Cefn Goleu Park

Cefn Goleu Park

A symmetrical two-storey five-window house of Tudor-Gothic style with an advanced central gabled bay. Built in snecked dressed stone under slate roofs, the building is of double depth with clustered octagonal stone chimney shafts. It features quoins, a string course and plinth. Gablets crown the upper storey windows, while cusped openwork barge boards decorate the gables and gablets.

The front elevation presents lancet windows containing sashes, mostly grouped under flat heads with square hoodmoulds. The central entrance comprises a pointed moulded arch enclosing planked and ribbed double doors, flanked by narrow trefoil-headed lancets containing small diamond quarries and stained glass including roundels bearing the initials CJB (Charles Berrington). Above the entrance arch, the string course rises above a stone tablet with three recessed panels bearing shields. The upper storey features a three-light window under a square hoodmould and a moulded quatrefoil in the gable apex. Later stone balustrading with square Gothic piers supporting vases and caryatids fronts the entrance bay. The central bay is flanked by two-light windows, beyond which are four-light windows. Upper storey two-light windows are aligned below, positioned under gablets with shouldered heads.

The east and west sides each have two gables with cusped openwork barge boards and large finials. Two four-light windows under square hoodmoulds appear on the lower storey with three-light windows aligned above. Each gable apex contains a moulded quatrefoil. A wall running east fronts a flat-roofed cold store with narrow lancets.

The rear elevation shows two advanced gables at the centre and right, with barge boards and finials matching those elsewhere. The central gable contains a three-light window to each storey under a hoodmould and a tablet in the apex bearing a date of 1861. A two-window opening appears left of the central bay. The lower storey has a four-light window and a two-light window to its right with an inserted doorway beneath containing a half-lit door fronted by later stone balustrading. Upper storey two-light windows sit under gablets. Between the two gables is a two-light window above a single light. The right advanced gable is lower and contains the service rooms, with a two-light window above and a twentieth-century lean-to below. A boundary wall enclosing the service yard runs south from the southwest angle of the bay, returning towards the east side of the house with an entrance under a segmental head near the angle of the bay.

The interior begins with a fine full-height stairhall featuring a steeply pitched five-bay hammer-beam roof. A first-floor wooden gallery to the rear includes returns to the sides with openwork lancet balustrading supported on a plinth bearing a quatrefoil frieze and square newel posts. Beneath is full-height wooden panelling with blind lancets. A simple narrow dog-leg staircase runs off to the east of the hall, almost hidden from view. A front gallery, also with lancet balustrading, rises above a glazed Gothic screen with double doors. The quatrefoil in the gable apex contains stained glass. A stone fireplace to the west features a Tudor arch and flat-headed mantelpiece beneath which runs a frieze of cinquefoiled lancets. Detailing throughout includes teak panelled doors and window shutters, and teak fireplace surrounds.

From the stairhall, the drawing room and morning room open to the right with a small study to the rear. Some original doors have been replaced by fire-doors. The dining room lies to the left beyond a glazed Tudor archway. Behind and to the left, a passageway leads to service areas and displays a line of eight original bells. The kitchen has been modernised.

The drawing room to the front right contains a teak fireplace with jambs surmounted by Buddhas. The front depicts two cupids hunting with a dog and scrollwork. Beneath the moulded ceiling coving runs a frieze of cornucopia and urns with a foliate ceiling rose. The morning room features a teak fireplace with large barley twist jambs and foliate decoration, while the mantelpiece is richly carved with hunting scenes. The study displays a decorated ceiling rose and a frieze of urns and swags beneath the coving, with a small fireplace to the east wall decorated with cupids, lions, dragons and foliage.