Architecture of Wales is an overview of
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
from the
medieval period
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
to the present day, excluding
castles
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified ...
and
fortifications
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
,
ecclesiastical architecture and
industrial architecture Industrial architecture is the design and construction of buildings serving industry. Such buildings rose in importance with the Industrial Revolution, starting in Britain, and were some of the pioneering structures of modern architecture.
File: ...
. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
There is little evidence for domestic architecture predating the 14th century in Wales. Earliest architecture includes tower houses and first floor halls as well as early stone buildings. There are still some timber frame constructions that still exist that date back to the 12th century, the earliest being at Chepstow castle.
Earliest architecture
There is little evidence for domestic architecture in Wales that predates the 14th century. The earliest domestic buildings are the stone
tower houses
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...
, which may date back to about 1400, and various partially fortified first-floor hall houses such as
Candleston Castle and Eastington at
Rhoscrowther
Rhoscrowther ( cy, Rhoscrowdder) was a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales on the south shore of the Milford Haven Waterway. The placename is Welsh and perhaps means "crwth-player's moor". It is part of the c ...
in Pembrokeshire. Most of the Welsh examples are in the southern coastal border area of Wales and particularly in Pembrokeshire. So far no Welsh
timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
houses can be securely dated to before 1400, but
the description by the poet
Iolo Goch
Iolo Goch (c. 1320 – c. 1398) (meaning ''Iolo the Red'' in English) was a medieval Welsh bard who composed poems addressed to Owain Glyndŵr, among others.
Lineage
Iolo was the son of Ithel Goch ap Cynwrig ap Iorwerth Ddu ap Cynwrig Ddew ...
of
Owain Glyndŵr's house at
Sycharth
Sycharth is a motte and bailey castle and town in Llansilin, Powys, Wales. Until 1996 Sycharth was in the historic county of Denbighshire, but was then transferred to the Shire area of Montgomeryshire within Powys. Sycharth Castle was the b ...
shows that houses with timber
cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
framing were being built well before this date. It has been suggested that the devastation caused following Owain Glyndŵr's revolt may have caused the destruction of many earlier timber-framed houses in the
Welsh Marches
Tower houses and first floor halls
The distribution of tower houses in Wales has been discussed by both Hilling and Smith. Welsh tower houses, most of them built during the 14th and 15th centuries, were rectangular structures, consisting of two or more storeys, and are closely related to those in Ireland and Scotland. In 1976 Hilling produced a map (with listing) showing 17 examples. Further houses have been added by Suggett and it is possible that new examples will be recognised as being incorporated into existing buildings, as at Sandyhaven House in Pembrokeshire.
A further example is likely to be the prominent East Gate tower of
Powis Castle
Powis Castle ( cy, Castell Powys) is a British medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys. The seat of the Herbert family, Earls of Powis, the castle is known for its formal gardens and for its interiors, the fo ...
. The East Gate appears to have been a tower house, which had an entrance made through the vaulted undercroft, probably in the 17th century. An extra storey was added to the tower in 1815–1818 when
Sir Robert Smirke
Sir Robert Smirke (1 October 1780 – 18 April 1867) was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works, he designed several major ...
re-fenestrated the castle and added
Gothic Revival battlements. Also on the Welsh border, close to
Welshpool
Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...
is
Wattlesburgh. Many of the English tower houses, such as
Tattershall
Tattershall is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A153 Horncastle to Sleaford road, east from the point where that road crosses the River Witham. At its eastern end, Tatter ...
Castle or
Buckden Palace are slightly later and larger than the Welsh examples, and built of brick.
Apart from tower houses, there are a number of stone-built first floor hall buildings, where the hall is mounted over an
undercroft
An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open ...
. These include
Owain Glyndŵr's Parliament House in Machynlleth. Most examples are found in southern Wales with a cluster of buildings in
Pembrokeshire. The distribution of Tower and other houses in Wales with vaulted ceilings have been mapped and listed by Peter Smith.
They also occur as early merchant's houses in
Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest (, ; cy, Hwlffordd ) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire with a population of 14,596 in 2011. It is also a community, being the second most populous community in the county, ...
,
Pembroke and
Tenby
Tenby ( cy, Dinbych-y-pysgod, lit=fortlet of the fish) is both a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and a local government community.
Notable features include of sandy beaches and the Pembroke ...
. In some cases the hall is accessed by an outer stair, as is the case at Pentre Ifan Barn at
Nevern
Nevern ( cy, Nanhyfer) is both a parish and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The community includes the settlements of Felindre Farchog, Monington, Moylgrove and Bayvil. The small village lies in the Nevern valley near the Preseli Hills of ...
in Pembrokeshire. Another example is Eastington at
Rhoscrowther
Rhoscrowther ( cy, Rhoscrowdder) was a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales on the south shore of the Milford Haven Waterway. The placename is Welsh and perhaps means "crwth-player's moor". It is part of the c ...
, Pembrokeshire, which has been called a tower house, but is more correctly a first floor hall house, with an outside stair and
crenulation
In a geological context, crenulation or crenulation cleavage is a fabric formed in metamorphic rocks such as phyllite, schist and some gneiss by two or more stress directions causing the formation of the superimposed foliations.
Formation
Crenula ...
s with a side tower. Eastington belonged to the
Perrot family in the 15th century. There is a further complex of
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
stone houses at East Orchard,
St Athan
St Athan ( cy, Sain Tathan) is a village and community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales. The village and its parish church are dedicated to Saint Tathan. The church dates to the 13th–14th century, though an earlier ch ...
, in Glamorgan which belonged to the
de Berkerolles family in the 14th century. The group of buildings includes a first floor hall house with outside chimney, which also had a separate kitchen block.
Early stone buildings and transition from castles
![Internal view of Carew castle - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Internal_view_of_Carew_castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_314483.jpg)
From the later part of the 15th century, some of the Welsh castles underwent a transformation into grand houses. Some of these such as
Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle ( cy, Castell y Waun) is a Grade I listed castle located in Chirk, Wrexham County Borough, Wales.
History
The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Ed ...
and
Powis Castle
Powis Castle ( cy, Castell Powys) is a British medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys. The seat of the Herbert family, Earls of Powis, the castle is known for its formal gardens and for its interiors, the fo ...
have remained as houses, but others such as
Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle ( cy, Castell Rhaglan) is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th centuries, when the succ ...
in Monmouthshire and
Carew Castle
Carew Castle ( cy, Castell Caeriw) is a castle in the civil parish of Carew in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The Carew family take their name from this site and have owned the castle for more than 900 years. It is leased to the Pembrokeshire Coast Nati ...
in Pembrokeshire are ruins which can provide some idea of their grandeur. At Carew
Sir Rhys ap Thomas from about 1480 onwards undertook a grand re-modelling including an almost entire
re-fenestration with straight headed windows. This was continued after 1558 by
Sir John Perrot, who replaced the north range with a splendid frontage with a long gallery at the second floor level in the fashion of
Robert Smythson
Robert Smythson (1535 – 15 October 1614) was an English architect. Smythson designed a number of notable houses during the Elizabethan era. Little is known about his birth and upbringing—his first mention in historical records comes in 155 ...
.
An even more impressive residence on palatial scale was
Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle ( cy, Castell Rhaglan) is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th centuries, when the succ ...
. The earliest building is the freestanding hexagonal great tower, which is surrounded by a moat. It was probably built by
Sir William ap Thomas before 1445. It would have served the function of a strongly defended tower house. This was followed in 1461–1469 by the enlargement of the castle by Sir William Herbert with a gatehouse to the NE and to the SW a range of sumptuously decorated state apartments. Further apartment ranges were built round the SW court. The two sets of apartments were approached by an impressive main staircase. From about 1549 to 1559 these buildings were extended, by
William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester
William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, KG (c. 1526/1527 – 21 February 1589) was an English courtier, nobleman, and politician. He was the eldest son of Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester and his second wife Elizabeth Browne.
Earl of Wo ...
, particularly around the "Pitched Stone" Court and also with the long-gallery with its elaborately decorated
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
fireplaces. The slighting of the castle in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
and its subsequent partial demolition make it hard to appreciate Raglan as one of the major domestic buildings of Wales.
Another early house connected with the Herbert family was
Tretower Court in
Breconshire
, image_flag=
, HQ= Brecon
, Government= Brecknockshire County Council (1889-1974)
, Origin= Brycheiniog
, Status=
, Start= 1535
, End= ...
. It was here that
William Herbert settled his step brother Roger Vaughan who built a house, which was to develop round a courtyard and continued being added to until the 17th century. Recently the arched braced truss roof of the great hall has been dated by
Dendrochronology to c. 1455.
Timber-framed construction
Timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
houses in Wales are concentrated particularly in the historic counties of
Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
and
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
and mainly in areas which lack good building stone but have an abundance of ancient woodland that provided the timber for construction. The
Welsh Poets
Welsh poetry refers to poetry of the Welsh people or nation. This includes poetry written in Welsh, poetry written in English by Welsh or Wales based poets, poetry written in Wales in other languages or poetry by Welsh poets around the world.
...
often provide good descriptions of these early houses from the 14th century onwards, when praising their patrons. This is the case of
Iolo Goch
Iolo Goch (c. 1320 – c. 1398) (meaning ''Iolo the Red'' in English) was a medieval Welsh bard who composed poems addressed to Owain Glyndŵr, among others.
Lineage
Iolo was the son of Ithel Goch ap Cynwrig ap Iorwerth Ddu ap Cynwrig Ddew ...
's description of Owain Glyndŵr's house at
Sycharth
Sycharth is a motte and bailey castle and town in Llansilin, Powys, Wales. Until 1996 Sycharth was in the historic county of Denbighshire, but was then transferred to the Shire area of Montgomeryshire within Powys. Sycharth Castle was the b ...
in the late 14th century, when the poet mentioned that the house was constructed with
cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
s and had a slate roof.
Dendrochronology and the dating of Welsh houses
Since the 1990s the availability of dates provided by tree-ring dating or
dendrochronology has revolutionised the study of early buildings in Wales and is particularly relevant for timber-framed buildings. The earliest tree ring date associated with a building in Wales is a date commissioned by
CADW for a door at
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle ( cy, Castell Cas-gwent) at Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain. Located above cliffs on the River Wye, construction began in 1067 under the instruction of the Norma ...
which was made from wood felled between 1159 and 1189.
![Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire 34](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Chepstow_Castle%2C_Monmouthshire_34.JPG)
A complete listing of tree ring dates for Wales is maintained by the Vernacular Architecture Group at the Archaeological Dataservice and slightly over 200 samples have been taken, though not all have provided positive results. The scheme has largely been sponsored by the
in conjunction with the Dating Welsh Houses Group (DOWG). The greatest number of dates are available from
Merionethshire
, HQ= Dolgellau
, Government= Merionethshire County Council (1889-1974)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start= 1284
, End=
, Code= MER
, CodeName= ...
,
Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
and
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
, areas which have some of the greatest concentrations of timber-framed houses. Other early dates are c. 1250 for timbers from the Chapter House at
Brecon Cathedral
Brecon Cathedral ( cy, Eglwys Gadeiriol Aberhonddu), in the town of Brecon, Powys, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon in the Church in Wales and seat of the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon. Previously the church of Brecon Priory ...
and 1386 for the bell frame in Tower of
St David's Cathedral. The earliest domestic building to be dated by dendrochronology is Hafodygarreg at
Erwood
Erwood ( cy, Erwyd) is a village and community lying beside the River Wye, on the A470 road some 6 miles south-east of Builth Wells in Powys, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 429. It is in the historic county o ...
, in
Breconshire
, image_flag=
, HQ= Brecon
, Government= Brecknockshire County Council (1889-1974)
, Origin= Brycheiniog
, Status=
, Start= 1535
, End= ...
of 1402. Many dates have been obtained for buildings after this, possibly suggesting that there was a great re-building in Wales after the devastation caused by Owain Glyndŵr's uprising. The evidence of dendrochronology clearly shows that in the 15th. and first half of the 16th. centuries
Hall houses were the standard plan for domestic buildings. The great majority of
timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
houses were built with
cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
trusses, while a few higher status houses were constructed with aisled-trusses. Change came in the mid-16th century when houses became two or more storeyed. Regional forms of house evolve and some are now stone built. The earliest stone-built "Snowdonia House", with an upper storey, is Tyn Llan at
Gwyddelwern, which has been shown by dendrochronology to date from 1519 to 1537.
Aisled hall houses
![Althrey Hall, Bangor on Dee 1794](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Althrey_Hall%2C_Bangor_on_Dee_1794.png)
Aisled-framed
hall houses have one or more rows of interior posts. These interior posts typically carry more structural load than the posts in the exterior walls. Aisled Hall houses are early in the sequence of timber-framed houses and were high status dwellings. In his study of these houses Peter Smith recorded 20 examples of this construction, mainly in NE Wales and particularly in
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
.
In some cases such as
Plas Uchaf at
Llangar
Llangar is a former civil parish in Denbighshire in Wales, south west of Corwen, its post town, and north east of Bala. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Alwen and Dee, and includes the small hamlets of Bryn, Cymer, and Gwyn ...
near Corwen, which has now been restored by the
Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust is a British architectural conservation, building conservation charitable organization, charity, founded in 1965 by John Smith (Conservative politician), Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or ...
, the roof was supported by both
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
and
cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
trusses. Plas Cadogan at
Esclusham near Wrexham survived as the finest example of a Welsh aisled house with an open hall up to roof. Despite being a Grade I listed building it was demolished in 1967.
![Tŷ Mawr, Castle Caereinion - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/T%C5%B7_Mawr%2C_Castle_Caereinion_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1571886.jpg)
Aisled hall houses in Wales have been dated by dendrochronology to the 15th century, though examples in England are often earlier. Some of the aisled houses such as the Upper House at
Painscastle
Painscastle (Welsh: ''Castell-paen'') is a village and community in Powys (formerly Radnorshire), Wales which takes its name from the castle at its heart. It lies between Builth and Hay-on-Wye, approximately 3 miles from the Wales-England borde ...
in Radnorshire or Althrey Hall in
Maelor Saesneg
English Maelor ( cy, Maelor Saesneg) comprises one half of the Maelor region on the Welsh side of the Wales-England border, being the area of the Maelor east of the River Dee. The region has changed counties several times, previously being part ...
had box-framed wings added to provide far greater accommodation and formed an H-shaped plan for the building. Althrey Hall was built in the early C16 and was described by
John Leland as "a fair house" in the 1530s. It is thought that it was built for Richard ap Howel. The double portrait wallpainting surviving in the first floor of mid-16th-century date is likely to represent Richard's son, Elis ap Richard (died 1558), with his bride Jane Hanmer. An example of an aisled hall house that has been studied in great detail and fully restored is
Ty Mawr, Castle Caereinion in Montgomeryshire. This house has been dated to 1460 by dendrochronology and was owned by the Alo ap Rhiwallon family (who had settled there in the 13th century), and the builder of Tŷ Mawr was probably Dafydd ap Gwilym, the great-great-grandson of Alo ap Rhiwallon.
Cruck construction
![Cruck Barn at Ty-coch 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Cruck_Barn_at_Ty-coch_03.jpg)
The Vernacular Architecture Group currently has records of 1002 historic
cruck framed buildings in Wales Of these 520 are in
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
and by far the greatest concentration are in the historic county of
Radnorshire with 318 examples and
Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
with 161. The praise poetry of
Iolo Goch
Iolo Goch (c. 1320 – c. 1398) (meaning ''Iolo the Red'' in English) was a medieval Welsh bard who composed poems addressed to Owain Glyndŵr, among others.
