Llancaiach-fawr

Llancaiach-fawr is a semi-fortified gentry house with its main range aligned roughly east to west. The building comprises a front porch wing and two rear wings: at the west an added staircase wing, and at the east a contemporary wing with an attached garderobe shaft. The main house and wings are three storeys and attic with a first floor hall, and there is a vaulted cellar beneath the rear wing. The stone rubble walls are mostly laid in narrow courses with ashlar dressings and quoins. The west and south-west elevations are rendered. Windows are of one, two, three or four lights, some with four-centred heads and moulded spandrels, some ornamented, some square headed, most with square low hoodmoulds, with chamfered surrounds and moulded mullions, and set under wide relieving arches without sills. Transom and mullion windows represent 17th century remodelling, and the leaded glazing is a mid-20th century replacement. The roof is covered in 20th century Cotswold tiles. Rectangular stone stacks with caps sit at centre right ridge and on either side of the ridge of the north-east rear wing, with a smaller stack at the left gable end. Gables have stone coping, moulded apex stones and kneelers. The main house and wings are battered.

The south entrance elevation has five bays. The gabled full-height porch wing in the second bay from the south-west has a gable end and lateral stacks, with a small Tudor-arched apex light, a two-light first floor square-headed mullioned window, and a ground floor Tudor-arched doorway that is chamfered and stopped, with small side lights and a larger rectangular window to the first floor. The bay to the left of the porch is rendered, with a small light to the second floor and a larger one to the first floor. To the right of the porch extends the main two-window range over three floors separated by small lobby lights. At left the windows are square headed: a three-light second floor window close under the eaves, a large first floor window to the hall of four transom and mullion lights, and a ground floor window of two lights. To the right the lights are narrow with four-centred heads: a small two-light window close under the eaves, a large first floor four-light window to the parlour, and a similar smaller three-light ground floor window, with some replaced masonry. The west gable end elevation has small lights to the upper floor and a two-light window to the ground floor.

The rear elevation is asymmetrical. The cross wing to the right has a roof extending lower to the right (west) and incorporates two groups of three dove nesting holes and ledges, with two three-light windows under shallow hoods, the higher under a relieving arch. The centre three-storey bay is recessed though stepped out at each side, the left accommodating a gabled garderobe chute corbelled out at eaves and with small lights, the right containing the flue to the hall chimney. The centre has a single window range with a four-light square-headed window with arched lights close under the eaves, a larger four-light window with arched heads under a hood and relieving arch to the first floor with a small light adjacent, and a ground floor with a small rectangular chamfered light. The wide more deeply projecting four-storey cross wing to the left also has an asymmetrical gable, though less pronounced, with kneelers and quoins. Each upper storey has a single window, all with four-centred arched lights: a single light with hood to the attic, paired lights with hood, flat relieving arch and moulded spandrels to the second floor, and a similar triple light window to the first floor. Cellar access at ground floor has steps down.

The east elevation of four storeys has again an asymmetrical gable with a single window range to the left flush with a single window range to the right, and ridge stacks. Similar arched lights under hoods include a single light to the attic left, a second floor with paired lights to left and right and a small adjacent stair light, a first floor with similar four- and three-light windows with an adjacent stair light (the former matching that on the front south elevation which both light the main parlour), and a ground floor with a similar three-light window to the left and a small rectangular window to the right without a relieving arch.

The frontage gives onto a walled garden. Parts of the east and south walls and the wall adjacent to the front path date from before the 20th century refurbishment, though with substantial sections rebuilt or raised.

Interior

The interior is characterised by the multitude of staircases which, apart from the later large timber staircase to the rear, are incorporated within the walls, thus providing a network of escape routes to an outwardly undefended building. Traditionally the number of staircases was said to equal the number of rooms—fourteen, of which nine staircases remain after periods of remodelling. Walls are mostly lime plastered and limewashed, mostly white though with some renewed colour and fragmentary traces of former colour. Ceiling beams are large and chamfered, some stopped, some supported by corbels, some heavily keyed, some limewashed. Most doorways have heavy double thickness doors comprised of vertical planks to the front and horizontal to the rear, some retaining their massive iron bolts. Barricade holes in the walls behind show where they could be reinforced by bars. Doorways are mainly Tudor-arched and chamfered, of stone or wood. Windows have deep splays and the main windows to each room incorporate stone seats. Only one of the quarry glazed window panels opens, in Colonel Prichard's study, the westernmost room on the second floor. A spiral metal fire escape was installed in the rear wing at the time of modern restoration.

The ground floor is entered through a porch with a flag floor, stone benches, ceiling, and a door with vertical fillets and hinges across the whole width. The entrance hall has a flag floor, a four-centred ceiling arch, two cupboard recesses in the gable end wall, access to the main timber staircase to the left and rear mural stairs to the rear, and a partition opening and doorway to the kitchen on the right. The kitchen has a fireplace with a wide wooden lintel and bake ovens. Under the rear window is a stone waste sluice. The servants' hall is accessed through a lobby beside the chimney incorporating front mural stairs, the fireplaces back to back. The servants' hall fireplace has a timber lintel and chamfered jambs, a wall recess, and a flag floor, with windows to two elevations. Steps up lead to a store doorway in the rear wing, with further mural steps and blocked steps adjacent. Stairs descend to the vaulted cellar.

From the entrance hall, quarter-turn stone steps with twisted wooden balusters, moulded rails and newel posts rise to the first floor landing which extends across the west end of the house. A four-centred arch, part of the 17th century remodelling, frames the staircase to the next floor. The great hall is entered through a wide doorway with the original door, studded, two boards wide and with long strap hinges terminating in fleur de lys. It has mural stairs to the front and two to the rear. The dais for the high table is lit by large windows to the front and rear. It backs onto the central chimney breast but there are now no first floor openings to this, and the stone Tudor-arched fireplace, with moulded jambs and shallow bracketed mantelpiece, painted blue with woad, is against the rear wall. A narrow doorway at the front leads to the room over the porch, used as the stewards' room, with windows on three sides, a garderobe, two mural staircases, and a small fireplace with a large Tudor-arched stone lintel. A lobby adjacent to the dais corresponding with that on the ground floor, with doors at each end, leads to the parlour. This has small-square panelling with a linenfold-type frieze. The depressed-arched chamfered stone fireplace in the rear wall is flanked by staircases either side with matching panelled doors, one mural, one leading to the rear bed chamber and one to a former mural staircase. The rear bed chamber is also panelled with a fluted frieze and billet-moulded cornice, with former access to a privy.

The main stairs to the second floor retain some original balusters, rail and newel post. A corridor runs along the rear elevation with a timber-framed lath and plaster partition to the main two interconnecting rooms to the front, which have square headed wooden doorways with moulded surrounds. In the rear wing is a further chamber with a garderobe off, lit by tiny windows. At the top of the stairs is a later partitioned windowless cheese room fronted by matching balusters with a stone chute adjacent. Over the porch is the steward's upper apartment, with access to the roof space which has arch-braced trusses and two rows of trenched purlins. The end room, described as a counting house, has stairs flanked by low walls rising in the centre of the floor and a fireplace in the gable end wall with a depressed Tudor arch and moulded jambs. At the rear a small opening gives access to the roof and pigeon loft over the stairs.