Llansannor Court

Llansannor Court

Built of local limestone rubble, roughly coursed and lime-rendered in places, with a Victorian rear extension in brownstone rubble with apparently Bath stone dressings. Welsh slate roofs throughout. The building has an L-shaped plan, originally single depth, but the Victorian range extends to the rear making it double depth in that area, with a further small extension housing the staircase. It comprises two storeys and a formerly habitable attic (now disused), though the wing is two storeys only.

The main elevation faces south with the foot of the L projecting forward on the left. The entrance front is symmetrical in five bays with two windows on either side of a full-height projecting porch. Ground floor windows are 4-light and first floor windows 3-light, all with segmentally arched heads and dripmoulds. The attic gable, set centrally between 2-light windows on either side, has a finial. The porch features a 3-centred arch with a 3-light window above and a 2-light window in the gable. Ridge stacks stand at either end and in the cross-passage position, all appearing rebuilt. Disturbed masonry at the right wall end indicates a former garderobe shaft. The projecting wing has similar window types—5-light and 3-light on the ground floor, 4-light and 3-light above—suggesting these are insertions. The gable end has 4-light windows on each floor, set to the left. A large lateral stack on the left wall is partly hidden by the adjoining house.

The east gable of the front range is blind, with a two-storey bay on the Victorian addition behind. The north elevation has two Victorian gables. The first has two 2-light windows with double transoms on the ground floor, a mullion-and-transom window above, and a 2-light attic window. The second gable projects forward with a Tudor arched entrance and single-light windows either side, a large 3-light stair window with double transom above, and a single-light attic window. All have dripmoulds. Beyond this stands a late 16th-century gable that housed the former stair, with Victorian mullion-and-transom windows on each floor. An early 16th-century gable in the adjoining property lies beyond. The rear chimneys resemble those at the front, suggesting the earlier range's chimneys were rebuilt at the same time.

The interior contains important late 16th-century rooms alongside Victorian redecoration and wholly Victorian spaces. The entrance porch opens into the former screens-passage, now incorporated into the Hall and called the Oak Room. This has Victorian panelling, possibly incorporating original Tudor work, and a 5-bay ceiling spanned by large beams with roll-and-hollow mouldings and moulded plasterwork to the panels, with an early classically inspired chimneypiece. The Study in the wing has a 2-bay ceiling with a moulded beam. The Drawing Room has Victorian decoration with fireplace and panelling, though the latter could be early 20th-century. The Billiard Room is wholly Victorian, fully fitted with contemporary equipment including ivory balls and an inner door with daffodil stops. The Dining Room is Victorian with a raised ceiling. The Staircase is Victorian in the late 17th-century manner—open-well with closed string and turned balusters—apparently made of Burmese teak. The Kitchen is a modern conversion of the Victorian Servants' Hall with flagstone floor and fitted cupboards. A fitted Butler's Pantry adjoins.

On the first floor, the Great Chamber has been restored to its original dimensions as the Hall below. It has a 5-bay ceiling with roll-moulded beams. The rear wall features an oak and a stone-framed doorway, both with original oak plank doors, flanking a moulded stone fireplace. The right-hand doorway led to the original stair. A plain chamber sits over the porch. An alteration in the Great Chamber's north-east corner marks where the way through to the Victorian stair was formed. A secondary stone stair of three flights around a solid core in the earlier wing appears to be a late 16th-century insertion. This stair has an unusual turned oak screen of circa 1700 on the upper landing.

The attic floor of the main range shows evidence of having been a Long Gallery but is now fragmentary and long disused. It contains an oak-framed doorway and a plaster frieze of lions and pomegranates. The principal rafter roof spans seven or eight bays with two tiers of purlins and a ridge piece. The wing roof is of earlier type with arch-braced collar beam trusses. The Victorian roofs are machine-sawn king post trusses. Rafters throughout have been replaced, suggesting the building was re-slated as part of the Victorian improvements.