Lineage
Iolo was the son of Ithel Goch ap Cynwrig ap Iorwerth Ddu ap Cynwrig Ddew ...
describing Owain Glyndŵr's houses at
Sycharth
Sycharth is a motte and bailey castle and town in Llansilin, Powys, Wales. Until 1996 Sycharth was in the historic county of Denbighshire, but was then transferred to the Shire area of Montgomeryshire within Powys. Sycharth Castle was the b ...
indicate that cruck construction was well established in 14th-century Wales. The earliest cruck framed house to be dated so far is Hafodygarreg at
Erwood
Erwood ( cy, Erwyd) is a village and community lying beside the River Wye, on the A470 road some 6 miles south-east of Builth Wells in Powys, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 429. It is in the historic county o ...
in Breconshire, which has a date of 1402. These cruck buildings are part of the
Hall-house
The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples we ...
tradition with central fireplaces and the smoke escaping through vents in the roof. Some of the cruck framed houses were extended by adding wings, providing an H-shaped layout. With the introduction of
box framed and
jettied
Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the avail ...
houses in the mid-15th century, the use of crucks gradually went out of fashion. At this time many cruck houses were converted into barns and evidence for fireplaces and chimney stacks stripped. A good example of a house that has been converted into a barn, possibly as late as the 18th century is at
Ty-coch Llangynhafal, Denbighshire. This has recently been restored by Denbighshire County Council and it has been dated to 1430. There are many instances in
Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
where more elaborate timber framed farmhouses are associated on the same site with earlier houses that were converted into barns. At Rhyd y Carw in
Trefeglwys
Trefeglwys is a village and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Montgomeryshire.
The name derives from the Welsh language ''tref'' 'township' and ''eglwys'' 'church'. The village sits on the Afon Trannon. There are many ...
the original cruck framed hall house dated to about 1525 while nearby stands the impressively decorated box-framed Rhydycarw farmhouse dating from the earlier part of the 17th century.
Regional types of sub-medieval houses
![St Fagans, Cardiff CF5, UK - panoramio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/St_Fagans%2C_Cardiff_CF5%2C_UK_-_panoramio.jpg)
The idea of the Sub-Medieval House in Wales was first developed by
Sir Cyril Fox and
Lord Raglan
Baron Raglan, of Raglan in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 October 1852 for the military commander Lord FitzRoy Somerset, chiefly remembered as commander of the British troops ...
in their study of the
Vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
architecture of Monmouthshire, ''
Monmouthshire Houses
''Monmouthshire Houses: A Study of Building Techniques and Smaller House-Plans in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries'' is a study of buildings within the county of Monmouthshire written by Sir Cyril Fox and Lord Raglan and published by the Na ...
'', which was published between 1951 and 1954. Fox and Raglan recognised that around 1550 a great change occurred in Welsh House building. While the earlier Medieval traditions of constructing with
cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
s and
timber framing
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
continued, many new features start to appear in domestic architecture. Chimneys start to be inserted into the halls of houses instead of the open fireplaces and chimney stacks may either be built on the gable ends of houses or as ''lateral chimneys'' on the side walls. At the same time timber framed and stone houses start to be built with one and even more
storeys
A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US).
Th ...
.
Box framing starts to supplant the older timber framing with crucks and in order to gain more floor space at the upper levels these floors were
jettied
Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the avail ...
out from the building line. Fox and Raglan considered that in Monmouthshire, the building of "Sub-Medieval" houses continued until around 1620.
![Llancaiach Fawr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Llancaiach_Fawr.jpg)
An excellent example of a ''Sub Medieval'' house is
Llancaeach-Fawr at
Gelligaer
Gelligaer ( cy, Gelli-gaer ) is a community in the County Borough of Caerphilly, Wales, in the Rhymney River valley. As well as the village of Gelligaer, the community also includes the small towns of Hengoed and Ystrad Mynach. The population ...
in Glamorgan.
John Newman comments that in contrast with other buildings of the period "it is a delight to find one so nearly perfectly preserved". It is of three storeys and largely of a single build period. It was built by either Richard ap Lewis or his son David ap Richard (Prichard), who was resident here in the 1530s. The windows emphasise the importance of the first floor rooms.
The ideas of Fox and Raglan were developed by
Peter Smith in his study of ''Houses of the Welsh Countryside'', first published in 1975 and re-issued as an enlarged addition in 1988. Smith classifies five main types of "Sub-Medieval" house based on the position of the chimney or chimneys and the position of the main entrance door. These groups are:
* Type A, Houses with Lateral Chimney heating the hall of the house or end gable houses. These occur in northern and southern areas of Wales but rarely in the central areas. The end gable houses include the Snowdonia Houses of north Wales
* Type B. Houses with the chimney backing on the entry. The chimneys are placed centrally in the house and the entrance may lead into a screens passage at the back of the fireplace.
* Type C. The ''Lobby Entrance House'' where the fireplace is centrally placed and the entrance is by a door into a small lobby area placed against the chimney stack. Those houses are timber framed and occur mainly in Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Denbighshire. The ''Severn Valley'' houses of Montgomeryshire are within this grouping.
* Type D. Similar to the ''Lobby Entry Houses'' but lack the double-backed fireplaces and have an additional end gable. There are a few houses of this type in N.E. Wales, but otherwise they occur as stone built houses in Glamorgan.
* Type H. This is a gable entry house, similar to type B, but the entry is away from the gable fireplace. This type only occurs in
Glamorgan and
Monmouthshire.
Long houses and the long house controversy
![Cilewent farmhouse, St Fagans](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Cilewent_farmhouse%2C_St_Fagans.jpg)
A good example of a long house is Cilewent Farmhouse from Llansanffraid Cwmteuddwr, nr
Rhayader
Rhayader (; cy, Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is locate ...
,
Radnorshire which has been reconstructed at
St Fagans. This is a ''long-house'', with cattle being accommodated at one end and humans at the other, with a passageway between the two parts. This type of farmhouse was once common in mid- and south Wales. This cruck and timber-framed house was originally built about 1470 as an open
hall house. The original timber walls were rebuilt in stone in 1734, with the date being carved on the head of the entrance door frame. All that remains of the original house are the two cruck trusses in the cow house and the timber-framed partition between the cow house and the dwelling. Another re-construction at
St Fagans is Hendre'r-ywydd Uchaf Farmhouse from
Llangynhafal in Denbighshire. This a cruck-framed hall-house
dendrochronologically dated to 1508 and typical of the better class of Welsh farmhouse in the late Middle Ages. The building is divided into five bays, the lower two used for housing for cattle and horses, the centre bay serving as a work-room and the upper two comprising the open hall and a bedroom. The outside walls are timber-framed, the panels being in-filled with wattle and daubed with clay. Both the daubed panels and the timber work are limewashed as was common in the Middle Ages. The open hearth is placed in the centre of the hall, smoke from the fire escaping through the roof and the unglazed windows. Excavations in 2003 by Bill Britnell at Tŷ Draw at
Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr
Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr, occasionally referred to as Llanarmon Fach, is an isolated rural parish in Powys, Wales. It was formerly in Denbighshire, and from 1974 to 1996 was in the county of Clwyd. It measures and has a population of 40.
The scat ...
in north Powys have done much to elucidate the relationship of the cow house with the hall of a longhouse. This is a classic three unit hall house of longhouse type. It has an open hall of two bays set between inner and outer rooms, the outer room acting as a cow
byre
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; th ...
. Dendrochrononology on the roof
purlins
A purlin (or historically purline, purloyne, purling, perling) is a longitudinal, horizontal, structural member in a roof. In traditional timber framing there are three basic types of purlin: purlin plate, principal purlin, and common purlin.
Pu ...
suggest that Tŷ Draw was completed shortly after 1479–80
and it has been possible to suggest from this dating that the house was built by Hywel ap Rees.
[ In the byre area, which was accessed by door, a series of small post holes were noted, that have been interpreted as wickerwork hurdles. These would have provided stalls for cattle which were overwintered from November to March each year. Similar evidence for stalls for cattle have been found at Tŷ Mawr and Tyddyn Llwydion in ]Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
.
The idea of the "Longhouse" or "Tŷ-hir" was first discussed by Iorwerth Peate
Iorwerth Peate, also known as Cyfeiliog, (27 February 1901 – 19 October 1982) was a Welsh poet and scholar, best known as the founder, along with Cyril Fox, of St Fagans National History Museum.
Born in Llanbrynmair into a family of carpent ...
in his pioneering book ''The Welsh House'' (1940). This was the description of a house where both people and beasts were housed together under the same roof, as portrayed in the Medieval Welsh poem the Dream of Rhonabwy. Peate thought that the Welsh Longhouse had had a long history and that it occurred in all parts of Wales. This view was challenged by Peter Smith, who had gathered a vast amount of information in his ''Houses of the Welsh Countryside'', published in 1975. This showed that longhouses were rarely "one-phase" buildings and often the byre had been added onto the house. This showed that longhouses were not an upland phenomenon and are noticeably absent from Gwynedd where "Snowdonia Houses" are detached from their farm buildings. The longhouses occur particularly in Ceredigion, Radnorshire and North Powys. Suggett uses the example of Nannerth-ganol near Rhayader
Rhayader (; cy, Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is locate ...
to illustrate the close connection of the family who lived in this house with cattle rustling, which was particularly prevalent in mid-Wales in the Elizabethan period.
Box framing
A good example of box framing is of this is Plas yn Pentre at Trevor
Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish la ...
near Wrexham. On the dissolution of the abbey in 1536 it came into the possession of the High Sheriff of Denbighshire, Ieuan Edwards. His grandson partially re-built the house in 1634. His initials and the date can be seen carved into the exterior of the west gable.
The largest and most impressive of these houses was Lymore, Montgomery, built by Edward, third Lord Herbert of Chirbury, c. 1675 (date on a gable finial but not finished until 1677, a year before Lord Herbert's death) The house had a close-studded frontage, with an open three-bay Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
loggia
In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
on the ground floor, six gables (later reduced to three), and, rising from the centre, a pyramid-roofed look-out tower or Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
* Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...
. While the main house was built in timber, there was extensive use of brick for the inner courtyard and service wings. The hall was not used as the family seat for long, and for most of its existence it was either unoccupied or used by agents of the estate. It was, however, kept in good order and in 1909 the Prince of Wales, who was shooting in the surrounding parkland, was entertained here. In August 1921 the floor collapsed during a Bazaar Sale, and the hall was finally demolished in 1931.
Pembrokeshire houses with round chimney stacks
These form an unusual group of ''Sub-Medieval'' Houses which were studied by E.L Barnwell in 1867–1868 and by J Romilly Allen in 1902. Characteristically these are a form of Hall house with a lateral chimney stack, which may be either round or conical. Typically these chimneys have a lean-to outshoot on either side of the stack, with one of these outshoots acting as a porch. Cottages and houses with these chimneys were mapped by Peter Smith and he showed that they form two groups, one around St Davids and the other to the south of Pembroke. There is a good example of one of these chimneys on the Merchants House, Tenby. Houses with very similar plans and lateral outshoots, but with square chimneys, also cluster on the Gower Peninsula
Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
Lobby entrance and Severn Valley houses
The timber-framed lobby entrance house emerged in the mid-16th century in Mid Wales. The majority of these houses occur in Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
with outliers in Radnorshire and Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
. The chimney in these houses is generally in the middle of the house. There is no cross passage, unlike the Longhouses and the Snowdonia Houses and instead the main doorway opens into a small lobby on the side of the fireplace. The chimney generally stands between the kitchen and the parlour
A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
. The key feature of these houses is the emphasis placed on the parlour, which takes the place of a hall.
A development of this are the ''Severn Valley Houses'', which particularly congregate along the Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
Valley in Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
, especially between Newtown and Welshpool
Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...
. A typical feature of the Severn Valley houses are the elaborate entry porches to the houses which often have decorative scroll brackets supporting a jettied upper story. These porches often are added features to an earlier timber-framed house and lead directly into a lobby entrance. A well known example of the Severn Valley type, which has added timber framed wings to the house is Trewern Hall
Trewern Hall or Trewern Farmhouse is a country house in Montgomeryshire, Wales, close to the Shropshire border. It is on a spur in the floodplain of the River Severn, in the Trewern community area of what is now Powys, to the north of the A458 r ...
near Welshpool. A house which has been dated by dendrochronology is Lower Cil on the outskirts of Berriew
Berriew ( cy, Aberriw) is a village and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It is on the Montgomeryshire Canal and the Afon Rhiw, near the confluence (Welsh: ''aber'') with the River Severn (Welsh: Afon Hafren)
at , 79 miles (128 k ...
. This is a well-preserved farmhouse. Its left side is 16th-century (the square framing under the render was felled in 1583), probably a hall-house enlarged when the close-studded taller right end was rebuilt in the early 17th century to provide a new parlour and porch, both slightly jettied. The porch has open sides with turned rails, and the original inner door. The remodelling included the typical Severn Valley lobby-entry central chimney, with its triple-moulded brick stacks.
Snowdonia houses
Snowdonia houses have recently been the subject of considerable study by the and the Dating Old Welsh Houses Group. These houses are typical of the ''Sub Medieval'' houses appearing in Wales in the earlier part the 16th century, which are a development from the Hall House. Characteristically Snowdonia Houses are now built on a vertical rather than horizontal plan with two or more storeys and lateral chimney stacks set against the end gables. The older cruck construction is now replaced with roofs constructed of trusses and purlins
A purlin (or historically purline, purloyne, purling, perling) is a longitudinal, horizontal, structural member in a roof. In traditional timber framing there are three basic types of purlin: purlin plate, principal purlin, and common purlin.
Pu ...
supported on stone walls. The centrally placed doorway may now be set under a massive stone cyclopean arch as at Faenol Fawr, Bodelwyddan
Faenol Fawr is an Elizabethan ‘H’ plan mansion with crow stepped gables. The house is situated immediately to the north of Glan Clwyd Hospital in the parish of Bodelwyddan in the historic county of Flintshire, but now in Denbighshire. It w ...
or else under a fan arch of stone slabs as at Y Garreg Fawr. Y Garreg Fawr from Waenfawr in Caernarfonshire has been re-constructed at St Fagans and has been dated to 1544
The earliest example of a Snowdonia House dated by dendrochronology is Dugoed at Penmachno
Penmachno is a village in the isolated upland Machno valley, south of Betws-y-Coed in the county of Conwy, North Wales. The B4406 road runs through part of the village. The village is at the confluence of the Glasgwm and Machno rivers. It has ...
. This has been dated to 1516–1517. The nearby Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant
Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant is a house located in the Wybrnant Valley, in the community of Bro Machno, near Betws-y-Coed in Conwy County Borough, North Wales. It was the birthplace of Bishop William Morgan, first translator of the whole Bible into Welsh. ...
, the birthplace of William Morgan, translator of the bible into Welsh, has been dated to 1565, but there is evidence that this was the re-building of an earlier cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
hall house of around 1500. The construction of the typical Snowdonia Houses continued into the 17th century, as at Cymbrychan at Llanfair which is dated 1612.
The distribution of Snowdonia type houses extends into Aberconway and Caernarfonshire
, HQ= County Hall, Caernarfon
, Map=
, Image= Flag
, Motto= Cadernid Gwynedd (The strength of Gwynedd)
, year_start=
, Arms= ''Coat of arms of Caerna ...
. A good example of this type of house is the smaller house which stands immediately next to the mansion at Faenol Fawr near St Asaph
St Asaph (; cy, Llanelwy "church on the Elwy") is a city and community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 3,355, making it the second-smallest city in Britain in terms of population and urban ...
. This is likely to be early 16th century in date. It appears to have been a two storied, hall house, with cruck framing and stone walls. The evidence for the cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
roof is from a photograph by the Rev N W Watson, and this roof may still be in place. ''Cyclopean'' doorways have been studied by Peter Smith.
These massive arched stone door lintels were introduced at a time, probably around 1600, when stone walling was replacing timber framing and may encase an earlier timber structure. A much altered "post and panel" screens passage with three entrances, now in the hall area of the main house, is likely to have been removed from the hall in the older house. This screens passage would have been associated with the finely moulded beams in the older house. These moulded beams can be compared with similar beams at Maesycastell in Caernarvonshire and Perthywig in Denbighshire which are illustrated by Smith
Another example is Gilar in Pentrefoelas, presumably built by Cadwaladr ap Maurice after receiving a substantial grant of land from Henry VIII in 1545–1546
Renaissance houses
Renaissance architectural styles and influences start appearing in the eastern corners of Wales during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In Glamorgan an early example of Renaissance alteration was made to the facade of the outer gatehouse of the now ruined Old Beaupre, near Cowbridge
Cowbridge ( cy, Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff.
