Llantarnam Abbey

Country House, Early to Mid-19th Century

Llantarnam Abbey is a substantial country house built of Bath stone ashlar with slate roofs behind coped gables and embattled parapets. The house has three storeys and consists of a main six-bay west range with a porch gable positioned right of centre. To the left of the porch are service rooms occupying three bays, and to the right is the great hall in two bays. A large cross-wing projects forward to the right (southwest), containing the entrance hall and drawing room, with the main staircase housed in a projecting gable on the south side, which forms the left side of the garden front.

The south garden front displays the stair gable on the left, followed by a set-back gable end of the main range containing another drawing room (at the upper end of the great hall), and then a low two-storey gable over the dining room. This last element forms the side of a two-storey triple-gabled rear east range that originally faced onto the service court. A veranda runs across the fronts of the dining room and drawing room. A large 20th-century addition running south obscures the stair gable, and another on the east obscures the triple-gabled rear facade. The service court to the rear east features a towered entry on the north side; the east and north ranges were raised a storey in 1950. The large 1957 chapel stands on the south side, occupying the site of a former conservatory.

The architectural details throughout are in a Tudor to Jacobean style, featuring leaded stone-mullion windows with flat hoodmoulds, battlements, and shaped gables.

West Entrance Front

The west entrance front has three principal features: an octagonal northwest corner turret to the left (added in 1834–6), a projecting porch gable roughly in the centre, and a large southwest wing to the right that comes forward and terminates in a three-sided facade. Battlements surmount a moulded string course, and there is a raised plinth. The three bays to the left of the porch have four-light windows with curved heads to the lights, except for the second floor left window, which has an oriel projection (an addition of 1834–6) with a corbelled base, chamfered sides, a parapet with a neo-Jacobean stepped curved gable featuring carved arms and a finial, and a cross-mullioned window. The left corner features a roughcast octagonal turret with an ashlar deep battered plinth, quoins, and a string course continued from the battlement string course. The blank top stage has a string course under a high parapet with eight half-round battlements and small octagonal finials between, surrounding a recessed ogee leaded dome with an iron vane. There is a single light to the ground floor west and top floor southwest.

The centre porch projection has a stepped straight-sided gable with battlemented sides and four large octagonal corner finials on angle corbels. The gable contains a hoodmoulded loop, and there is a two-storey canted oriel of one-two-one lights on each floor, the first floor windows being longer with a transom. The moulded segmental-pointed door has carved spandrels and a hoodmould. The sides of the porch bay have two-storey abutments chamfered at the front angles, with heavy chamfered set-offs at each floor and a single light to the ground floor. The door hoodmould is carved with "Hanc aedem restituit" and the spandrels bear shields, one marked "RB" and the other "1845". There are double doors. To the right of the porch, the former great hall has two two-storey three-light windows with transoms and two four-light windows above. The window heads are Tudor-arched, whereas those to the porch are square-headed and those left of the porch are curved-headed.

The cross-wing has two bays on its north side facing the courtyard. The left bay has a door and a four-light window on each floor above, while the right bay has a five-light window on each floor. All have hoodmoulds, with a single hoodmould spanning the two first floor windows. The doorway has sidelights and two top lights. The door bears an iron Gothic knocker with the Virgin and Child, dated 1516, though this is possibly a 19th-century imitation. The door surround is moulded with carved arms in a strapwork surround dated 1637, possibly a recarved genuine 17th-century piece.

The west end features a large ground floor bay with a four-light French window with top lights and labels dependent from a moulded string. There are octagonal corner turrets and finials. The two storeys above have canted corners, a four-light main window on each floor, and on the first floor a single light in each canted side, all with hoodmoulds. There is a moulded string and battlements, with octagonal corner finials as on the porch and a centre stepped parapet over a finely carved coat of arms. The parapet has concave curved sides and top with pierced strapwork cresting.

