Tredegar House

Tredegar House is a predominantly post-Restoration house in Carolean style, exhibiting French and Dutch influence. Built around four sides of a quadrangle, it incorporates an earlier medieval hall in the south-west wing. The house is constructed of red brick in English bond with a slated roof and attics, with cellars beneath.

The roof was remodelled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when a shallower pitched and hipped roof replaced the original steeply pitched roof with cupola and balustrade. Semi-circular, sash-glazed dormers were added to all elevations at this time. An ornate, heavy carved wooden modillion cornice with scrolled acanthus detail runs around the building. All windows of the Restoration house are of cross-frame mullion and transom form with square leaded lights. The first-floor windows to the north-west and north-east have festooned aprons, while the ground-floor windows all have armorial broken pediments supporting the lion and griffin of the Morgans, forming a continuous band with a moulded limestone stringcourse.

The north-east elevation is symmetrical, comprising nine bays. It features a 19th-century ornate central door surround modelled on the front entrance, in the form of a baldachino with stepped, paired Salomonic columns supporting a heavy entablature with an armorial broken pediment over, flanked by hourglass balustrading. The door surround within the porch has a semi-circular stone pediment. Projecting hipped pavilions with central thermal dormers occupy either end. The north-west elevation matches the north-east but comprises eleven bays. The 17th-century central doorway is similar to that of the north-east elevation, with a broken armorial pediment overset with the arms of the Morgan family and the Morgan beasts to either side. A slate tablet carved with an acanthus cornice is set within the entablature. The doorway itself is round-headed with scrolled acanthus, a keystone and foliate spandrels, with Mannerist Salomonic columns to either side, each entwined with foliage and fruits and bearing composite capitals. The plinth is set with bunches of fruits to the front face.

The south-east elevation is largely 19th-century except for two windowed pavilions repeating the north-east elevation detail to the right-hand side. A central three-storey, four-bay range with a low hipped slated roof was rebuilt in the 19th century with rendered blind arcading to the ground floor. Two-light bathstone mullion windows set with small-paned sashes are located within this arcading. Similar shallower windows appear above, with stone mullion and transom windows to the top storey, copying 17th-century windows but omitting aprons; the bottom lights are set with small-paned hornless sashes. A cellar doorway occupies the left-hand end.

The south-west wing incorporates the earlier medieval range, constructed of limestone rubble with small mullioned windows. A rendered gable of the late 15th-century hall range projects forward at the extreme left-hand side, containing 19th-century fenestration with a two-light mullion window set within the gable and two long mullion and transom windows. The south-west elevation includes a three-windowed Restoration pavilion to the left-hand side, repeating the details of the north-east and north-west elevations. The extreme left ground-floor window has a flight of steps providing direct access to the garden from the Gilt Room. To the right is a single bay with a rendered gable on the north side of the 17th-century house, which merges with the remains of the late 15th-century house at this point. To the left is a gabled outshut of coursed rubble with dressed quoins, and to the right is the long lower hall range with an elevation of local coursed rubble. Two massive projecting lateral stacks (now capped) exist; a modern lean-to is situated at the right-hand end of the outshut, and 19th-century timber casements with square leaded lights are present. The central flagged courtyard has mostly rendered elevations with a single-storey slated lean-to canopy, supported on cast-iron stanchions running around the perimeter. A series of 19th-century mullioned windows with square hoodmoulds and early 19th-century sashes line the courtyard.

The house retains an exceptionally fine interior. The New Hall, originally the main entrance hall, dates from the 17th century and features full-height oak panelling with applied mouldings and a heavy cornice. Opposed doorways at either end have pedimented doorcases and panelled double doors. The ceiling was replaced in the 1950s. A 17th-century black marble fireplace with contrasting white marble keystones and a mantle shelf occupies one wall.

The Brown Room, formerly the State Dining Rooms, retains its original scheme of oak panelling with exceptional carved detailing. Impressive opposed doorcases are each surmounted by plaster busts of a Roman emperor or empress, surrounded by lavishly carved trophies of arms and musical instruments respectively. Matching pediments crown each bay of raised and fielded wall panelling. Each panel is separated by a pilaster of scrolling acanthus with clambering putti. Beneath is a frieze at dado level of scrolling foliage interwoven with serpents, lions, winged cherubs, grotesque gargoyles and heraldic shields. The frieze is broken by a series of grotesque heads. A white marble fireplace is surrounded with deeply carved flanking pilasters bearing Corinthian capitals. A raised and fielded panel above it features a broken pediment and festoons of flowers with a central cartouche of the Morgan Arms. An ornate plaster ceiling dates from 1845.

The Dining Room, formerly known as the New Parlour, is panelled with a scrolled acanthus frieze and features a 17th-century white marble bolection fire surround. A fine 19th-century plaster ceiling includes a central wreath of vines and neo-classical swags, smaller wreaths to either end, adjoined by cherubs flanking the Morgan arms.

The Gilt Room retains the only surviving 17th-century plaster ceiling, featuring a central wreath of vines and flowers containing a classical scene, with a scrolled acanthus frieze and mask in the manner of Inigo Jones. An impressive 17th-century scheme of painted and gilded panelling in the Continental Baroque style, grained to resemble walnut, occupies the walls; upper panels contain painted figures depicting the Seasons and the Virtues. A black marble bolection fire surround is surrounded by ornate gilded flanking pilasters with climbing cherubs set amidst fruiting vines and naturalistic foliage. The gilded carved overmantle features a central wreath flanked by tumbling lions and cherubs. Projecting marble rivergod corbels with flanking, tapering Salomonic columns bearing composite capitals and a pierced gilded frieze complete the composition.

The great staircase is typical of great houses of the late 17th century, with a pierced and carved scrolling acanthus balustrade and square newels carved with fruit and flowers in fielded panels to each face. Many first-floor rooms retain simple late 17th-century panelling and bolection fire surrounds.

The Masters' Dressing Room contains mid-17th-century small square panelling, probably re-set. Of particular interest is the Cedar Closet, a rare surviving example of a Baroque closet with cupboards formed by Salomonic columns with Corinthian pilasters and lion masks. A contemporary painted ceiling depicts cherubs with garlands.

Service rooms display strong 19th-century character. The Servants Hall retains an early Tudor fire surround and sub-medieval fenestration.