The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council.
A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for ...
in 1580. This was followed by the more striking Porch in the inner courtyard of 1600 at Old Beaupre.
A later and more developed example of Renaissance architecture is Ruperra Castle
Ruperra Castle or Rhiwperra Castle is a Grade II* Listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, situated in Lower Machen in the county borough of Caerphilly, Wales. It was built in 1626, now it is in a ruined condition.
History
Built in 1 ...
, built in 1628 for the Welshman Sir Thomas Morgan and the design ideas may originate from his travels on the Continent. The castle is rectangular in layout with round towers at the corners. A feature of Ruperra is the rectangular three light windows with drip moulds, with the centre light higher than the side lights. These windows appear on other Welsh Renaissance houses. The Castle is rectangular with round corner towers and a Porch with a classical doorway. As the result of a fire in 1941 it now stands partly ruined. In the north-east of Wales a very important surviving Renaissance house was Plas Teg near Mold
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...
. Rectangular in form with rectangular corner towers it is the typical form of Renaissance house seen over much of Europe. A close parallel would be the first phase (unfinished) of Drumlanrig Castle
Drumlanrig Castle is situated on the Queensberry Estate in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The category A listed castle is the Dumfriesshire home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry. It is open to the public at set times.
Co ...
in Scotland. Another important Renaissance house, demolished in 1973, was Brymbo Hall near Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
. The house was built for John Griffith in 1625 and a Baroque wing was added later in that century. The core of the house was in brick with a fine classical doorway. Fortunately a watercolour by John Ingleby in the National Library of Wales records this building. A further example of the Renaissance classicism was the Banqueting Hall at Margam Abbey
Margam Abbey ( cy, Abaty Margam) was a Cistercian monastery, located in the village of Margam, a suburb of modern Port Talbot in Wales.
History
The abbey was founded in 1147 as a daughter house of Clairvaux by Robert, Earl of Gloucester ...
. This was recorded by Thomas Dineley in 1684, but only the stone facade now remains, erected in its present position in 1835. It is three bays wide with fluted Ionic columns carrying richly detailed entablatures.
Major houses in north Wales
The major houses built in the 16th and earlier 17th centuries are often difficult to classify on stylistic grounds. The Welsh families who built them often were less interested in the outside display of architectural features and more interested in the interior decoration, particularly elaborate plasterwork, painted walls and elaborately carved woodwork with armorials commemorating their family descent. Many of these houses such as Bodysgallen, which was started in 1620 and Mostyn Hall
Mostyn Hall is a large house standing in 25 acres (10 hectares) of garden near the village of Mostyn, Flintshire, Wales. It is designated by Cadw as a Grade I listed building.
History
It is not known for how long a building has been presen ...
are an amalgamation of different styles of architecture over many years. The front is of 1631–1632. In the case of Nercwys
Nercwys is a rural village and community in Flintshire, Wales, which is surrounded by open countryside. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 585. The older, Anglicised spelling of Nerquis can sometimes be found. It has a small ...
Hall near Mold it is known that the contractor who built the Hall was Raffe Booth of Chester and the plans for the house were drawn up by his carpenter Evan Jones. The contract for the building is 1637 and the datestone on the building is 1637.
The influence of English architectural fashion can also be seen in Hen Blas, at Llanasa in Flintshire. Built in 1645 at the start of the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
it is built of the local stone with ashlar facing. As Edward Hubbard remarks[.]
Another notable house is Gloddaeth near Llandudno, which retains its hall still up the original hammer-beam roof and also a painted dais
A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)[dais]
in the Random House Dictionary< ...
above the high table at the end of the hall.
The Old Hall at Y Faenol (Y Vaynol), Port Dinorwic
Y Felinheli (), formerly known in English as Port Dinorwic, is a village and community beside the Menai Strait ( cy, Y Fenai or ''Afon Menai'') between Bangor and Caernarfon in Gwynedd, northwest Wales.
History
Toponymy
Etymologically, it ...
is an E-shaped building consisting of low 16th-century blocks with a more ornate right wing, which was probably added in the 1660s by Sir Griffith Williams. This has a crow stepped gable.
Plas Mawr
Plas Mawr ( en, Great Hall) is an Elizabethan townhouse in Conwy, North Wales, dating from the 16th century. The property was built by Robert Wynn, a member of the local gentry, following his marriage to his first wife, Dorothy Griffith. Plas ...
in Conwy
Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy on ...
is one of the most impressive surviving courtyard houses of this period, which has recently been restored by Cadw. An Elizabethan townhouse, dating from the 16th century. The property was built by Robert Wynn, a member of the local gentry, following his marriage to his first wife, Dorothy Griffith. Plas Mawr occupied a plot of land off Conwy's High Street and was constructed in three phases between 1576 and 1585 at a total cost of around £800.
There three phases of house construction – 1576–77, 1580 and 1585 – were probably overseen by several different senior craftsmen, possibly working to an original plan determined by a surveyor or mason working at the English royal court. Judging by the details of the roof design, a single master carpenter may have been used for all three parts of the build.
Plasterwork, painted interiors and woodwork
At Plas Mawr
Plas Mawr ( en, Great Hall) is an Elizabethan townhouse in Conwy, North Wales, dating from the 16th century. The property was built by Robert Wynn, a member of the local gentry, following his marriage to his first wife, Dorothy Griffith. Plas ...
seven rooms still possess elements of their original plasterwork, which Peter Smith has described as "the most perfect and the most complete memorial to Elizabethan Wales", and their original wooden carved panels that line the walls. The plasterwork includes extensive heraldry, badges and symbols: in the upper north range alone, 22 different heraldic emblems are moulded into the ceilings and walls. The gatehouse shows the royal arms, as do the great chamber and the parlour, probably because they were intended to host senior guests. The badges of numerous monarchs are included throughout the house, including those of Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV and Henry VII. The badges of other prominent nobles, such as Robert Dudley, are also featured in the house.
The plasterwork in the parlour displays the arms of Robert Wynn himself, and the brewhouse shows the combined arms of the Wynn and Griffith families, which are generally given equal prominence throughout the house. Robert Wynn's arms are most prominent in the hall and the bedchambers, where the royal arms are smaller and less prominent.[ In the 16th century, Wynn's heraldry would probably have been echoed in the furnishings of the house, including the fabrics, cups and silverware. The plasterwork also incorporates a number of classical themes, but these are not as well executed as the badges and other emblems: Turner describes them as "rather token additions", and Smith considers this part of the decoration to be "naive".
At Maenan Hall near ]Llanrwst
Llanrwst ('church or parish of Saint Grwst'; ) is a market town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy, in Conwy County Borough, Wales, and the historic county of Denbighshire. It developed round the wool trade and became known als ...
, there is splendid plaster work which is dated 1582 and, at Portmeirion Town Hall, Clough Williams-Ellis
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...
was able to preserve the mid-17th-century plaster ceiling from Emral Hall in Maelor Gymraeg.
Earlier brick-built houses of the late 16th and 17th centuries
Sir Richard Clough built Bachegraig, one of the earliest brick buildings in Wales in 1567, heavily influenced by Flemish brick builders.[Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru](_blank)
/ref> Slowly, brick building in Wales became fashionable, but in some areas of Western and south western Wales only starts to appear in the 19th century. Brick makers tended to be itinerant until the mid-19th century, digging clay and firing bricks took place close to the building that was to be constructed. One of the more permanent brickyards was the Herbert's (Earls of Chirbury) brickyard at Stalloe near Montgomery, which would have been the likely source for the impressive ''New Build'' at Montgomery Castle
Montgomery Castle ( cy, Castell Trefaldwyn) is a stone-built castle looking over the town of Montgomery in Powys, Mid Wales. It is one of many Norman castles on the border between Wales and England.
Its strategic importance in the Welsh M ...
and for large quantities of bricks used in building of the service wings at Lymore near Montgomery 1664–67 and also for 17th-century brick-faced town houses in Montgomery and possibly Welshpool. The earliest use of brick in the 16th century was for the construction of massive chimney stacks of ''Stellar'' form with multiple flues within timber-framed houses. These stacks would have greatly reduced the risk of fire, and the study by Peter Smith of the distribution of these stacks show them to be clustered along the Welsh border from Montgomeryshire northwards.
While brick making may have started by Flemish brick makers working for Sir Richard Clough, building in brick was also becoming established in Shropshire and in Cheshire. The earliest of the typical Elizabethan Houses using brick with stone dressing was Trevalyn Hall built for John Trevor in 1576 Brick with stone dressing was used for the construction of Brynkinalt at Chirk, near to the Welsh border with England. This is an E-plan house of Elizabethan or Jacobean appearance that was built for Sir Edward Trevor in 1612
It has been noted that Brymbo Hall (1625) was largely brick, but the Cheshire influence of brick building is also apparent in Halghton Hall in Maelor Gymraeg of 1662 In Montgomeryshire the earliest brick house was the ''New Build'' at Montgomery Castle
Montgomery Castle ( cy, Castell Trefaldwyn) is a stone-built castle looking over the town of Montgomery in Powys, Mid Wales. It is one of many Norman castles on the border between Wales and England.
Its strategic importance in the Welsh M ...
, which was built for Edward Herbert by Scampion between 1622 and 1625.
Bodwrdda, near Aberdaron on the Llyn peninsular provides an example of an earlier house was that was re-fronted in brick in 1621. In Monmouthshire the establishment of brick building is shown by the massive brick service block (now Castle Farmhouse, Raglan) that was built for the older branch of the Herbert family for Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle ( cy, Castell Rhaglan) is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th centuries, when the succ ...
, probably just before the English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
.
Earlier housing in towns
Timber-framed houses of the 15th to 18th century are present in many of the Welsh towns in North, Central and SE Wales. The distribution of these houses has been mapped by Peter Smith who shows that in some areas in Wales such as Glamorgan and Anglesey, timber-framed houses were being built in towns, but not in the countryside, where stone would have been the usual building material. Modern commercial development has tended to remove most of the timber-framed houses from the high streets of Welsh towns, leaving the occasional examples, often public houses such as the Buck in Newtown and the thatched Horse and Jockey in Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
. Many more examples of timber-framed houses exist behind brick facades of the 18th and 19th centuries. This is particularly the case in the small market town of Montgomery, where the Herbert family
The Herbert family is an Anglo-Welsh noble family founded by William Herbert, known as "Black William", the son of William ap Thomas, founder of Raglan Castle, a follower of Edward IV of England in the Wars of the Roses. The name Herbert orig ...
encouraged the inhabitants to rebuild the houses with brick frontages from the 1670s onward.
The Royal House in Machynlleth
Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a pop ...
is a rare example of a relatively unaltered mercer's dwelling and store-house and has some claim to be one of the oldest shops in Wales. Dendrochronological
Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...
or Tree ring dates indicate it was built between 1559 and 1561. It was said that Owain Glyndŵr imprisoned David Gam there, and it was also said that King Charles I stayed at the house when travelling to Chester – hence the origin of the name 'Royal House'. It occupies one of the original Medieval burgage
Burgage is a medieval land term used in Great Britain and Ireland, well established by the 13th century.
A burgage was a town ("borough" or "burgh") rental property (to use modern terms), owned by a king or lord. The property ("burgage tenement ...
plots laid out around 1291. The long range has three parts with a house set between an upper shop and a lower store.
Another early trading house was Aberconwy House in Castle Street Conwy
Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy on ...
, now in the care of the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
. It is the one survivor of a group of merchant cum warehouses of the English merchants who traded in Conwy. It is a three-storey building, the first two storeys of which have stone rubble walls and the upper is a jettied out timber-framed construction. It has been tree ring dated to about 1420.
In Tenby there is the Tudor Merchants House on Quay Hill, also in the care of the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
. This dates from the late 15th century and is possibly the most complete Medieval merchant's house in Wales. Stone built with three storeys and the roof consists of five bays of cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
s. At the third floor level a lateral chimney stack and a mullioned
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
window are corbelled out and there is a large cylindrical chimney stack to the north. There is some painted decoration inside. The house appears to have been part of a larger merchant's complex.
Market malls and town halls
Many shire halls were timber framed, but the only surviving example of this type is at Llanidloes in Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
. The Court House in Ruthin, now the National Westminster Bank, probably served a similar purpose and Dendrochronological
Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...
dating has recently shown that this building is earlier and the timbers used for its construction were felled in 1421 The Old Market Hall in Llanidloes is known to have been constructed from trees felled between 1611 and 1622
A slightly earlier town built of stone is the Shire Hall at Denbigh of 1572, with an open colonnaded Market Hall on the ground-floor and a council and court room on the first-floor. In the 1780s with a new roof, rusticated entrance and new fenestration
Fenestration may refer to:
* Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building
* Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology
* Fenestration, holes in the rudder
A rudder is a primar ...
, including Venetian windows were added. The colonnades have been enclosed
In the Georgian period much more impressive town halls started to be built and the Shire Hall at Monmouth is a particularly good example. It is in a classical style of Bath stone by Fisher of Bristol with giant Ionic pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s
An important building, although altered, in Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
style is Sir Robert Taylor
Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England.
Early life
Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor ...
's Guildhall at Carmarthen, built between 1767 and 1777. This has a trio of giant first floor windows which are over-arched over large Palladian windows with Ionic columns and with blind panels above. Taylor used similar windows to light the Court Room of the Bank of England
In the 19th century the design of Market Halls changed, they were now single storied and larger areas were made available for trading. A particularly notable example now houses the Nelson Museum and local history centre in Monmouth. This was built in Bath stone in the Greek Doric style by the architect George Vaughan Maddox
George Vaughan Maddox (1802–27 February 1864) was a nineteenth-century British architect and builder, whose work was undertaken principally in the town of Monmouth, Wales, and in the wider county. Working mainly in a Neo-Classical style, hi ...
of Monmouth in 1837–1839
Bridges
The best known early bridge in Wales is over the river Conwy
Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy on ...
at Llanrwst
Llanrwst ('church or parish of Saint Grwst'; ) is a market town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy, in Conwy County Borough, Wales, and the historic county of Denbighshire. It developed round the wool trade and became known als ...
which is often attributed to Inigo Jones. The bridge has three arches and a steep camber
Camber may refer to a variety of curvatures and angles:
* Camber angle, the angle made by the wheels of a vehicle
* Camber beam, an upward curvature of a joist to compensate for load deflection due in buildings
* Camber thrust in bike technology
* ...
. The bridge was constructed in 1634 four Lancashire masons, Barnard Wood, James Stott, Thomas Crompton and John Mellor. They may well have working to designs drawn up by Jones based on a design by Palladio. Sir Richard Wynn of nearby Gwydir, as Treasurer to the Queen, is likely to have known Jones and commissioned work from his master mason Nicholas Stone
Nicholas Stone (1586/87 – 24 August 1647) was an English sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I, and in 1626 to Charles I.
During his career he was the mason responsible for not only the building of ...
. An earlier bridge, with nine arches is at Holt over the River Dee, dated to 1254,' which is still in use. This bridge is commemorated by a famous painting by Richard Wilson, now in the National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
, which also shows the gatehouse chapel which stood at the east end. Another early bridge which still has a standing gatehouse is Monnow Bridge at Monmouth which was constructed as part of the town defences during the period 1297–1315.
In south Wales a notable bridge architect and engineer was William Edwards (1719–1789), who in 1746 was contracted to build a new bridge over the River Taff
The River Taff ( cy, Afon Taf) is a river in Wales. It rises as two rivers in the Brecon Beacons; the Taf Fechan (''little Taff'') and the Taf Fawr (''great Taff'') before becoming one just north of Merthyr Tydfil. Its confluence with th ...
at Pontypridd
() ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales.