South Front

The south front is rendered with ashlar dressings. The left gable is visible above the 20th-century addition running south, coped with an ashlar octagonal finial. It originally had a mullion window on each floor. The parapet is returned around the east side and then south over one narrow bay to the left of the main south gable, with a single light to the first and second floors. The main gable forms the south end of the main range, with a parapet and a large shaped gable bearing an ashlar shield plaque and finial. The second floor has a four-light window with a hoodmould over a large two-storey ashlar canted bay of two-four-two lights, with double transoms to the first floor windows and single transoms to the ground floor French windows. The bay has a pierced parapet with angle finials and a centre curved-headed plaque with a squirrel finial, and heavy chamfered ashlar coping between floors. There are ashlar quoins to the right at second floor level.

To the right is the added dining room with a lower slate roof, parapet, and centre shaped gable. A blind loop appears in the gable over a ground floor four-light French window with top-lights. There is a 20th-century veranda. To the right is the 20th-century chapel on the site of the conservatory.

North End and Rear East

The north end of the main range is rendered with two-light mullion windows and features a two-storey lean-to with a first floor two-light window.

The rear east of the house is rendered with ashlar dressings. A moulded string course runs under the parapet with three stepped gables with finials. The left part is obscured by a 20th-century addition. There is a four-light upper window under the centre and right gables, a four-light first floor window with taller centre lights and a stepped hood aligned slightly right of the left window above, and a ground floor Tudor-arched door with side-lights and hood to the left, with a cross-window to the right. These are set within a three-bay timber veranda with Tudor detail returned east in four bays along a wall that links to the entrance gateway to the stable court. The veranda was originally open but is now glazed.

Stable Court Entrance

The stable entrance is an ashlar Tudor-style gatehouse with a three-bay front. A broad Tudor-arched centre carriage entry sits between Tudor-arched pedestrian entries with outer octagonal piers with moulded caps. Above is a parapet and a large centre stepped ogee-curved gable with copings dying into the front of a thin octagonal battlemented tower with louvred lights to four main faces. A continuous string course is carried around the outer piers, over the side entries, and then follows the curve of the main arch, stepped over a centre clock. Within the carriageway are side Tudor-arched openings matching the pedestrian entries and a centre fine pair of cast-iron large gates, like those in the front forecourt. The attached stable court runs east and then returns south; it was originally one-storey but was raised to two storeys. On the south side of the courtyard is the 1957 chapel.

Interior

The porch has canted corners, single-light stained glass armorial windows, two pointed niches, and encaustic tiles to the floor. Tudor traceried half-glazed double doors lead into the cross-passage. The passage has a plain black and white tile floor and a boarded ceiling, with double Tudor doors at the end to the service staircase and a service corridor running west with 22 bells on the corridor wall. Double Tudor doors on the right of the cross-passage open into the refectory.

The refectory was the great hall, originally ceiled at second floor level but now with a 20th-century suspended ceiling. (The great hall had a plain ceiling of whitewashed beams replaced in 1836 by a panelled oak ceiling, and there was also a musicians' gallery, but all are said to have been removed.) There is painted grained fielded panelling to the walls and a large blocked fireplace with thin octagonal shafts, a cornice with square rosettes, and a three-panel neo-Jacobean overmantel with four tapering strapwork piers, carved cartouches in the two outer panels, and a heavily ornamented frieze. The Tudor entrance doors have carved spandrels. Double Tudor doors at the lower end lead into the drawing room, with a Tudor doorway to the left into the dining room passage and to the right into the entrance hall, both with carved spandrels and double doors.

The drawing room beyond the refectory has French rococo-style decoration, though the underlying room has Tudor to Jacobean-style main elements. The Tudor arch from the refectory has double doors with applied rococo ornament. On the left wall is a marble 18th-century French fireplace with consoles at diagonal angles and a cast-iron firebasket and grate. There is rococo framing to wall panels, most ornate to the door to the entrance hall opposite, which is set in a Tudor-arched recess. Rococo applied ornament appears on the spandrel panels and within the recess around the door and to the door itself (which is plain six-panel to the other side). A large end-wall bay window has panelled shutters and ornate applied rococo ornament including openwork framing to a rectangular opening, mouldings to the soffit within, and an extremely elaborate openwork pelmet. The plaster ceiling has panels outlined by neo-Jacobean moulded bands, with an openwork centre pendant around a moulded rose.

