Talygarn

A large country house designed in a free Gothic style, built of snecked rock-faced stone with lighter stone dressings to the principal elevations. The south-east wing is roughcast and painted white. The house is mainly of two-and-a-half storeys with slate roofs and ridge stacks of stone, with brick shafts at the service end.

North Entrance Front

The entrance front faces north. The main entrance wing has nine bays in the lower storey projecting forward, with stair hall, great hall and billiard room further to the right. The entrance wing has a shallow projecting porch with splayed sides and a segmental-headed doorway flanked by cusped lights. The flanking bays have three-light mullioned and transomed windows with relieving arches, but are of different dates. On the left side is a dining room dated 1928 on the rainwater heads; on the right side is the library dated 1880 on rainwater heads. Above is an openwork parapet either side of the blind panelled parapet over the porch, all of which defines a balcony above the lower storey.

The upper storey has an advanced gabled bay above the entrance, housing one of the two main stairs. This bay has diagonal buttresses, a four-light mullioned and transomed stair light with a two-light attic window. To the right, where the wall is roughcast and painted white, are a two-light window flanked by three-light windows, with three roof dormers. To the left of the staircase bay are three three-light mullioned and transomed windows asymmetrically placed.

To the right of the entrance range, the second and principal stair hall is set back from the lower storey. It has two tiers of four-light windows, the upper tier larger and with reticulated tracery under a flat head, while above is a pointed trefoil window. A gable projects on a roll-moulded cornice.

The gabled great hall projects forward further to the right. It has stepped diagonal buttresses and a three-light north window with curvilinear tracery modelled on Claybrooke church in Leicestershire. The left side has a single cusped lancet. On the right side is a lower polygonal oriel in dressed stone added by 1914. It is buttressed and has two-light transomed windows.

Behind the oriel is a single-storey two-bay link to the billiard room added in 1894. The link has a four-light window on the left side (behind modern escape stairs) and a Tudor-headed doorway with fielded panel door on the right. Above the doorway is a tablet with a wreath and the date in relief.

The single-storey asymmetrical four-bay billiard room also projects forward and has a flat roof with two lanterns behind a plain parapet. It is buttressed, with diagonal buttresses to the angles, and has three-light mullioned and transomed windows, except the centre-right bay which is wider, projects forward and has a six-light window and single-light side windows. Cast iron vent covers set into the wall are dated 1894. The right (west) side of the billiard room is plainer, having a half-lit door under a segmental head to the left side.

Behind the billiard room is a single-storey service building then the much altered south-west wing, which has extensive additional wings built from the mid 20th century when the building was a miners' rehabilitation centre. Mid 20th century extensions are also behind (south of) the billiard room.

South-West Wing

Facing east, the six-bay south-west wing, added by Godfrey Clark before 1914, survives with two-light windows but has an added upper storey and an added narrower polygonal projection at the south end, dated 1927 on a rainwater head. Originally a conservatory stood behind the billiard room, entered from the east through the main corridor. This entrance can be seen externally in the form of a full-height bay window under a hipped roof that rises above the single-storey mid 20th century hall replacing the conservatory. To the right of the bay window is the west wall of the former drawing room, which has two round-headed doorways, both with replaced doors and originally opening to a terrace, while the upper storey has two two-light casements under segmental heads.

South Garden Front

The south garden front has the drawing room at the west end. It has a full-height canted bay to the centre with mullioned and transomed windows, a two-light first-floor casement to the right, and then a further bay set back with two-light windows. To the right of the drawing room the walls are roughcast and painted white. There are three unequal bays, comprising a full-height canted bay to the left, the lower window having cusped lights, and a three-light mullioned and transomed first-floor window below a hipped roof. To its right are two cross windows in the lower storey and a cross window and a three-light window in the upper storey. There are two three-light roof dormers and a third roof dormer in the angle with a return wall of the lower south-east wing.

The south-east wing is the remodelled earlier house on the site. Its west elevation has a three-light window to the left and a two-light to the right, while the upper storey has a three-light to the left and two-light windows centre and right. There are three gabled roof dormers. A clock tower projects on the right side.

South-East Wing

The south garden elevation of the south-east wing is two storeys with attic, and is defined by a clock tower set back to the west end, water tower projecting to the east end, and a long range with a projecting tower offset to the left side, although this was not the original design, since until the early 20th century the water tower was free-standing.

The clock tower is of four stages, of which the upper two stages project on a corbel table. The south face has a two-light window in the lower stage and two two-light windows above. In the third stage are two-light windows in the south and north faces, while the upper stage has single windows flanked by narrow slits in the south and north faces. The west face has a round clock face flanked by narrow slits. An octagonal stack is concealed behind an embattled parapet. A stair turret is on the south-east side with a single small stair light, to the right of which is a full-height canted bay window with a gabled dormer behind an openwork parapet.