Geography
comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest (). ...
. The first bridge was washed away and the second bridge collapsed, but his third bridge was a single arch bridge of 140 feet, then the largest of the type in the world, which he completed in 1756, which is still standing, now known as the Old Bridge. In order to reduce the weight of the bridge he pierced large cylindrical holes through the haunches of the bridge, which solved a constructional problem and gives it its elegant appearance.
A number of fine bridges were built in Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
in the 18th century, which include Llandrinio bridge of 1769–1775, probably by the noted Shrewsbury bridge builder John Gwynn. An ashlar bridge of three arches of pink sandstone, with rusticated voussoirs
A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.
Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...
. Another impressive bridge is the single arched bridge at Dolanog
Dolanog () or Pont Dolanog is an ecclesiastical parish or chapelry that was formed in October 1856. It comprises the townships of Dolwar in Llanfihangel portions of Coedtalog in Llanerfyl, Cynhinfa in Llangyniew and Gwaunynog in Llanfa ...
over the Vyrnwy, which was portrayed by the artist Edward Pugh in 1813.
The construction of the Holyhead Road and other work by Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...
resulted in a number major bridges. At Betws-y-Coed
Betws-y-coed (; '' en, prayer house in the wood'') is a village and community in the Conwy valley in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located in the historic county of Caernarfonshire, right on the boundary with Denbighshire, in the Gwydir Forest. ...
Telford constructed the early iron Waterloo Bridge across the Llugwy. This bridge with a span of over 30 metres, was cast at William Hazledine
William Hazledine (1763 – 26 October 1840) was an English ironmaster. Establishing large foundries, he was a pioneer in casting structural ironwork, most notably for canal aqueducts and early suspension bridges. Many of these projects were c ...
's foundry. This bridge has the inscription "This arch was constructed in the same year as the battle of Waterloo was fought", but it was completed in 1816.
Another iron bridge to be completed in 1816 was John Rennie's elegant bridge over the river Wye at Chepstow
Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...
which was also produced at Hazeldine's foundry.
In 1819 Thomas Penson
Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...
became County Surveyor for Montgomeryshire and he built many new bridges in the county including a notable series of iron bridges over the river Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
, including those at Garthmyl at Berriew
Berriew ( cy, Aberriw) is a village and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It is on the Montgomeryshire Canal and the Afon Rhiw, near the confluence (Welsh: ''aber'') with the River Severn (Welsh: Afon Hafren)
at , 79 miles (128 k ...
, Brynderwen at Abermule and Llandinam
Llandinam () is a village and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, central Wales, between Newtown and Llanidloes, located on the A470. As a community, Llandinam is made up of the village itself, small hamlets including Plas Dinam and Little Lond ...
. The inscription of the Brynderwyn, Penson copies Telford with an inscription over the arch "This is the second iron bridge constructed in the county of Montgomery, was erected in the year 1852. Thomas Penson, County Surveyor : Brymbo Company Ironfounders".
Labourer and peasant cottages
(plural ) (one night house), is a traditional Welsh folklore from the 17th to 19th centuries that if a person could build a house on common land in one night, the land then belonged to them as a freehold. It is said that smoke had to be coming from the chimney before dawn and in Denbighshire the builder was able to claim land within the distance they could throw an axe from the corners of the house.
Great houses of the later Stuart period
In the Restoration period following the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
a number of major larger houses were built, particularly in southern Wales. The first and most impressive of these was rebuilding of Tredegar House
Tredegar House ( Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II-era mansion on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar; one of the most powerful and infl ...
at Newport by William Morgan in the mid-1660s. This was probably the work of two carpenter architects, Roger and William Hurlbutt from Warwick. A brick house that is richly decorated with stone dressings and the principal doorway with foliage clad twisted columns that support a pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
. Tredegar House was to be followed by Great Castle House at Monmouth in 1673 for Henry Somerset, who became the 1st Duke of Beaufort in 1682 and was also Lord President of the Marches. Another house of this period was Penpont in Breconshire built around 1666. A double-pile house It has been much altered. It was encased in Bath stone in 1828–1835, when a ground floor colonnade was added to the front of the house.
Following the construction of Castle House in Monmouth, the Duke of Beaufort had a country house, Troy House at Michels Troy built in 1681–1684, but incorporating an earlier 17th-century house.
In 1683 work was begun on the construction of Erddig, on the outskirts of Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
. Erddig was a similar house to Troy House. The architect was a Thomas Webb, who is described as a 'freemason".
At Trawsgoed (Crosswood) in Ceredigion
Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...
the earlier house was partially rebuilt after damage during the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
and the house survives today in much altered form. The appearance of the house in 1684 is provided by a drawing by Thomas Dineley. There was a three bay central house with dormers and a classical doorway with earlier side wings forming an inner courtyard, and outer gated garden courtyard.
Georgian architecture
Architecture of the Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
period in Wales may be considered to start with houses such as the recently restored Llanelly House. This was built in 1714 by Sir Thomas Stepney in Llanelli. At the time Llanelli
Llanelli (" St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarth ...
was only a village and this should be considered a Country House rather than a town house[Lloyd et al. (2006), p. 274] The House has its original lead downspouts which are dated 1714, but there is no evidence as to whom the architect was. It is of seven bays with sash windows and a parapet with big gadrooned urns. Similar large block-like houses continued to be built during the reigns of George I and George II. Nanteos near Aberystwyth has a foundation stone of 1739 and completion date on the rainwater head of 1757.
Taliaris in Carmarthenshire is another house of this form with a facade of Bath stone. It was probably built shortly after the marriage of Richard Gywnne to Ann Rudd in 1722–1723. Taliaris is by an unknown, but on stylistic grounds it has been suggested that it is the work of a Bristol or Somerset mason or architect
A further example of this type of house was the early 18th-century Glanbran, Cynhordy, Carmarthenshire which is described as Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
with Mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
touches. There was an ornamented Venetian window and a top window with paired pilasters. It was finally demolished in 1987.
Houses with the typical Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
arrangement of a central block attached wings or flanking pavilions were built at Dyffryn Aled in Llansannan
Llansannan is a rural village and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It lies on the bank of the River Aled and is about 8 miles to the south of Abergele and to the west of Denbigh. The population was 1,291 in 2001, with ...
in Denbighshire and Trawscoed at Guilsfield
Guilsfield ( cy, Cegidfa, " Hemlock-field") is a village and local government community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It lies beside Guilsfield Brook about three miles north of Welshpool. It is located on the B4392 road and a disused b ...
in Montgomeryshire. Dyffryn Alyn was built to designs by Joseph Turner in 1777, and the pavilions were added in a matching design by James Wolfe. Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant (14 June OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales.
As a naturalist he h ...
records that the house replaced an old house of the Wynne family and Dianna Wynne built a new house "in a most elegant and magnificent manner, on the side of the hill opposite the antient mansion" and cased it in Bath stone. "The very day after the workmen had finished their work, almost the whole casing fell down: which occasioned a vast expense in the repair." The house was demolished around 1920, but Pennant provided an excellent picture of this grand house in his extra-illustrated volumes of the tour, now in the National Library of Wales
A development of the Palladian style was Pengwern Place (or Hall) near Rhuddlan
Rhuddlan () is a town, community, and electoral ward in the county of Denbighshire, Wales, in the historic county of Flintshire. Its associated urban zone is mainly on the right bank of the Clwyd; it is directly south of seafront town Rhyl. ...
of 1778. This was a Mostyn family house and today is much altered from its original appearance, which is shown in its original form in an engraving in ''Neale's Seats'' of 1818. The main block is of two and a half storeys and five bays with octagonal wings in brick with stone dressings. The central pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
over three bays on a giant order of Ionic pilasters. On either side at first floor level are two Venetian Windows. An impressive composition which is already starting to show the influence of Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
An important architect who established himself at Swansea in this period was William Jernegan (c. 1751 – 1836). He probably came to Wales as an assistant to John Johnson, in the 1770s. He was to design a number of Regency
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
terraces in Swansea which have now largely disappeared, the Assembly Rooms of 1810 and produced plans for the Swansea Copper works. In the area around Swansea he was responsible for the Marino, which was incorporated into Singleton Abbey
Singleton Abbey ( cy, Abaty Singleton) is a large, mainly 19th-century mansion in Swansea, Wales. Today, the buildings are used to house administration offices for Swansea University. They can be found at the eastern end of the Swansea Universit ...
, the re-modelled Kilvrough in c. 1785, Stouthall, Reynollston, 1787–9, and Sketty Hall
Sketty Hall is a venue used for hosting social functions, business functions and conferences in Singleton Park, Swansea, south Wales. The original building was built in the early 18th century as a private house. Over the years it has seen a numb ...
and Sketty Park House. He was responsible for the Mumbles Lighthouse
Mumbles Lighthouse, completed in 1794, is a lighthouse located in Mumbles, near Swansea. The structure, which sits on the outer of two islands off Mumbles Head, is clearly visible from any point along the five mile sweep of Swansea Bay. Along ...
in 1793. He is also thought to have been involved in the design and layout of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
Prisons and workhouses
In the latter part of the 18th century, as the result of Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are impacted by crimes ...
new prisons came to be built in most of the Welsh County towns. The reforms were the result of the work of John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
, who in 1777 published ''The State of the Prisons'' He proposed that each prisoner should be in a separate cell with separate sections for women felons, men felons, young offenders and debtors. This was followed by the Penitentiary Act
The Penitentiary Act (19 Geo. III, c.74) was a British Act of Parliament passed in 1779 which introduced a policy of state prisons for the first time. The Act was drafted by the prison reformer John Howard and the jurist William Blackstone and rec ...
which was passed in 1779. This act was in implemented in each Welsh county by the Court of Great Sessions and which led to the building of many new prisons across Wales. These included the gaols built in Carmarthen and Cardigan by John Nash and the gaols at Caernarfon
Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...
(1793), Ruthin
Ruthin ( ; cy, Rhuthun) is a market town and community in Denbighshire, Wales, in the south of the Vale of Clwyd. It is Denbighshire's county town. The town, castle and St Peter's Square lie on a hill, skirted by villages such as Pwllglas and ...
(1785) and Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
(1775) by Joseph Turner. Most of these prisons were closed in the 1870s, but the Ruthin gaol, now used as the Denbighshire County Record Office is remarkably well preserved. The Anglesey Gaol at Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
came later in 1828–1829 by the architects Hansom
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, ...
and Welch. This incorporates many of the innovations of the Milbank Penitentiary in London of 1812–1821 with wings, a massive curtilage
In common law, the curtilage of a house or dwelling is the land immediately surrounding it, including any closely associated buildings and structures, but excluding any associated " open fields beyond". In feudal times every castle with its depen ...
wall and a central glass cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
for the oversight of the prison complex.
This plan was developed for the Montgomeryshire County gaol at Montgomery by the County Surveyor Thomas Penson
Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...
, c. 1830–32. Brick faced with stone. The tall octagonal governor's house with the chapel above, was at the centre of four radiating three- and two-storey wings. One of the yards was fitted with a tread-mill. The gatehouse was built into the wall to face a new approach in 1866 by J.W. Poundley. Powerful ashlar triumphal arch, with four giant semi-rusticated pilasters. The Gaol was closed in 1878 and all that now remains, apart from the gatehouse, is the Governor's House and the high wall of one cell block.
Neoclassicism and Greek revival architecture
North Wales
Neoclassical architecture came to north Wales mainly as a result of the influence of Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an England, English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was prima ...
. Wyatt had worked for Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
, the leading Neoclassical architect
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
when he became the clerk of Works at Kedleston Hall
Kedleston Hall is a neo-classical manor house, and seat of the Curzon family, located in Kedleston, Derbyshire, approximately 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Derby. The medieval village of Kedleston was moved in 1759 by Nathaniel Curzon to mak ...
in 1759. Between 1776 and 1779 he remodelled Baron Hill at Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
on Anglesey for Viscount Bulkely, while his brother became estate manager for the Pennants at Penrhyn Penryn is a Cornish word meaning 'headland' that may refer to:
*Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom, a town of about 7,000 on the Penryn River
**Penryn railway station, a station on the Maritime Line between Truro and Falmouth Docks, and serves the t ...
. Howard Colvin
Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840' ...
remarks that Wyatt specialised in the designing of medium-sized country houses in an elegant and restrained neo-classical manner. Characteristic features of his houses were astylar Astylar (from Gr. ''ἀ-'', privative, and ''στῦλος'', a column) is an architectural term given to a class of design in which neither columns nor pilasters are used for decorative purposes; thus the Riccardi and Strozzi palaces in Florence ...
elevations with prominent bowed projections which were domed and were either single or in pairs. His windows were often tripartite and overarched. He rarely deviated from the neo-classical, though he did a gothic revival building at Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle ( cy, Castell Penrhyn) is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, constructed in the style of a Norman castle. The Penrhyn estate was founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In the 15th century his descendent Gwilym a ...
which was replaced by Hopper's Neo-Romanesque Castle. At Kinmel Park near St Asaph, around 1790, he built a stylish house for the Rev Edward Hughes, who derived great wealth from the development of the Parys Copper mines on Anglesey. This house had a bowed front and panels with classical swags, possibly of Coade stone. It was burnt down in 1841, but fortunately it was recorded in a watercolour by John Ingleby in 1794. A further house in this style was the Old Bishop's Palace in St Asaph
St Asaph (; cy, Llanelwy "church on the Elwy") is a city and community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 3,355, making it the second-smallest city in Britain in terms of population and urban ...
which was probably by Samuel Wyatt, while at Brynbella in Tremeirchion a London surveyor, Clement Mead built Brynbella, for Dr Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...
's friend Mrs Thrale. Bryn Bella was built between 1792 and 1795 with an ashlar facade and double bays and wings with pediments on either side.
South Wales
In south Wales Neo-classicism was introduced by the Gloucestershire architect Anthony Keck
Anthony Keck (1726–1797) was an 18th-century English architect with an extensive practice in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and South Wales.
Life
Keck was born at Randwick, Gloucestershire in 1726 He designed in the "austere ...
and by William Jernegan, an architect who established a practice at Swansea. Keck who worked from Kings Stanley Gloucestershire may have worked with Sir Robert Taylor
Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England.
Early life
Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor ...
who would have introduced him to clients in Wales. He built a bow fronted house for Thomas Mansel Talbot (1747–1813) adjacent to Penrice Castle in Glamorgan in 1773–1780. This building, though earlier than Samuel Wyatt's work in north Wales, lacks features such as the overarched windows. However, the Orangery he also built for Thomas Mansel Talbot at Margam Abbey
Margam Abbey ( cy, Abaty Margam) was a Cistercian monastery, located in the village of Margam, a suburb of modern Port Talbot in Wales.
History
The abbey was founded in 1147 as a daughter house of Clairvaux by Robert, Earl of Gloucester ...
from 1787 to 1790, exhibits a much more refined appreciation of Neo-classicism and may well be considered the best example of this architectural style in Wales. It is the largest Orangery in the British Isles of 17 continuous bays with vermiculated rustication to the more formal swags and arched windows.
A house of considerable importance was Piercefield between Chepstow
Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...
and St Arvans. Originally known for its gardens laid out by Valentine Morris, it was rebuilt in 1793 to plans prepared by Sir John Soane
Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the R ...
which were to be modified by Joseph Bonomi. It still retained a Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
appearance with a massive central block and side pavilions. The side pavilions and curved colonnade of Tuscan columns were the additions made by Bononi after 1795. The house to-day is in a ruinous state.
Greek revival architecture
A house which bridged the gap between late Palladian forms and Neo-classism was Middleton Hall in Carmarthenshire, built for Sir William Paxton to the designs of S p. Cockerell between 1793 and 1795. The giant portico supported by five Ionic Columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
was a theme which was to prove popular with architects working in Wales in the following century. The over-arched windows are Palladian derived and were used by Sir Robert Taylor
Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England.
