney. A heavily moulded string course below incorporates large, exuberantly carved gargoyles. The top floor has cross windows on three sides—three lights to the front—with a moulded string course below. A further string acts as a cornice to the first floor windows, again on three sides of the bay, with paired double lights to the front. The ground floor contains a moulded pointed-arched doorway in a square-headed surround with intricately carved spandrels; it rises to enclose a carved stone coat of arms, with the hoodmould continuous with the side windows. The left bay features a cross gable and two small rectangular lights to the attic. The first floor has an oriel window with conical roof and enriched embattled parapet, its heavily moulded base supported on a deep pilaster; at ground level on either side are deep cross windows above a battered plinth. To the right of the entrance tower is a more deeply recessed and lower cross gable with three-light windows to the first floor above a large canted ground floor bay with moulded embattled parapet topped by finials and large windows on all three sides. Further right, a wide cross gable projects forward with similar windows on three floors, smaller at ground floor to reflect its status as the servants' wing. The end right is the side of the service range facing the stable courtyard, dominated by a corbelled stepped external stack with offsets. Extending to the left is a stepped wall with moulded saddleback coping and a decorative garden entrance featuring a heavily moulded Tudor-arched doorway with hood and stops, flanked by buttresses with offsets. Above is a crow-stepped gable incorporating a blank shield with finials. An iron and wood gate with linenfold panelling and fleur de lys stanchions features deep hinges.

The garden frontage displays a range of six highly varied bays, five with cross gables. The right side is dominated by a wide double external stack, part corbelled at first floor level. Attached at ground floor is a single-storey conservatory, five bays long and two bays wide, with deep cross windows, a parapet with moulded cornices and matching string below, a Tudor-arched doorway, and a set-back low-pitched glazed roof. At the centre, a double bay with double gables of unequal height breaks forward. On the first floor, at slightly different levels and separated by a downpipe with decorative spout, are two three-light cross windows. The ground floor to the left has a wide embattled bay; to the right the wall is broached to form a light at a forty-five-degree angle. A small cross gable to the right has similar windows to the first and ground floors. All ground floor windows of these three bays extend to plinth level with external steps, creating somewhat awkward garden access. To the left of the central double gable is a recessed cross gable, high and wide, with similar windows on each floor. The end left is a polygonal tower, deeply and decoratively embattled and incorporating a chimney. A string course below features similar windows to two sides of the first floor, broached to a rectangular plan at ground floor with a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway and small rectangular lights to the ground floor and plinth.

The rear elevation is L-shaped, with the main house block projecting to the right, the tower breaking forward from that, and the three-bay hall and service wing set back to the left. The right bay has further external stacks, asymmetrically stepped with offsets, the right part corbelled and the one on the return corbelled at first floor level. Adjacent at ground floor is a Tudor-arched doorway; above is a cross bay parallel with the left wing, featuring stained glass and armature in the window overlooking a small building well. The left wing has three cross-gabled bays, all with a two-window range to the ground floor, albeit asymmetrical. The wide right bay is recessed; the centre has a wide stepped external stack separating windows, that to the right angled as on the garden frontage. A small cross gable at the end left creates a half-dormer.

The stable court frontage is dominated at ground floor level by a long flat-coped wall with small openings for provisions, such as coal, into stores behind. This encloses a small courtyard with a former cross-gabled dairy wing to the left and a kitchen wing to the right with a large four-flue stack. Above the two cross-gabled wings—the right deeper than the left—is a composition of gables and stacks.

The interior retains almost all its original fittings, though alterations, redecoration, and additions were made mainly around 1900. Large, intricately carved stone fireplaces, some with inset coloured tiles, enriched the rooms alongside richly moulded panelled plaster ceilings and cornices. Windows have panelled shutters and doors are eight-panelled throughout. A wide hall passage opens into a spacious hall with a hooded fireplace and a lower ceiling above it, possibly dictated by elements of the original house. A broad open-well dark wood staircase, intricately carved, rises to a landing with armorial stained glass in the window. To the left of the hall is the drawing room, redecorated since a photograph of 1860 showing dark ceiling and patterned wallpaper; it is now light with an added plaster frieze to the coffered plaster ceiling. An interconnecting drawing room extends further left, while to the right is a library still lined with Robert Raikes' book collection and a billiard room. On the right of the hall is the dining room with an arcaded passage and wood panelling, with a door leading to the service quarters. These comprise white-walled and dark-wood rooms including a sitting room, offices, and kitchen, along with a brick-vaulted cellar with access to a rear service yard, storage rooms, and dairy.