Next to the right is a projecting three-stage tower with a crow-stepped gable reminiscent of Scots baronial style. The doorway is on the west side with boarded door and hood mould. The south and west faces have plain windows in the middle stage. The upper stage projects slightly, has cusped windows in the east and west faces, while the south face has a tablet dated 1881 in the gable. Further to the right are two windows with casements flanking two small two-light mullioned windows, four windows incorporating casements in the upper storey and five gabled and scrolled dormers.

At the right end is a single-bay three-storey link added by 1914 to link the original south-east wing to the water tower. In the lower storey is a passage under an elliptical brick arch. The upper storeys have small casement windows under hoods.

The water tower at the south-east end is Italianate in influence and is of four banded stages. The lower stage has a boarded south door with plain windows above in the middle stages. Below the upper stage are tablets with the dates 1880 on the south side, 1881 on the east side and placed above a volute capital on the north side. The castellated upper stage has a blind arcade of rock-faced stone projecting on a corbel table, of three by seven bays. The east side has a single-storey lean-to. The west side is the through passage, with a doorway at the south end and two two-light windows.

East and North-East Elevations

It leads to the east side of the main block where there is a single-storey early 20th century service wing. It has a Tudor-headed doorway set back at the left end, and two three-light windows and a further Tudor-headed doorway. Further to the right are a plainer doorway and two-light window under an open trefoil parapet and with a diagonal buttress to the north-east angle. The return wall has a four-light window with cusped lights that abuts the east elevation of the entrance wing. This has a three-light window in its projecting lower storey and a three-light and two-light window to upper and attic storeys.

Interior

The interior of the house is sumptuously fitted out, and in contrast to the Gothic exterior is mainly in early Renaissance style, employing craftsmen from numerous Italian workshops working mainly to Clark's drawings.

The porch opens to a segmental doorway flanked by cusped lights and leads into a long entrance hall. This has a heavy wooden chimneypiece with pairs of Ionic columns. A round arch flanked by blind recesses with shell hoods opens to an ornate open-well stair. This has twisted balusters and newels, and is enriched with carved heraldic lions.

On the left side is a large dining room with an ornate marble chimneypiece, which has columns with bulbous feet and a mantelpiece projecting on brackets. The walls are wood panelled and there is a frieze of shields below the cornice. The windows have stained glass medallions to the upper lights.

From the entrance stairway is a corridor to the right, with rooms to the right and left. The corridor is enriched with panelled dado incorporating Renaissance carved panels in relief by G Biraghi of Venice. The ceilings are enriched by 19th century copies of 16th century Venetian paintings. On the north side of the corridor is the former library, now subdivided, the two doorways to which have classical architraves. The library's two pink and white marble chimneypieces are by Terrazzi of Verona. One room to the south side of the corridor has plaster panels to the walls and an oval ceiling panel.

The corridor continues to a second, principal stair hall. It is an open-well stair with twisted balusters and newels, inlaid risers and hand rail enriched with heraldic lions. The large stair light has grisaille glass. Above the stair is a panelled polygonal ceiling. The stair hall has oval ceiling panels with Italian style painted scenes similar to the corridor.

The former drawing room is on the south side of the stair hall and is entered through two doors. It was one of the earliest rooms to be fitted out, circa 1873, with woodwork by Biraghi. The room has painted ceiling panels of 1888 by P Santi, in a plaster frame cast from William Kent's house in Berkeley Square, London, with further painting in the large bay window added in 1889. A panelled dado has relief panels, while the walls have arched recesses for books. The moulded cornice incorporates a bracketed frieze. The insides of the doors have cresting and panels enriched with bronze satyrs and satyresses by Cortellazzo of Vicenza, and architraves with foliage in relief. A marble chimneypiece has Ionic columns. The large wooden overmantel has arched panels and is richly decorated with relief-moulded pilasters with gilt inlay.

The great hall is on the west side of the principal stair hall. It is full height with a five-bay arched-brace roof standing on moulded corbels, between which are arches with trefoiled spandrels. Behind the principals is diagonal boarding. The roof was worked in the Dowlais Works. The walls have raised fielded panels. A monumental classical fireplace is by Howard of Berners Street and is based on Clark's drawing of a tomb at Assisi. It has paired Corinthian columns, and an arcade of intersecting arches with twisted columns to the overmantel, while the fireplace is infilled with Delftware tiles. To the left of the chimneypiece is a memorial window dedicated to John Jones, clerk of works. The main north window has heraldic glass by Powell's, of 1903. The oriel at the north-west corner is rib-vaulted and has simple stained glass panels commemorating members of the Clark family.

From the principal stair hall the corridor continues to the west with painted panel ceiling, where there is another wooden chimneypiece with ornate overmantel carried on herms. It terminates in a five-light glazed screen that originally opened to a conservatory but now opens to a mid 20th century hall.

The former billiard room has full-height intarsio panels to the walls and inside of the door, signed by Biraghi and dated 1895. Marble fireplaces are at each end of the room. The ceiling has relief moulded panels surrounding the two lantern lights. The south-east wing has a stage built in 1927 with classical proscenium and panelling.