The entrance hall has an oval ceiling panel in Jacobean style, two doors to the left (one in a deep reveal), and one to the right in a deep reveal. The right wall has a full-height carved wood fireplace surround in 18th-century style, possibly altered in the early 18th century. It features fluted pilasters, a cornice with scrollwork and shell, and in the panel framed by the pilasters, a large carved roundel with a stag's head and festooned drapes. There is a minimal bolection-moulded fireplace surround to a 20th-century radiator. Two plastered chamfered Tudor arches at the end, the left one connecting to a link to the 20th-century addition with a Tudor door with carved spandrels, the right one opening into the stair hall. A door on the right of the fireplace opens onto the second drawing room, which has a Jacobean-style ceiling with lozenge panels and winged cherub heads, strapwork in the cornice, Tudor-style niches in canted angles, and a Tudor-style fireplace with quatrefoil detached shafts and a fine cast-iron Gothic fire-basket. There are two six-panel doors.

The stair hall contains a large open well stair rising three floors in six flights with two landings, neo-Jacobean possibly incorporating original elements. It features large carved square newels with finials and pendants, carved closed string, heavy turned balusters, and moulded rails. There are panelled undersides matching dado panelling. A six-panel door to the right leads to a 1930s marble-lined bathroom with marble basin surrounds. There are two long windows with transoms and four stained glass windows with re-used glass: one with Charlemagne, a second with a shield, a third possibly 17th-century royal arms with lions of England and lilies of France, and a fourth with crowned arms and an "R" below.

From the refectory, a doorway to the left narrows within a reveal to a plain six-panel door to a passage running east. The passage has on the left (north) a six-panel door into a former serving room with a plain Tudor-arched fireplace, a half-glazed door to the service area, and a six-panel door to a cupboard. There is a bank of cupboards around the door and a Tudor arch to the exterior (now an internal courtyard). On the right (south) is a six-panel door in a panelled reveal into the dining room.

The dining room is Tudor-style but the carving is more mid-19th century with fine Gothic detail to panelled doors and brass door-fittings. The walls are panelled to the level of the door heads in three tiers with square quatrefoils to the middle panels; the upper panels have cusped heads. Heavy corbelled cornices with fretwork cresting and finials appear over each door. There is one door in the centre of the entry wall and two on the left end wall flanking a massive Tudor-arched sideboard recess with carved spandrels and panelled reveals. The upper end has a painted stone Tudor fireplace with pierced spandrels, half-octagonal piers, and a cusped lattice frieze. The inner fireplace frame has ogee shoulders and a fine Gothic cast-iron fire-basket. The overmantel has a panelled back under a shallow cove on chamfered posts, with a Tudor arch, carved spandrels, cresting, and finials. There is a rectangular frame to a French window of four lights with top lights and shutters in equal-sized panels on each side. The ceiling is in panels, the ribs on thin pierced cusped brackets. A deep panelled timber frieze below the ceiling has thin openwork brackets to the ribbed and panelled ceiling, the main panels with carved bosses to intersections. Three large square panels run down the centre: two with eight-pointed star ribbing and a centre one with square panels and a massive centre octagonal panelled pendant with a ball. The sides have six cusped smaller panels with armorial shields. There is a rectangular French window with top-lights and large shutters on each side.

The first floor landing has two six-panel doors, one in a deep reveal to the main bedroom and the other to the left to a marble-lined 1930s bathroom. The main bedroom (St Peters) in the cross-wing has a Jacobean-style plaster ceiling with flat ribs, a centre rose, and applied floral decoration. There is scrolled decoration to the cornice and a Tudor-style fireplace. A Tudor arch from the landing leads onto a smaller landing with two six-panel doors to bedrooms: St Josephs and St Annes. St Josephs has a neo-Jacobean ceiling rose, a cornice, and a plain Tudor fireplace. On the stair wall between the first and second floors hangs William Etty's very large painting of St Joan of Arc dedicating herself to France, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1847 and purchased for £2,500.

The attic floor has two six-panel doors and a marble-lined 1930s bathroom.