Early life
Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor ...
for Carmarthen Town Hall. Cockerell had served his pupillage under Sir Robert Taylor, as had also John Nash and these windows are also seen on Nash's Villa type houses in Wales, as at Llanerchaeron
Llanerchaeron, known as "Llanayron House" to its nineteenth-century occupants, is a grade I listed mansion on the River Aeron, designed and built in 1795 by John Nash for Major (later Colonel) William Lewis as a model, self-sufficient farm comp ...
. Middleton Hall was burnt down in 1931, and its gardens, are now the site of the National Botanic Garden of Wales
The National Botanic Garden of Wales ( cy, Gardd Fotaneg Genedlaethol Cymru) is a botanical garden located in Llanarthney in the River Tywi valley, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The garden is both a visitor attraction and a centre for botanical rese ...
. Cockerell was also responsible for the design of the nearby Paxton's Tower
Paxton's Tower is a Neo-Gothic folly erected in honour of Lord Nelson. It is situated on the top of a hill near Llanarthney in the River Tywi valley in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is a visitor attraction that can be combined with a visit to the nea ...
, a Gothic folly built in 1805 in commemoration of Lord Nelson. 1n 1810 Cockerell was responsible to Sir William Paxton for building the sea water Baths and Assembly Rooms at Tenby
Tenby ( cy, Dinbych-y-pysgod, lit=fortlet of the fish) is both a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and a local government community.
Notable features include of sandy beaches and the Pembroke ...
. Over the enclosed bow porch is a Greek inscription taken from Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
"The sea washes away all the ills of men."
A Chester architect showing considerable competence in classical revival architecture was Joseph Turner who worked extensively in Flintshire
, settlement_type = County
, image_skyline =
, image_alt =
, image_caption =
, image_flag =
, image_shield = Arms of Flint ...
and Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
. Apart Ruthin and Flint gaols, he was responsible for the County Hall at Ruthin, which served as a courthouse. It has an ashlar facade with a tetrastyle
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
ed portico with Greek Doric capitals and the courtroom has Venetian window
A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian ar ...
s on either side
The use Greek revival Ionic Columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
under a tetrastyle
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
portico occurs again at Llanphey Court in Pembrokeshire which was completed in 1823 by Charles Fowler
Charles Fowler (17 May 1792 – 26 September 1867) was an English architect, born and baptised at Cullompton, Devon. He is especially noted for his design of market buildings, including Covent Garden Market in London.
Life
Education and ear ...
who was also the architect for the Covent Garden Market in London.
An architect who worked very competently in the Classical style was George Vaughan Maddox
George Vaughan Maddox (1802–27 February 1864) was a nineteenth-century British architect and builder, whose work was undertaken principally in the town of Monmouth, Wales, and in the wider county. Working mainly in a Neo-Classical style, hi ...
(1802–1864), a Monmouth architect whose work is restricted to Monmouth and the area immediately around. Maddox has been noted above as the architect for New Market in Monmouth which opened in 1837. This was part of a new street which was built on arches overlooking the river Monnow, which now forms a handsome entrance to the town from the North.
Developed Classicism
This is comparatively well represented in Wales. As a style it is more severe and modeled more closely on Greek Architecture. Thomas Harrison of Chester was a leading exponent of the style and in Anglesey was responsible for the Holyhead Memorial and the Marquess of Anglesey's Column in Llanfairpwll
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanfa ...
on Anglesey in 1816–1817, to commemorate the feats of Marquess of Anglesey
Marquess of Anglesey ( cy, Ardalydd Môn) is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, second in command to the Duke of Wellington. The Marqu ...
in the Napoleonic Wars.
Harpton Court, near New Radnor
New Radnor ( cy, Maesyfed) is a village in Powys, Wales, to the south of Radnor Forest, and was the county town of Radnorshire.
In the 2001 census, the community's population of 410 was split evenly between male and female, in 192 household ...
is a further example of a house remodelled in a Classical revival style around 1840. It was built in 1750 for the Lewis family and was later modified by John Nash. It was then remodelled on the south front by an unknown architect in stone with nine bays, with the three central bays broken forward with pilasters and surmounted with a pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
. The house was sold in 1953 and partially demolished in 1956.
Public buildings
The Greek revival style was chosen for many public buildings in Wales. Swansea Museum of 1839–1841, originally the Royal Institution of South Wales is a finely detailed and well balanced example with a three bay portico supported on Ionic columns. It is faced in Bath ashlar stone. It was built to designs by Frederick Long, a Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
architect.
A rather later use of Greek revival is the Shire Hall at Caernarfon of almost oversized proportions and facing Caernarfon Castle. It was built 1867–1869 by the County Surveyor, John Thomas. It is of seven bays with a central doric portico with a pediment surmounted with the blindfold figure of justice Other work in the Greek Revival style in Wales includes Brecon Shire Hall (now Brecon Museum) by Thomas Henry Wyatt
Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for ...
and Bridgend Town Hall by David Vaughan. Bridgend Town, a tragic loss, demolished as recently as 1971, was built in the style of a Greek temple
Greek temples ( grc, ναός, naós, dwelling, semantically distinct from Latin , "temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, s ...
with Doric columns
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...
supporting the portico in antis.
An early and unusual combination of Grecian and Italianate architecture is Swansea Old Town Hall. It is described by Newman as "the noblest classical building in Swansea ......a grandiose Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to:
*Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible:
**First Epistle to the Corinthians
**Second Epistle to the Corinthians
**Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox)
*A demonym relating to ...
Palazzo." It was built to designs by Thomas Taylor of London between 1848 and 1852 which incorporated the earlier Town Hall of 1825– 27 by Thomas Bowen. The interior of the building, which is now the Dylan Thomas Centre
The Dylan Thomas Centre is an arts centre located in the Maritime Quarter in Swansea, Wales. It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The building was commissioned to replace a previous guildhall which had been located near Swansea Castle ...
, was extensively rebuilt in 1993–1994
Gothic Revivalism and
Historicism
Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely ...
of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Romanesque or Norman revival architecture
The derivation of Romanesque Revival architecture or Norman Revival architecture can be traced back to the late 17th century, but only became a recognisable architectural style around 1820. In 1817 Thomas Rickman
Thomas Rickman (8 June 17764 January 1841) was an English architect and architectural antiquary who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival. He is particularly remembered for his ''Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture'' ...
published his ''An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest To the Reformation''. It was now realised that "round-arch architecture" was largely Romanesque in the British Isles and came to be described as Norman rather than Saxon. The start of an "archaeologically correct" Norman Revival can be recognised in the architecture of Thomas Hopper. His first attempt at this style was at Gosford Castle
Gosford Castle is a 19th-century country house situated in Gosford, a townland of Markethill, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was built for Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford, and designed in the Norman revival style by London architect ...
in Armagh in Ireland, but far more successful was his Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle ( cy, Castell Penrhyn) is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, constructed in the style of a Norman castle. The Penrhyn estate was founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In the 15th century his descendent Gwilym a ...
near Bangor. This was built for the Pennant family, between 1820 and 1837. The style did not catch on for domestic buildings, though many country houses and mock castles were built in the Castle Gothic or Castellated style during the Victorian period, which was a mixed Gothic style.
Strawberry Hill and the earlier Gothic Revival
A surprisingly early example of Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th cent ...
in Wales is the south wing of Hensol Castle in Glamorgan. Hensol had three storied east and west wings added with tower-like semi-octagonal bays which were fenestrated with pointed gothic windows and surmounted by battlements. It has been suggested that this very early Gothic architecture was the work of Roger Morris who also designed Clearwell Castle
Clearwell Castle in Clearwell, the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, is a Gothic Revival house constructed from 1727. Built by Thomas Wyndham to the designs of Roger Morris, it is the earliest Georgian Gothic Revival castle in England predating ...
in Gloucestershire about 1728.
Another example of the simple Gothic revival style was Gnoll near Neath. This was a remodelling, starting in 1776, of an existing house for Sir Herbert Mackworth, owner of a local copper works. It had a crenulated parapet and round towers at the two corners of the frontage. The architect was John Johnson an Essex architect who had been associated with Mackworth's banking interests in London.
Following this, examples of Strawberry Hill Gothic start appearing in Wales, the most significant of which was Hafod. The first stage of Hafod was started 1786 by Thomas Baldwin of Bath for Thomas Johnes
Thomas Johnes FRS (1 September 1748 – 23 April 1816) was a Member of Parliament, landscape architect, farmer, printer, writer and social benefactor. He is best known for his development of the Hafod Estate in Wales.
Johnes was born in Lud ...
, in a Gothic revival style with gothic window, battlements and pinnacles and then in 1793–1794 John Nash added a top-lit galleried library and a 300 ft long conservatory.
Another early pioneer of the Gothic style was James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
who was employed by the Earl of Uxbridge to build Beaudesert in Staffordshire in the Gothic style in 1771–1772. The Earl was to employ him again at Plas Newydd on Anglesey to rebuild the West front and the interior in a Gothic style from 1793 to 1799 Wyatt worked with the Lichfield architect James Potter and the style of plasterwork lacks the lightness of Strawberry Hill gothic.
Plas Newydd was followed by the more remarkable Gothic mansion at Garth at Guilsfield
Guilsfield ( cy, Cegidfa, " Hemlock-field") is a village and local government community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It lies beside Guilsfield Brook about three miles north of Welshpool. It is located on the B4392 road and a disused b ...
in Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
, built for Devereux Mytton, probably in the late 1790s.
Another house with Strawberry Hill Gothic features was Bodelwyddan Castle
Bodelwyddan Castle ( cy, Castell Bodelwyddan), close to the village of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl, Denbighshire in Wales, was built around 1460 by the Humphreys family of Anglesey as a manor house. It was associated with the Williams-Wynn family fo ...
which had a Gothic wing and gothic interior added between 1802 and 1808 by an unknown architect. During this period a number of other houses in Wales were given Gothic facades with arched pointed windows, such as Llewenni in Denbighshire. At Hawarden Castle the Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
house, on a different site to the medieval castle, was transformed by Thomas Cundy in 1809–1810 for Sir Stephen Richard Glynne. It was refronted and machicolations
A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...
, towers and turrets were added. A west wing was added with gothic windows. At Rhiwlas, near Bala the ancient house was re-cased as a Gothic castle in 1809 with three storeys and three polygonal towers, but the house was largely replaced by new house in 1954. The Gate arch by Thomas Rickman
Thomas Rickman (8 June 17764 January 1841) was an English architect and architectural antiquary who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival. He is particularly remembered for his ''Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture'' ...
of 1813 still exists.
Folly Gothic
In the 1780s there was another style evolving which sometimes is referred to as a 'Folly Gothic', houses which were intended as eye-catchers. Possibly the best example of this is Clytha Castle the work of architect and garden designer John Davenport. This style was a less archaeologically correct form of Gothic revival and was widely used in Wales during the period 1780 to about 1810. Greater emphasis was placed on prominent arrow slits in round towers, blanked quatrefoil windows and stepped and angled battlements on gables. The earliest example of this may be the re-building of Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle ( cy, Castell Penrhyn) is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, constructed in the style of a Norman castle. The Penrhyn estate was founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In the 15th century his descendent Gwilym a ...
, sometime before 1782 by Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an England, English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was prima ...
for Richard Pennant, who was to develop the Bethesda slate quarries. This building is only known from drawings by Moses Griffiths, though parts of it were incorporated into Thomas Hopper's rebuilding of Penrhyn. While it shows the features of this evolving style, the doorway shows the influence of Strawberry Hill gothic.
Folly Gothic was a style which was widely adopted for park gates and lodges and for small houses sited in picturesque positions in locations frequented by tourists.
A good example is Ogwen Bank near Bethesda, built by Lord Penhryn, possibly to a design by Samuel Wyatt, for visitors to the Ogwen falls. In the Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
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, Start=
, End= ...
at Berriew
Berriew ( cy, Aberriw) is a village and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It is on the Montgomeryshire Canal and the Afon Rhiw, near the confluence (Welsh: ''aber'') with the River Severn (Welsh: Afon Hafren)
at , 79 miles (128 k ...
Bodheilin was built in a prominent position overlooking the valley of the river Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
. This was burnt down in 1906, but an engraving shows a fantastic villa with five towers fronted with a Neoclassical portico.
In Wales pointed Gothic windows continued to be widely used until about 1810. In Montgomeryshire iron framed Gothic windows were used to embellish vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
houses.
Grander houses such as Dol-Llys in Llanidloes, built for George Mears around 1800, by an unknown architect, but in the "villa" style of John Nash, had wooden Gothic windows.
One of the most eye-catching gothic follies in Wales is Paxton's Tower
Paxton's Tower is a Neo-Gothic folly erected in honour of Lord Nelson. It is situated on the top of a hill near Llanarthney in the River Tywi valley in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is a visitor attraction that can be combined with a visit to the nea ...
. Built by Sir William Paxton (1745–1824), Paxton made his first fortune while with the HEIC
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video.
HEIF ...
in Calcutta with Charles Cockerell, brother of the architect. He purchased the Middleton Hall estate about 1790 and built this tower 1808.
Castellated Gothic
Castellated Gothic was a style that emerged in Wales following the Napoleonic Wars and has been little studied, although a considerable number of Country Houses were built in this style up to about 1870. It is largely derived from the earlier Castellated Gothic Mansions built Robert Adam in Scotland and Adam was also the designer of one house built in Wales, Wenvoe Castle
Wenvoe Castle was a castle and country estate between Barry and Wenvoe, in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. Today the former estate forms the Wenvoe Castle Golf Club. Goldsland lies on its western boundary.
History
In the later medieval periods ...
in Glamorgan in 1776–7 of which only one wing of the building now survives. This "Welsh" style of Castellated Gothic lacks the historical precision of detailing seen in Strawberry Hill Gothic, but it has borrowed the turrets and battlements some Medieval Castles in Wales such as Raglan and the earlier Cardiff Castle. In some cases Medieval castles which were still inhabited were by re-built in this style. Powis Castle
Powis Castle ( cy, Castell Powys) is a British medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys. The seat of the Herbert family, Earls of Powis, the castle is known for its formal gardens and for its interiors, the fo ...
on the outskirts of Welshpool
Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...
was extensively re-built with new windows and battlements in the castellatted gothic style by Sir Robert Smirke
Sir Robert Smirke (1 October 1780 – 18 April 1867) was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works, he designed several major ...
between 1815 and 1818.
Initially older houses such as Bodelwyddan
Bodelwyddan () is a village, electoral ward and community in Denbighshire, Wales, approximately 5 miles (8 km) South of Rhyl. The Parish includes several smaller hamlets such as Marli and Pengwern.
Bodelwyddan is home to over sixty liste ...
in Denbighshire or Hensol Castle had large extensions added to them. At Stanage Park in Radnorshire the design has been attributed to John Adey Repton
John Adey Repton (1775–1860) was an English architect.
Biography
John Repton was the son of Humphry Repton, born at Norwich, Norfolk on 29 March 1775, and educated at Aylsham grammar school and later in a Norwich architect's office. From 1796 ...
, but he employed as the building contractor John Hiram Haycock. Haycock, from Shrewsbury, was equally competent as an architect and may have contributed to appearance of the building. This has led Thomas Lloyd to suggest that the similar appearance of Glandyfi (c. 1812) in Ceredigion, may also be the work of Haycock. At Brynkinalt in Denbighshire the addition of castellated towers and other feature (now removed) on a late 17th-century house was the work of another Shrewsbury architect Joseph Bromfield.
Castellated Gothic was the style employed by Robert Lugar
Robert Lugar (1773 – 23 June 1855), was a British architect and engineer in the Industrial Revolution.
