Bedwellty House

Bedwellty House is a largely 1901 building of stucco construction, appearing to imitate ashlar masonry. It has slate hipped roofs with deep eaves featuring paired brackets. The house is arranged around a main block with two deep rear wings. A rendered band runs along the first-floor sill level. The garden (south) elevation has three bays with a deep central bow. This bow contains three twelve-pane sashes on each floor, the ground-floor sashes being taller with a six-over-nine glazing pattern. The east front, serving as the entrance, is an eight-bay long elevation with twelve-paned sash windows. Parapet-roofed porches are located in the third bays from each end; the left porch has panelled doors above a flight of steps with curved flanking walls, and the right porch features a large sixteen-pane sash window facing east, with a door to the north and a narrow eight-pane sash to the south. A red granite plaque was erected in 1918 to commemorate Alderman Henry Bowen, who played a significant role in securing the house and park for public use. The west elevation has five bays with twelve-pane sashes, alongside a single-storey addition with a low-pitched roof and two matching sashes facing south. The north (rear) elevation shows the ends of the wings (the left wing being deeper), with an altered stair window in a recessed central section. The left wing has a twelve-pane sash to the first floor and similar sashes to its west side. The recessed centre has a tripartite sash window to the ground floor, and a former stair window above that has been altered to form a fire escape with a metal staircase. The right wing has a hipped projection to the left with two sashes above a door, and to the right is a tripartite four-over-twelve-over-four-pane sash, mirrored by a similar sash below, accompanied by a twelve-pane sash to the right. A single-storey service range is situated to the right, featuring a corrugated roof, a central door, a twelve-pane sash to the left, and an altered window to the right.

The interior features a wide staircase with decorative timber newels. Half-glazed doors within the main hall are accented with Art Nouveau leaded glass. A bow-fronted room on the south side boasts an early 19th-century ceiling, ornamented with an acanthus leaf cornice and repeated floral motifs to the frieze; a central square compartment incorporates a floral frieze and a centre rose. The council chamber, located in the southwest room, has a Jacobean-style plaster ceiling, with an acanthus cornice and a lozenge-shaped central frame, and an early 19th-century panelled dado. The rear wall of the council chamber includes an arched recess, with 1901 oak seating arranged in a cramped semi-circle facing a dais. A long ground-floor room on the northeast side has panelled window reveals.