Scethrog House

Scethrog House is a large, complex house situated on a hillside, with a primary construction date of 1691, though it incorporates elements from earlier and later periods. The main, L-shaped frontage belies a more complicated arrangement at the rear, featuring separate cross wings and an earlier wing extending uphill.

The front facade is of roughcast stone, topped by a hipped Welsh slate roof with deeply overhanging, swept eaves that are plastered on the underside. The house has two storeys, an attic, and a cellar. The five-bay main wing facing west has a five-window range of 6/6 pane sash windows, some with horns and narrow sills. The ground floor windows are larger and feature a central, moulded, pedimented doorway with Tuscan pilasters. The recessed six-panel door has panelled reveals. To the left, the return frontage facing south has a single range of similar sash windows, with a roof dormer above. A similar sash is present in the gable end wall.

The rear of the house reveals the arrangement of stacks, including a tall, external axial panelled stack serving the drawing room fireplace, a central stack at the junction of the centre cross wing and main range, serving the hall fireplace, and long, narrow ridge stacks serving the dining room and kitchen fireplaces in the north wing. The hipped roof staircase wing, retaining stone tiles, has casement windows to each storey, sheltered by stone hoods. A wooden-framed casement window on the landing has been altered to a 6-pane window. A smaller hipped roof over the adjacent bay has a 6/6 pane sash to the first floor and a doorway to the ground floor, both with timber lintels.

The right-hand, half-hipped roofed wing features a hipped roof dormer, casement windows under timber lintels to the first floor, and long 6/6 pane sashes to the ground floor. An adjoining range, sharing the same roof line but with a different floor level, has casement windows to the first floor and low windows to the kitchen, suggesting an earlier date.

At the front-left junction of the late 17th-century wing and the main range are staircase windows, further 6/6 pane sashes, and an oculus to the top storey. This range, whitewashed and with a tiled roof, extends to the left and is corbelled out at the corner. The forecourt garden is terraced with dry stone walling, a high wall to the lane below, and gatepiers to the drive.

The main range has a central entrance leading to a heated hall, with drawing rooms to the right and in the left wing. The house features two fine, open-well staircases, one to the rear right and one from the hall left, both with turned balusters, newel posts with orb or acorn finials, and moulded handrails. Moulded plaster panels are located beneath the staircases. The hall fireplace contains an open fire with the inscription “Ofnwch Dduw” and a poem by Vaughan. The drawing room to the right has fine wooden panelling with bolection moulding to the fireplace, and the windows have panelled shutters and window seats. Other panelling has been re-sited throughout the house. On the first floor, bedrooms have moulded plaster ceilings and cross beams that are plastered. The main roof includes A-frame trusses with two rows of trenched purlins.