Although born in Colchester, England, Lugar carried out much of his most important work in Scotland and Wales, where he was employed by s ...
when he built Cyfarthfa Castle
Cyfarthfa Castle ( cy, Castell Cyfarthfa; ) is a castellated mansion that was the home of the Crawshay family, ironmasters of Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Park, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The house commanded a view of the valley and the works, which ...
in Merthyr Tydfil for the iron master William Crawshay, in 1824–1825. It is two-storied and battlemented with a turreted entrance porch which leads into a Gothic entrance hall with ribbed ceiling. Robert Luger was also employed at Maesllwch, Glasbury
Glasbury ( cy, Y Clas-ar-Wy), also known as Glasbury-on-Wye, is a village and community in Powys, Wales. The village lies at an important crossing point on the River Wye, connecting the historic counties of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire, and is ...
from 1829 to 1850. The main portion of this house was demolished in 1951 leaving the eastern tower, service wing and later tower. Between 1818 and 1830 John Preston Neale
John Preston Neale (1780–1847) was an English architectural and landscape draughtsman. Much of his work was drawn, although he produced the occasional watercolour or oil painting. His drawings were used on a regular basis by engravers. A major w ...
published his ''Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland'' in which he included several examples of Castellated houses in Wales, showing this had become an established style. Further prints of Welsh castellated mansions were included in the Rev Francis Orpen Morris
Francis Orpen Morris (25 March 1810 – 10 February 1893) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, notable as " parson-naturalist" (ornithologist and entomologist) and as the author of many children's books and books on natural history and heritage build ...
's ''The County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland'' which was published in six volumes of coloured lithographs in 1870; and also in the engravings in Thomas Nicholas' ''Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales; containing a record of all ranks of the gentry ... with many ancient pedigrees and memorials of old and extinct families'' published in two volumes by Longmans
Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC.
Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...
in 1872. These volumes give the impression that both the established gentry and the Nouveau riche
''Nouveau riche'' (; ) is a term used, usually in a derogatory way, to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. The equivalent English term is the "new rich" or "new money" ( ...
bankers and industrialists in Wales needed to justify a legitimacy for building in this style and the expenditure they were lavishing on them.
Other early castellated buildings in Wales were Gwrych Castle in Flintshire
, settlement_type = County
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. "One of the most amazing of 19th Century castellated mansions". It was designed by C A Busby and Thomas Rickman
Thomas Rickman (8 June 17764 January 1841) was an English architect and architectural antiquary who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival. He is particularly remembered for his ''Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture'' ...
. The foundation stone was laid in 1819 and the work was probably finished in 1822. Also in Flintshire, Gyrn Castle, at Llanasa
Llanasa is a village and community in the county of Flintshire, north-east Wales. Llanasa is described as one of the ancient parishes of Flintshire. It originally comprised the townships of Gronant, Gwespyr, Kelston, Golden Grove, Picton, Trew ...
, an older house was converted into a castellated mansion for the Holywell cotton manufacturer John Douglas between 1817 and 1824. Nearby Halkyn Castle
Halkyn Castle ( cy, Castell Helygain) is a mansion house in the village of Halkyn, Flintshire, Wales. The house, with its associated stable block, is designated by Cadw as a Grade II* listed building.
History
The house was designed by the ...
was designed by John Buckler c. 1827 for the second Earl Grosvenor.
At Stanage Park, Knighton. The house was started in 1807 to designs by John Adey Repton
John Adey Repton (1775–1860) was an English architect.
Biography
John Repton was the son of Humphry Repton, born at Norwich, Norfolk on 29 March 1775, and educated at Aylsham grammar school and later in a Norwich architect's office. From 1796 ...
. The arch to the stable block is dated 1807. The bay window was added in 1833 and in 1841 the Edward Haycock took over as architect, remodelling the interior after a fire and adding a Neo-Norman porch to the rectangular tower. He continued expanding the house until 1867. The work was for the Rogers family who followed Thomas Johnes
Thomas Johnes FRS (1 September 1748 – 23 April 1816) was a Member of Parliament, landscape architect, farmer, printer, writer and social benefactor. He is best known for his development of the Hafod Estate in Wales.
Johnes was born in Lud ...
of Hafod as the owners of Stanage.
Tudor Gothic
In the 1830s the Castellated Gothic was developed further by Thomas Hopper, who had been responsible for the severe Romanesque revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
Penrhyn Castle and the Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock, Sr. at Margam Castle
Margam Castle, Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, is a late Georgian country house built for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. Designed by Thomas Hopper, the castle was constructed in a Tudor Revival style over a five-year period, from 1830 to 1835. ...
in Glamorgan which was built between 1830 and 1840. This was a more ornate and flamboyant form of Tudor Gothic with a massive central lantern tower, modelled on the 16th-century prospect tower at Melbury House
Melbury House is an English country house in the parish of Melbury Sampford near Evershot, Dorset, This Grade I listed mansion is the home of the Honorable Mrs Charlotte Townshend, a major landowner in east Dorset, through her mother, Theresa ...
in Dorset. Newman sees the Hopper and Haycock deriving their designs from James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
's Ashridge of 1808–1813 and William Wilkin's Dalmeny
Dalmeny ( gd, Dùn Mheinidh, IPA: t̪uːnˈvenɪʝ is a village and civil parish in Scotland. It is located on the south side of the Firth of Forth, southeast of South Queensferry and west of Edinburgh city centre. It lies within the tradit ...
House near Edinburgh of 1814–1817. While the exterior is Tudor Gothic, there is a spectacular staircase inside the tower in a late Gothic or Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...
style with impressive fan-vaulting
At Ruthin
Ruthin ( ; cy, Rhuthun) is a market town and community in Denbighshire, Wales, in the south of the Vale of Clwyd. It is Denbighshire's county town. The town, castle and St Peter's Square lie on a hill, skirted by villages such as Pwllglas and ...
the Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
castle was partly rebuilt in 1826 and then transformed in 1848–1853 by the architect Henry Clutton
Henry Clutton (19 March 1819 – 27 June 1893)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Photograph , http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&GScid=1366392&GRid=12186732&PIgrid=12186732&PIcrid=1366392&PIpi=3000944& was an English arc ...
for Frederick Richard West. Clutton demolished much of the main block of the earlier house and replaced it with a three storied castellated building in bright red sandstone and placed at the west corner a big octagonal tower.
This mixed style is also seen at Llantarnam Abbey
Llantarnam Abbey is a Grade II*-listed abbey of the Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy and a former Cistercian monastery located in Llantarnam, Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen in southeast Wales.
History
It was founded as a daughter house ...
in Monmouthshire by Thomas Henry Wyatt
Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for ...
. In Montgomeryshire between 1850 and 1856 Leighton Hall was built by the little-known Liverpool architect W. H. Gee, probably to designs by James Kellaway Colling
James Kellaway Colling (1816–1905) or J. K. Colling was an English architect, watercolour artist and noted book illustrator. He was a pioneer of early Chromolithographic printing and his graphic work has been compared with that of William ...
.
William and Mary and Queen Anne style
An early example of the Queen Anne revival style was Garthmyl Hall, Berriew
Garthmyl Hall is a Grade II listed house in Berriew, in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys. The house stood close to the site of a large 17th-century large timber-framed house. Garthmyl Hall was rebuilt in 1859 by the architect Jame ...
in Montgomeryshire by J K Colling. It was completed in 1859 and was a pioneering example of the use of Terracotta ornamentation.
A more developed example of Queen Anne revival style can be seen nearby in the Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
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, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
Valley at Cefnbryntalch in Llandyssil
Llandyssil is a village in Powys, Wales, about two miles from the town of Montgomery.
The village is part of the Llandyssil community. In 2001 there were 420 inhabitants in the parish, of whom 300 lived in the village itself.The population fig ...
. The house of 1867–1869 by G F Bodley was completed by Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
. It was built for was Richard Jones, who had made a fortune in the flannel trade in Newtown. The exterior is of cleanly detailed and well-executed in red brick, with prominent string-courses. The south front with three big gables and a balance of irregular chimneys and near-regular windows, has many C18 features – a hipped roof, two bays, sash-windows, and the central Venetian window. The symmetrical entrance front is rather C17 vernacular, while the west front is picturesque and irregular in contrast, an asymmetrical gable anchored by a shafted chimney; lower tile-hung wing. In many respects this house is the precursor of the later Arts and Crafts houses in Wales and the close studded upper storeys is a feature of houses such as Bryniago at Rhayader
Rhayader (; cy, Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is locate ...
by Stephen W. Williams. The Queen Anne style was further developed by William Eden Nesfield
William Eden Nesfield (2 April 1835 – 25 March 1888) was an English architect. Like his some-time partner, Richard Norman Shaw, he designed several houses in Britain in the revived 'Old English' and 'Queen Anne' styles during the 1860s and 1 ...
, a close associate of Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
at Kinmel Park in Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
. It was constructed 1872–1874 incorporating parts of the earlier houses by Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an England, English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was prima ...
and Thomas Hopper. The house consists of 15 bays on the E. front with end pavilions
Terracotta revival architecture in Wales
For a short period at the start of the 16th century, Italian craftsmen introduced the art of highly fired Terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
moulded brickwork and ornamental plaques into Tudor England. The use of terracotta was largely limited to Great Houses in Eastern England.
One of the earliest architects to make use of this source was the Welsh architect Thomas Penson
Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...
, who worked from offices in Oswestry. There appears to be good evidence that he sourced his terracotta from the brickyards which were associated with the Oswestry coalfield at Morda and Trefonen on the Welsh border.
One of the most iconic Terracotta buildings in Wales is the Pierhead building at Cardiff Docks, adjacent to the Welsh Assembly building. The Grade One listed building was built in 1897 and designed by the English architect William Frame. It was a replacement for the headquarters of the Bute Dock Company which burnt down in 1892. Frame's mentor was William Burges
William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...
, with whom Frame worked on the rebuilding of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch
(; ) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff G ...
until Burges's death in 1881.
A further impressive building using and orangey terracotta with red bricks, probably from J. C Edwards at Ruabon are the former offices of John Summers and Co at Shotton on Deeside in Flintshire
, settlement_type = County
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, image_alt =
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These were to become the offices of the Strip Division of the British Steel Corporation
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
. In 1986 Edward Hubbard
Edward Horton Hubbard (2 July 1937 – 31 May 1989) was an English architectural historian who worked with Nikolaus Pevsner in compiling volumes of the ''Buildings of England''. He also wrote the definitive biography of John Douglas, and played ...
described them as "unconventional and pompous", but taste to-day might be more appreciative and they can be seen as late and almost playful take on castellated Gothic revival architecture
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th cent ...
with some Art Nouveau detailing. A building dominating the market place in Newtown in Montgomeryshire is Barclays Bank of 1898 by Wood and Kendrick of Birmingham for Sarah Brisco of Newtown Hall. Built as an office block with the corner clock tower commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
In small country towns such as Rhayader
Rhayader (; cy, Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is locate ...
in Radnorshire the local architect, Richard Wellings Thomas built both the Kington and Radnor Bank of 1904 and the town's Post Office of 1903 using Ruabon Terracotta. The Bank has heavy classical mouldings while the Post Office for the upper storeys uses the local stone with terracotta dressings. Terracotta was a popular material for building Post Offices, as at Denbigh and particularly the Post Office in Great Darkgate in Aberystwyth. The later was the work of T E Morgan, completed in 1901, and has an attractive mosaic fascia. In Welshpool the J & M Morris's iron foundry had the Agricultural Implement Depot built in Church Street for the display of their products. This was to the designs of the work of the Borough surveyor Robert Hurst around 1904, in deep red Ruabon brickwork with arched display windows with masqued heads used as keystones. The inscription "Agricultural Implement Depot" runs along the parapet of the building.
Faience glazed terracotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta
Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It was popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and is still one of the most common building materials found i ...
starts appearing in building facades in Wales around 1900. An example occurs in Longbridge Street in Llanidloes. This is a double fronted shop faced with brownish Burmantofts faience and the shops with facias with decorative tendril designs.
The Golden Cross public House in Custom House Street, Cardiff, has a two-storey red faience facade with yellow pilasters. The ground floor has an elaborate tiled pub front with Venetian windows; green and gold tiling with raised lettering to fascias, tiled panelling to pilasters. The saloon bar on the ground floor has walls lined with polychrome tiles and a tiled floral frieze. Bar with hard wood top and with external covering of tiles with grotesque pattern in relief. Walls of entrance lobby, with faience tiled picture of Cardiff Castle, dated 1903 and another of Cardiff Town Hall.
The use of white Doulton faience glazed terracotta is notable for the Motor Palace at Llandrindod Wells
Llandrindod Wells (, ; cy, Llandrindod, /ɬanˈdɾindɔd/ "Trinity Parish"), sometimes known colloquially as Llandod, is a town and community in Powys, within the historic boundaries of Radnorshire, Wales. It serves as the seat of Powy ...
by Richard Wellings Thomas in 1906–1910. Now the National Cycle Museum, it has a curving facade of nine bays of white-faience ware and blocked pilasters dividing the display bays, surmounted with lion finials. It is an early example of steel framed construction. The building reflects that Llandridod was the social capital of Wales at the time and Tom Norton, for whom it was built was both an early bus proprietor and also aviator, hence the fascia letting CYCLES – MOTORS- AIRCRAFT.
Ruskinian Gothic & Polychrome brickwork
The influence of John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
and G E Street can be seen on British architecture from the mid-1850s onwards following the publication of Ruskin's Stones of Venice. Ruskin and Street advocated styles of architecture which used striking colour combinations and were modelled on Venetian and north Italian Gothic architecture. There is little evidence of Ruskinian Gothic in Wales, but with the notable exception of Cardigan Town Hall, but it did give rise to the use of Polychrome brickwork
Polychrome brickwork is a style of architectural brickwork wherein bricks of different colours are used to create decorative patterns or highlight architectural features in the walls of a building. Historically it was used in the late Gothic peri ...
. Cardigan Town Hall was designed by Robert Jewell Withers
Robert Jewell Withers (1824–1894) was an English ecclesiastical architect.
Early life
Robert Jewell Withers was born on 2 February 1824 in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. His father was John Alexander Withers and his mother, Maria Jewell. ...
and built in 1858–60. It was a multi-purpose civic building acting as a Town Hall, Corn Exchange, Grammar School, News-room, corn store and markets. The clock and clock tower were added in 1896.
An example of Ruskin's Venetian Gothic are the block of chambers at 24–26 Queen Street Cardiff. These have been attributed to C E Barnard,apparently a Civil Engineer and were originally built alongside the Glamorgan Canal, possibly giving the inspiration to build in the Venetian Gothic style. The construction is dated to 1878, although this stylistically seem a decade or more too late. The building has a four storied facade with Stucco and Portland stone and seven bays. Gothic cornice with pierced pinnacles at either end with ornamental battlements. The third floor has single windows with rounded heads and rope-moulded architraves and the second floor has ogee-headed windows with floreated stringcourses and projecting balconies to single windows, and the first floor has trefoil headed windows with capped columns arranged in Venetian manner either side of a splayed oriel window.
The use of patterned or polychrome brickwork, sometimes associated terracotta was popular in the towns in Montgomeryshire and North Eastern Wales in the 1870s and 1880s. A striking example is the Plas Castell Gatehouse at Denbigh, a Tudoresque machicolated
A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...
tower with bars of yellow brick contrasting with the red bricks. The tower was built in 1882. In Kerry
Kerry or Kerri may refer to:
* Kerry (name), a given name and surname of Gaelic origin (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Kerry, Queensland, Australia
* County Kerry, Ireland
** Kerry Airport, an international airport in Count ...
, Montgomeryshire the estate architects J W Poundley and D Walker
Poundley and Walker or John Wilkes Poundley and David Walker were a land surveyors and architects’ partnership with offices at Black Hall, Kerry, Montgomeryshire and at Unity Buildings, 22 Lord Street, Liverpool. The partnership was established ...
produced an unusual composition of a terrace of houses built for the Naylors next to the former Kerry workhouse. The red bricks are punctuated by a double string of white brick and a pattern of white and black bricks below the eaves and for the upper voussoirs. The use of curved bricks in the voussoirs give the impression of an Egyptian pharonic head-dress.
