Hendrefoilan

Hendrefoilan

This is a massive square mansion of two storeys with an attic, built in snecked grey stone under renewed slate roofs. The house is characterised by stepped gables with large finials, moulded string courses to each storey, a plinth, quoins, and square-headed windows with transoms and hoodmoulds. Brick ridge stacks with clustered octagonal shafts, generally in fours, are fitted with cast iron rainwater goods, the hoppers decorated with bosses.

The grand asymmetrical entrance front faces north in Puginesque style. A steeply pitched gabled porch projects to the left of centre, featuring a two-centred entrance arch with shallow chamfered mouldings beneath a hoodmould. The gable displays prominent kneelers with ball finials, shoulders, and a sandstone tablet in the centre bearing a shield. Buttresses stand at the angles, with two-light side windows having lancet heads. The main doorway sits beneath a similar two-centred head, containing a half-lit door with three panels and three lights with small panes. A cross-window in the upper storey rises above the porch. A large stairlight dominates the bay to the right of the porch, which is slightly advanced. This comprises a four-light, three-tier window containing lancets beneath a square hoodmould with a raised arched motif to the centre bearing stylised initials, and a shallow relieving arch. A sill string course sits below, beneath which is a single small lancet in a heavy square surround. To the right is a narrow bay with a single-light transomed window to each storey. The two centre bays have steeply pitched half-dormers with cross-windows. Large advanced gabled bays flank the entrance front to left and right. The bay to the left of the porch is dominated by a central chimney breast with two shafts and two string courses, the upper one rising over a recessed square sandstone tablet with initials (possibly D and H) in relief. The right gabled bay features a large four-light transomed window to the ground floor beneath a relieving arch, two cross-windows above, and a smaller cross-window to the attic, with a slit to the gable apex. A lower two-storey three-window range joins the northwest angle of the house at right angles, forming part of a U-shaped service wing. Its east front has a wide gabled bay to the right with a five-light transomed window to the ground floor beneath a relieving arch and a matching three-light window above, both with horizontal glazing bars below the transom. Cross-windows stand to the left and centre, except for the ground left window which is three-light. A gabled north end contains a small window. Below and to the right, a short linking corridor with a cross-window leads to a single-storey seven-window range facing north, with six sash windows and a three-light transomed window to the left. A canted bay window to the east gable end has a hipped roof and one-light windows to each side.

The symmetrical four-bay garden front faces south. The outer bays are gabled, with two-storey canted bay windows. Parapets with angle-posts and head-boss corbels feature a raised arched motif in the centre over a shield. Steps lead up to the bays, although the full-height ground floor windows do not appear to have replaced French doors. Side windows to the bays. The garden front has three-light windows with transoms, except the centre left bay which is four-light. The inner bays have gabled half-dormers with cross-windows to the attic storey.

The east and west walls are both three-bay. The east wall has gabled outer bays with single-storey bay windows with crenellated parapets and a central motif as in the south wall. Transomed four-light windows occupy the ground floor, three-light windows the first floor outer bays, with a cross-window in the centre above which is a half-dormer. Cross-windows light the attic storey. A metal fire-escape staircase leads from the central attic window down to the parapet of the right bay window and thence to ground level. The west wall features a five-light central bay window in the same style as the east wall, with cross-windows to the first floor having a horizontal glazing bar below the transom. The central window is blind. Half-dormers with cross-windows occupy the outer bays. To the left, a range of the service wing joins the house at right angles, above which is a cross-window in the gable of the west wall. In the angle of the two ranges facing south is a two-centred arched doorway flanked by side windows in a shallow porch, now leading into a late twentieth-century glazed corridor that extends to a portakabin classroom. To the left of the door is a five-light window with a horizontal glazing bar below the transom. The upper storey has similar windows below gablets, four-light to the left and three-light to the right. The gablets contain square recessed tablets with rosettes in relief. To the left is a short single-storey range with a four-light window, with end stacks to the range.

The U-shaped service wing defines a courtyard to the west. Single-storey lean-tos stand against the interior north and south walls. That to the south has two windows and a doorway set back with a shouldered head. The north lean-to has a hipped roof with a set-back planked door to the left. An additional panelled door with overlight stands on the west-facing wall. Horned sash windows, generally sixteen-pane, occupy square stone surrounds.

The entrance leads into an L-shaped hall, which turns to the right and has three high arches with shallow pointed heads and chamfered mouldings. Rooms occupy the front and sides, with the staircase to the rear. Panelled doors and window shutters finish the space. A wide half-turn staircase of wood features large square newel posts and narrow turned balusters with polygonal bases and decorative heads. The handrail carries roll moulding, and the underside of the staircase is boarded. The large stair window contains stained glass depicting heraldic shields and emblems on a background of yellow and blue with coloured margin glazing. Two-light windows with trefoiled heads in the sides of the staircase bay look down into the hall and the room to the right. Opposite the bottom of the staircase is a blocked fireplace with a segmental head.

The main reception room occupies the front left. Ornate plasterwork features panels and bands of festoons, cornucopia, and rosettes. Moulded coving displays a deep fleur-de-lis frieze, and the ceiling is decorated with a foliate band. A pale marble fireplace on the north wall has a scrolled head and decorative consoles to the jambs. The room to the front right serves as a library and now provides access into the central reception room. The library has a heavy wood panelled ceiling in the form of octagons and small squares, with deep coving to match featuring foliate brackets. A wooden fireplace has a shouldered lintel. The central room contains a marble fireplace with a segmental head and tiled panels to the sides, and coving with pronounced foliate bosses and rosettes.

The room to the left of the hall is entered through a door in a half-lit Gothic-arched screen. The glazed panels have arched heads. The walls are half-panelled in dark wood. A pale brown marble fireplace displays a Tudor arch and foliate motif. A panelled plaster ceiling features geometric and foliate bands.