Italianate style architecture
Prompted by Queen Victoria's Osbourne House, the Italianate style of architecture became popular in the second half of the 19th century. Features of this stye include belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
* Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...
towers and roofs with a shallow slope and wide eaves. In Wales R. K Penson was a leading exponent of the style. Penson had an extensive practice in the south of Wales, particular in church building and restoration, but examples of his use of the Italianate style include Llandovery Town Hall
Llandovery Town Hall ( cy, Neuadd y Dref Llanymddyfri) is a municipal building in Market Street, Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The structure, which is used as the local public library, is a Grade II listed building.
History
The first ...
and the gate lodge to Nanteos. The style was popular for country houses in Carmarthenshire and include the now demolished Pant Glas at Llanfynydd
Llanfynydd is a village, parish and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The community population at the 2011 census was 499. It lies some 10 miles (16 km) north-east of the county town, Carmarthen. Bordering it are the communities of Llansaw ...
and Gellideg at Llandyfaelog
Llandyfaelog () is a community located in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
According to the 2001 census the community has a population of 1,272, of which 71.88 percent are Welsh speaking. The population at the 2011 Census had increased to 1,304.
The commu ...
. Pant Glas was built in 1850 and Gellideg in 1852. The architect for the latter being William Wesley Jenkins. A later example of the Italianate style is the Parc Howard Museum on the outskirts of Llanelli
Llanelli (" St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarth ...
, originally known as Bryncaerau Castle. The house, faced in Bath stone was built to designs by J. B. Wilson between 1882 and 1886.
Old College, Aberystwyth
J.P. Seddon was a London architect who developed an extensive practice in south Wales. Initially he worked with John Prichard from 1853 to 1859 and then with John Coates Carter
John Coates Carter (1859–1927) was an English architect. Born in Norwich, Carter is notable for his design and restoration to churches in South Wales, and in particular Glamorgan. He was partnered with John Pollard Seddon from 1884 to 1904 an ...
, who had an office in Cardiff, until 1904. Seddon was surveyor to Llandaff Cathedral and most of his work was church building and parsonages for the Llandaff Diocese.
Seddon built some notable country houses such as Abermad House in Llanilar
Llanilar is a village and community in Ceredigion, Wales, about southeast of Aberystwyth. It is the eponym of the hundred of Ilar. The population at the 2011 census was 1,085. The community includes Rhos-y-garth.
Name
In Welsh placenames, ma ...
Ceredigion
Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...
in 1870–1872 and most notably the Old College Building of Aberystwyth University. The Old College Building is on the seafront and replaced Castle House, which had been built for Uvedale Price
Sir Uvedale Price, 1st Baronet (baptised 14 April 1747 – 14 September 1829), author of the ''Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared with the Sublime and The Beautiful'' (1794), was a Herefordshire landowner who was at the heart of the ' Picturesq ...
by John Nash in 1791–1794. Castle House had been bought by the railway entrepreneur Thomas Savin in 1864 and he employed Seddon to rebuild it as a hotel. Following Savin's bankruptcy in 1866, it was purchased by the future university and until 1890 Seddon together with his partner John Coates Carter continued to rebuild and extend the building. The Builder
''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...
described it as "one of the most original and characteristic monuments of the Gothic Revival", while Thomas Lloyd writes "Seddon's originality lies in his very fluid use of curves and complex geometrical forms, and in the blurring of angles and joints, syncopation that has something of Art Nouveau". Seddon mixes detail of Early English with Venetian and French late Romanesque and Gothic Architecture
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...
. The stone used comes from Cefn at Minera
Minera ( cy, Mwynglawdd; ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It adjoins the village of Coedpoeth.
The community, which in addition to Minera village includes a number of smaller hamlets such as Gwynfryn and New Brigh ...
, dressed with Bath stone. He also used an artificial stone and concrete in parts of the building.
William Burges in Cardiff
William Burges
William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...
' contribution to Welsh architecture was notable but limited to three buildings, Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch
(; ) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff G ...
and Park House, all three in Cardiff. His castles had little influence on other architecture in Wales. The influence of Park House was much more significant; John Newman considers the house "revolutionized Cardiff's domestic architecture" and the Cadw Grade I listed building status given to the house records it as "the pattern for much housing in Cardiff in later C19. Perhaps the most important (nineteenth century) town house in Wales."
Park House was built between 1871 and 1875 for James McConnochie, the dock engineer to Bute Estate and mayor of Cardiff. The house draws on various French Gothic elements and is reminiscent of the Town Hall of St. Antonin, restored by Viollet le Duc in 1843, with late Romanesque and a Gothic arcade, but with added 15th-century dormer windows. It is built with grey Caerphilly stone and Bath stone dressings; steeply-pitched slate roofs, stone chimneys. Features of the house were imitated by other late Victorian houses in Cardiff, but similar houses such as Llanilar
Llanilar is a village and community in Ceredigion, Wales, about southeast of Aberystwyth. It is the eponym of the hundred of Ilar. The population at the 2011 census was 1,085. The community includes Rhos-y-garth.
Name
In Welsh placenames, ma ...
at Abermad (1870–1872) in Ceredigion
Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...
were being built by John Pollard Seddon
John Pollard Seddon FRIBA (19 September 1827 – 1 February 1906) was a British architect, working largely on churches.
His father was a cabinetmaker, and his brother Thomas Seddon (1821–1856) a landscape painter. Born in London, he was educa ...
.
Planned townscapes, rural and industrial housing
During the latter part of the 18th century and during the 19th century, the laying out of towns, villages and industrial settlements gathered momentum. It was work often done by architects and land-surveyors. The layout and design of Aberaeron
Aberaeron, previously anglicised as Aberayron, is a town, community, and electoral ward between Aberystwyth and Cardigan, in Ceredigion, Wales. Ceredigion County Council offices are in Aberaeron. The name of the town is Welsh for ''mouth of ...
can now be confidently assigned to Edward Haycock and he probably also involved in the development of Aberystwyth. William Jernagen of Swansea is likely to have laid out the three parallel streets forming the core of Milford Haven in 1792–3. At Newtown the development of the Crescent and Penygloddfa to the work of Thomas Penson
Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...
. The grid pattern layout at Pembroke Docks has been attributed to the land surveyor George Gwyther, while the Royal Dockyard and its buildings were probably to the original design of John Rennie and carried out by Edward Holl, architect to the Navy Board. In the 19th century many estate villages were laid out by large landowners, often by the architects, in order to build or rebuild their own houses. Intriguingly Lord Sudeley at Gregynog was to experiment in 1870 with concrete houses for his estate workers at Tregynon
The following is a selection of some of the Industrial and Estate village built in this period:
* Morristown was constructed as "Wales' earliest planned industrial village", laid out on a grid pattern designed by William Edwards and named after its founder, Sir John Morris, Bt. Originally named "Morris Town", but shortened to the single word "Morriston". The Welsh language translation of the name is ''Treforys''. Sir John Morris was also responsible for the construction between 1768 and 1774 of Morris Castle, widely considered to have been the world's first accommodation built specifically for workers by their employer. Little of the structure remains today, although its ruins are visible on high ground above the nearby Landore
Landore ( cy, Glandŵr) is a district and community in Swansea, Wales. The district falls in the Landore council ward. A mainly residential area, it is located about 2.5 miles north of Swansea city centre. The north-easterly part of Landore i ...
district. Morriston was initially constructed for the workers of the tinplate
Tinplate consists of sheets of steel coated with a thin layer of tin to impede rusting. Before the advent of cheap milled steel, the backing metal was wrought iron. While once more widely used, the primary use of tinplate now is the manufacture ...
and copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
industries that built up along the banks of the River Tawe
The River Tawe (; cy, Afon Tawe ) is a long river in South Wales. Its headwaters flow initially east from its source below Llyn y Fan Fawr south of Moel Feity in the Black Mountains, the westernmost range of the Brecon Beacons National ...
in the 18th century. However, tin-plating had almost vanished from the area by the end of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, with production in South West Wales concentrated at new works in Felindre
Felindre is a rural village in southern Wales. Felindre is located in the far north of Swansea, in the electoral ward of Mawr.
The nearby Lower Lliw Reservoirs are a popular venue for walking and fishing. The water mill in the village was workin ...
and Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...
.
*Marford
Marford is a village in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, near the Wales-England border.
Marford covers some , where the hills of north-east Wales meet the Cheshire Plain. Distant landmarks that can be seen clearly from Marford include Eaton Hall ...
near Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
is noted for its quaint looking Gothic revival cottages, built as part of the former Trevalyn Hall
Trevalyn Hall in Rossett, a Grade II* listed building, is an Elizabethan manor house near Wrexham in Wales. It was built by John Trevor in 1576. The Trevor family of Trevalyn were one of the leading families in East Denbighshire by about 1600 wit ...
estates probably between 1803 in the ''cottage orné
Cottage orné () dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Romantic movement, when some sought to discover a more natural way of living as opposed to the formality of the preceding ...
'' style.[Cottage orné]
, Conservation Glossary, University of Dundee It has been described as "a delightful Gothick
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
estate village"[Beazley & Howell, ''The companion guide to North Wales'', Collins, 1975, p. 61] The layout of the estate may be credited John Boydell (nephew of the engraver) who was the agent for the George Boscawen, and a builder, Julius Flower of Hungerford
Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, northeast of Salisbury and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the town alongside the ...
is known to have been employed to build a cottage in pisé
Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. ...
or clay in 1814.
*Berriew
Berriew ( cy, Aberriw) is a village and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It is on the Montgomeryshire Canal and the Afon Rhiw, near the confluence (Welsh: ''aber'') with the River Severn (Welsh: Afon Hafren)
at , 79 miles (128 k ...
is best remembered for its half-timbered cottages which cluster around the churchyard and along the banks of the river Rhiew. These can probably be attributed to Thomas Penson
Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...
. In the late 1830s, at the same time as Penson was working on remodelling Vaynor Park in Berriew for John Winder Lion-Winder, he was also remodelling and building houses in Berriew for the Vaynor estate. As a result of his work Berriew developed as a village with many attractive Cottage Ornée
A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...
houses. Some of these were rebuilt from earlier timber framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
buildings, while others were built in a Tudor Revival style and are some of the earliest examples of Black-and-white Revival architecture
The Black-and-white Revival was an architectural movement from the middle of the 19th century that re-used the vernacular elements of the past, using timber framing. The wooden framing is painted black and the panels between the frames are ...
. Penson's work can be recognised by the massive brick chimney stacks which have been added to the houses, the ornamental bargeboards
Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...
to the gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s and in some cases the black and white painting on the brick work to give the impression of timber framing.
.
*Bersham. Two pleasing groupings of estate cottages for Thomas Lloyd Fitzhugh of Plas Power by John Gibson, architect, of London. Gibson who worked with Sir Charles Barry on the Houses of Parliament is best known as the architect for the Marble Church, Bodelwyddan. The first group of cottages of 1859 have decorative bargeboard
Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...
s.
*Llandegai, the Estate village for Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle ( cy, Castell Penrhyn) is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, constructed in the style of a Norman castle. The Penrhyn estate was founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In the 15th century his descendent Gwilym a ...
laid out in the mid-19th century by James Wyatt !795–1882), son of Benjamin Wyatt. Picturesque Tudor style cottages with steep gables
Industrial and workers' housing
In many areas of Wales extensive areas of workers housing appeared in the 19th century, The rows of terraced housing for coal miner's stretching along the contours of the south Wales valleys are well known. In the areas of the Steel and Tinplate industries similar housing exist and Ironworkers cottages at Rhyd-y-Car in Merthyr Tydfil have been rebuilt at St Fagan's Folk Museum. while slate and other quarrying settlements in north Wales were often located in remote and isolated places such as Cwm enmachnoor Nant Gwrtheyrn. At Nant Gwertheyn, now a Welsh Language learning centre, is situated in a steep ravine and the granite was shipped out by sea. It was originally laid out c. 1878 for the granite quarry workers. There are two terraces of cottages, a Quarry manager's house and a chapel round a green. The quarry closed in 1914 and the last inhabitant left in 1959. For some skilled workers very much better housing was provided. Railway workers at Railway Terrace in Ruthin were provided with rather superior accommodation by the long closed Vale of Clwyd Railway
The Vale of Clwyd Railway (VoCR) was a standard-gauge line which connected the towns of Rhyl and Denbigh via St Asaph in North Wales.
It opened in 1858, at first without a connection to the main line at Rhyl, but this was provided in 1862. At D ...
in 1864
Jacobethan & Tudorbethan
The work of John Douglas the Chester architect, extended into Wales. Plas Fynnon, Nercwys
Nercwys is a rural village and community in Flintshire, Wales, which is surrounded by open countryside. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 585. The older, Anglicised spelling of Nerquis can sometimes be found. It has a small ...
, built as the vicarage to St. Mary's Parish Church in Tudorbethan style has been attributed to him. Built of brown brick with red brick and sandstone detailing under a steeply-pitched tiled roof with over sailing eaves and plain ridge. Asymmetrical facade with advanced, 2-storey gabled porch with moulded purlin-ends, brackets and plain finial. Tudor-arched entrance of tooled ashlar, stopped and moulded and with date 1877 carved in the spandrels.
Another example of Douglas working in the Tudorbethan style was Wigfair Hall, a large country house of 1882–1884 standing in an elevated position above the River Elwy near the village of Cefn Meiriadog, Denbighshire, Wales. It is constructed in red Ruabon brick
Ruabon ( cy, Rhiwabon ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The name comes from ''Rhiw Fabon'', ''rhiw'' being the Welsh word for "slope" or "hillside" and ''Fabon'' being a mutation from St Mabon, the original church ...
on a limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
plinth
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...
with sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
dressings, and a Ruabon tile roof. It has an L-shape with a main north wing and a west service wing.
The style was used by the Shrewsbury architect James Pickhard for building Fronfraith Hall in Llandyssil
Llandyssil is a village in Powys, Wales, about two miles from the town of Montgomery.
The village is part of the Llandyssil community. In 2001 there were 420 inhabitants in the parish, of whom 300 lived in the village itself.The population fig ...
in Montgomeryshire in 1863.
A more important example of this style is the Neo-Tudor extensions to The Hendre
The Hendre, ( cy, Yr Hendre a farmer's winter residence; literally meaning old home) in Rockfield, is the only full-scale Victorian country house in the county of Monmouthshire, Wales. The ancestral estate of the Rolls family, it was the child ...
in Monmouthshire, the seat of the Rolls family. The original hunting lodge was constructed in a Neo-Norman style by an unknown architect in the 1820s. This was extended by T. H. Wyatt between 1837 and 1841. Then, from 1870 to the mid-1880s, Wyatt and his clerk of works, Henry Pope added a great Hall, an entrance court and a massive dining-room wing in Neo-Tudor style. Finally in 1895–1896 one of the leading architects of the period, Aston Webb
Sir Aston Webb (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in pa ...
, added the Arts and Crafts Neo-Tudor Library Wing. This created a house with a corridor from the front door to the library of no less than 75 metres. The interior was furnished with much genuine Tudor and Jacobean woodwork, which had been collected from local houses.
Arts and crafts
Arts and Crafts architecture can be seen as an extension of the Tudorbethan Style in Wales. It is seen as starting c. 1887 under the influence of William Morris and was introduced into Wales by architects such as William Eden Nesfield
William Eden Nesfield (2 April 1835 – 25 March 1888) was an English architect. Like his some-time partner, Richard Norman Shaw, he designed several houses in Britain in the revived 'Old English' and 'Queen Anne' styles during the 1860s and 1 ...
who was responsible for the rebuilding of Kinmel Hall
Kinmel Hall is a large country mansion within Kimnel Park near the village of St. George, close to the coastal town of Abergele, in Conwy county borough, Wales. The hall, the third building on the site, was completed in the mid 19th century f ...
and the designer W.A.S Benson who was the architect for Clochfaen at Llangurig
Llangurig is both a village and a community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. The population was 723 in the 2011 UK Census. The community includes the hamlet of Cwmbelan.
The River Wye, the A470 and the A44 trunk roads pass through Llangurig, ...
in Montgomeryshire. These architects very much favoured the use of half-timbered decoration, red brickworks, roof tiles and tile hanging on walls. A notable architect in this tradition was Frank Shayler who had set up offices in Oswestry and Shrewsbury and developed an extensive practice particularly in Montgomeryshire. Shayler, together with other architects in his practice were patronised by Lord Davies of Llandinam and were responsible for a series of Institute buildings in Montgomeryshire, as well as restoring a number of half timbered buildings such as the Mermaid in Welshpool and Glyndŵr's Parliament House in Machynlleth. In Radnorshire the architect Stephen W. Williams also worked in this style and built the Offices in Rhayader
Rhayader (; cy, Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is locate ...
for the supervision of the Elan Valley Reservoir project. A good example of this style providing domestic housing is the Lodge at Chepstow
Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...
, built between 1902 and 1908 by an unknown architect. Newman describes this as "a witty, if rather belated essay in Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
style" with stone, tile hanging and half-timbered gables.
Later Arts and Crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement progressed in Wales very much under the influence of C. F. A. Voysey and Edwin Lutyens, who were throwing off the influence of both the Gothic Revival and the half-timbered Tudor Revival styles which had been so prevalent in Wales. Voysey had worked in partnership with J. P. Seddon with offices in Cardiff, but, as yet no examples of his work with Seddon have been recognised. Then, in 1903–1906, he returned to Wales to design the little-known Tŷ Bronna on St Fagans Road, Cardiff. This is a minor masterpiece with its clean white outline, faced in stone, gabled at each end with a hipped roof and the angled battered buttresses from ground level to the eaves. It has a bowed east window with a recessed veranda and was restored in 2002. Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...
sees buildings such as this by Voysey as being a precursor of Modernist architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
.
Architecture of this style was produced by Herbert Luck North in north Wales and on occasion by Clough Williams-Ellis
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...
in his designs for council smallholdings adapted by Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
County Council. This style was developed by the Garden City movement and was widely used on Welsh garden villages and housing schemes until after the Second World War.
At Harlech the Glasgow architect George Henry Walton
George Henry Walton (3 June 1867 Glasgow – 10 December 1933 London), was a noted Scottish architect and designer of remarkable diversity.
Biography
George Walton was born in Glasgow in 1862. He was the youngest of twelve talented children o ...
, better known for his Art Nouveau architecture, was to design Wern Fawr in 1908 and also the St David's Hotel (1907–1911); the latter burnt down in 1922.
Cardiff architecture of the Victorian and early 20th centuries
![Old Library](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Old_Library.JPG)
An architect who made a notable contribution to the public and commercial architecture of Cardiff was Edwin Seward. In 1875, he became part of the James, Seward and Thomas Partnership. In 1880 Seward won a competition for the design of the Cardiff Free Library, which consisted of a Library, Museum and Schools for Science and Art. The first phase was completed in 1882, but it was not finally completed until 1896.
In 1881 Seward enlarged the Cardiff Union Workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...
with a new entrance building on the Cowbridge Road frontage with a 3-storey tower and clock face, still in a late Gothic revival style. This building was to become the St David's Hospital. This was also the style Seward adopted for the Cardiff Royal Infirmary
Cardiff Royal Infirmary ( cy, Ysbyty Brenhinol Caerdydd) (also known as the CRI or YBC) is a hospital in central Cardiff, Wales. It is managed by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
History
The hospital has its origins in the Cardiff ...
of 1883
Seward's next building, the Cardiff Coal Exchange
The Coal Exchange (also known as the Exchange Building) is an historic building in Cardiff, Wales. It is designed in Renaissance Revival style. Built in 1888 as the Coal and Shipping Exchange to be used as a market floor and office building for ...
in Butetown
Butetown (or ''The Docks'', cy, Tre-biwt) is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose t ...
was built between 1883 and 1888 and it is moving more towards a Baroque revival style, although Newman calls it a "debased French Renaissance style". In 1894 Seward produced his "Dream of the Future" for Cardiff, which appeared in the Western Mail in February 1894 and also plans for Cardiff Museum. This, however, was overtaken by the development of Cathays Park
Cathays Park ( cy, Parc Cathays) or Cardiff Civic Centre is a civic centre area in the city centre of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, consisting of a number of early 20th century buildings and a central park area, Alexandra Gardens. It i ...
starting in 1905, for which he did not get a commission. In 1895 he designed the Morgan Arcade
The Morgan Arcade is a shopping arcade in Cardiff, South Wales.
Started in 1896, it was built to connect the main entrance of David Morgan's department store on St Mary's Street, with his other store on The Hayes. It opened in 1899 as the New ...
in Cardiff and the following year the Turner Gallery at Penarth. Finally in 1902–1903 he was responsible for the monumental Swansea Docks Trust Office now Morgans Hotel, Swansea.
Earlier 20th-century architecture
Baroque Revival architecture
Baroque Revival architecture is variously described as Neo-Baroque and Edwardian Baroque
Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style.
Description
Edwardian architecture is ...
, and is paralleled in France by Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorp ...
. The style is also called "Wrenaissance", acknowledging a debt to Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
. In Wales the style starts appearing in the 1890s and was used for major public architecture, the newly founded universities and commercial buildings. It reflected the considerable wealth generated in this period, particularly from coal mining and also the growth of Welsh National Identity. The first buildings in the newly planned Cathays Park
Cathays Park ( cy, Parc Cathays) or Cardiff Civic Centre is a civic centre area in the city centre of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, consisting of a number of early 20th century buildings and a central park area, Alexandra Gardens. It i ...
in Cardiff, described as "the finest civic centre in the British Isles"[Newman (2000), p. 220] were the Cardiff Town Hall, later City Hall and the Law Courts, based on plans drawn up in 1897 and built between 1901 and 1905 to designs by Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards. Newman sums up the buildings as "swaggering Baroque .. setting a new standard setting a new standard for the emergence of the Edwardian grand style for public buildings in Great Britain. No Victorian architect had hitherto demonstrated such mastery of Continental Baroque, in this case the Baroque of South Germany and Austria, combined with the Neo-Baroque of Charles Garniers' Paris Opera." The setting is given opulence by the use of Portland Stone for the facades. The National Museum of Wales
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
was added to this grouping in the modified American Neo-Barogue or Beaux-Arts style by the London architects Smith and Brewer and later extended by the Welsh architects T. Alwyn Lloyd and Alex Gordon
Alexander Jonathan Gordon (born February 10, 1984) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played his entire career for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2007 to 2020. Prior to playing professio ...
.
The Baroque Revival style was also used for a range of other public buildings, banks and schools and universities. A refined example of this style was used by Alfred Cross
Alfred William Stephens Cross (1858–1932) was a British architect.
From 1889 to 1899 he was in partnership with Henry Spalding as Spalding and Cross, taking part in many competitions for building design. Cross and his son (Kenneth Mervyn B ...
for the Edward Davies Building at Aberystwyth University, was the first purpose-built chemical laboratory in a British university. It was opened in 1907 by Lord Asquith and remained a functioning Chemistry Department until 1988. It now serves as the School of Art Building.
F Inigo Thomas also remodelled Ffynone House at Newchapel in Pembrokeshire in a neo-Baroque in 1902–1907 with massive rusticated quoining added to the facade. The house had originally been built by John Nash in 1792–1797.
One of the earliest examples in Wales of the Baroque revival or "Wrenaissance" style to appear in Wales is the Barry Dock Offices
Barry Docks Offices is a council building in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan in south-east Wales. It is prominently sited, overlooking the docks to the south, below the town and on a level site near Castleland Point, a promontory within Dock View Road. ...
built for David Davies as the offices for the Barry Docks & Railway Company, and was part of the scheme for the development of Barry Docks
Barry Docks ( cy, Dociau'r Barri) is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. They were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alterna ...
. It was constructed between 1897 and 1900 The architect was Arthur E. Bell. A very similar building, which appears to be copying the Barry Offices on a lesser scale to this is the Stiwt or Rhosllannerchrugog Miners' Institute, close to Wrexham, which was built much later, between 1924 and 1926, by the local architects John Owen and F A Roberts. In Barry the Docks Office was followed in 1903–1908 by the town hall, which was built by the architects Charles E Hutchinson and E Harding Payne in red brick and lavish Bath Stone adjoined by a seven-bay public library with the centre three bays defined by giant Ionic pilasters. Equally ambitious, but on a smaller scale, is the red brick and limestone Town Hall by F A Roberts at Mold
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...
in Flintshire.
Baroque revival was also a favoured style for bank architecture. An example is the former North and South Wales Bank, now HSBC in Aberystwyth. This was by Woodfall and Eccles of Liverpool and was built in 1908–1909. Three-bay frontage, with a recessed centre framed columns and topped by a broken curved pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
.
An example of the use of the American Beaux-Arts style is the James Howell & Co. (now House of Fraser) department store in St Mary's Street. This was the work of Sir Percy Thomas in 1928–1930. It makes use of Erectheum Ionic columns with a rounded corner and a memorable relief sculpture frieze designed by Thomas which symbolises the drapery trade.
Garden villages
* Garden Village/Acton Gate, Wrexham. The development of Garden Village began with the purchase of some of land from Sir Foster Cunliffe near to the estate of Acton by the Welsh Town Planning and Housing Trust Limited.[The Garden City Movement Up-To-Date by Ewart G. Culpi]
(Retrieved 2011-01-11) The intention was to provide affordable housing to workers coming to Wrexham to work in the expanding industries of coal and iron. Gresford Colliery had recently been opened where it was expected that approximately 3,000 men would be employed in the next two years. A Co-partnership Housing Society was set up in 1913 called Wrexham Tenants Limited, with Lord Kenyon, Mr. David Davies, M.P., and others as Directors to build the houses, while the Trust would build the roads and supervise the development of the estate. The plan was drawn up on an axial layout by the architect George Lister Sutcliffe, G. L. Cunliffe. In the first year, 44 properties were completed; numbers 63–69 Acton Gate, numbers 149–167, Chester Road (originally called Bryn Acton) and Cunliffe Walk. These first house were designed by Sutcliffe and the remaining 205 by Thomas Alwyn Lloyd
Thomas Alwyn Lloyd (11 August 1881 – 19 June 1960), known as ''T. Alwyn Lloyd'', was a Welsh architect and town planner. He was one of the founders of the Town Planning Institute in 1914 and its President in 1933. He was also a founding memb ...
, architect to the trust.
*Hardwick Garden Village, Chepstow. Built for shipyard workers c. 1913–19 for local shipyard workers by Dunn, Watson and Curtis Green. Similar to other garden villages with symmetrical groupings, with pairs of gables set either together or wide apart and cat slide roofs and concrete block walls, now mainly rendered, and brick chimney stacks.
*1913 Machynlleth
Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a pop ...
Garden Village, Powys. Thirteen terraced houses.
*1913–1914 Wrexham Garden Village, 205 houses.
* Llanidloes garden suburb, Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
[
*1915– ]Barry Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...
Garden Suburb, Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol ...
*1920–1923 Rhiwbina Garden Village
Rhiwbina Garden Village ( cy, Pentref Gardd Rhiwbeina) is a residential development in Rhiwbina, a northern suburb of Cardiff. It was begun in 1912 to a masterplan by Raymond Unwin, one of the leading architects of the Garden city movement. Unwin' ...
, Cardiff[
*1936 Trebeferad Land Settlement Scheme, ]Boverton
Boverton ( cy, Trebefered) is a village located to the east of Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales.
History
Boverton was founded during the reign of William the Conqueror in England. It is thought that he himself founded Bov ...
, Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan. Housing intended to be a new village for miners resettled from the South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield ( cy, Maes glo De Cymru) extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, espe ...
.[
*1936 Fferm Goch, ]Penllyn, Vale of Glamorgan
Penllyn ( cy, Pen-llin) is a village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It is located north west of the market town of Cowbridge. As a community it contains the settlements of Llansannor, Pentre Meryrick, Trerhingyll, Ystradowen
...
. 34 Semi-detached houses for unemployed miners.[
*1951 Llwynygog Forest Village, ]Staylittle
Staylittle ( cy, Penffordd-las), sometimes referred to colloquially as Y Stay or Y Stae, is a small village set in the shallow upland basin of the Afon Clywedog on the B4518 road, equidistant from Llanidloes and Llanbrynmair in the Historic count ...
, Hafren Forest
Hafren Forest lies north-west of Llanidloes, an ancient market town in Mid Wales.
Overview
The forest covers around , and consists mainly of pine and spruce trees. It takes its name from the Afon Hafren () which rises in a deep peat bog approxi ...
, Powys. Housing for Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.
The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...
workers.
Inter-war architecture
Hilling, writing in 1976, remarks that in Wales "the interwar period is almost devoid of significantly progressive buildings and the abstract Neo-classicism of those public building that were erected had more in common with the architecture of Albert Speer and the Nazi and Fascist architecture."
The leading Welsh architect of the inter-War years was Sir Percy Thomas
Sir Percy Edward Thomas OBE (13 September 1883 – 19 August 1969) was an Anglo-Welsh architect who worked in Wales for the majority of his life. He was twice RIBA president (1935–37 and 1943–46).
Biography
Percy Edward Thomas was born on ...
.
The Burton menswear store in Abergavenny is a noted example of Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
. Built in 1937, it is a Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
.
In Ammanford the impressive classical Miner's Welfare Hall, now the Miner's Theatre was built to the designs of J.O. Parry, around 1935. Classical front in brick with giant Ionic column
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
s is mixed with modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
fenestration and detailing
Art Deco and international Modernist school of architecture
Examples of Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
buildings in Wales are limited largely to Cinemas and houses. Possibly the best example of a cinema is the recently closed Pola Cinema in Berriew Street, Welshpool
Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...
, with its attractive curved frontage and good stained glass, which was completed in 1938. An important house in the International Modernist style is the Villa Marina, set on the seafront at Llandudno. It was designed by Harry Weedon
Harold William "Harry" Weedon (1887 – 17 June 1970) was a British architect. Although he designed a large number of buildings during a long career, he is best known for his role overseeing the Art Deco designs of the Odeon Cinemas for Oscar Deu ...
in 1936 well known as a cinema architect. It restored in the 2000s.
An example of Art Deco architecture is Penarth Pier. The original cast-iron pier was designed by H. F. Edwards in 1892–1894. In 1927–1928 a pier pavilion was built in Reinforced concrete, Ferro concrete to designs by Mouchel, L.G. Mouchel and Partners. Mouchel was founded in Briton Ferry now in Neath Port Talbot in 1897 by Louis Gustave Mouchel, who arrived in the UK from France with a licence to use the new technique of reinforcing concrete using iron bars that had been developed by François Hennebique.[ was a pioneer in the use of re-enforced concrete, although the pavilion was built after Mouchel's death. The pavilion has topee shaped dome lets and a semicircular Tuscan colonnade.
An example of Mouchel's use of Ferro-Concrete is the White Bridge at ]Pontypridd
() ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales.
Geography
comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest (). ...
. This was built in 1907, to designs by P R A Willoughby, surveyor to Pontypridd Urban District Council, in association with L G Mouchel & Partners. The contractor was Watkin Williams & Page. Its river span, of 35metres, was when built, the longest reinforced concrete arch in Britain.
The architecture of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis
Clough Williams-Ellis
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...
is primarily remembered as the creator of the village of Portmeirion. He established himself as a London-based architect but became a major figure in the development of Welsh architecture in the first half of the 20th century, working in a variety of styles and designing a wide range of buildings. In 1909 he was to design a house in an advanced Arts and Crafts style for Cyril Joynson at Brecfa in Breconshire[Haslam (1996), p. 24, pl 1.] In 1913–1914 he was to be responsible for the rebuilding of Llangoed Hall in Breconshire, one of the last country houses to be built before the First World War. It is a mixture of historic styles, but with modern features with elements such as the chimneys derived from the work of Lutyens Other work in Wales by Clough Williams-Ellis includes the Festiniog Memorial Hospital of 1922, Pentrefelin Village Hall, the Conway Fall Cafe. At Aberdaron he designed the Old Post Office in a vernacular style in 1950. An important later commission was the redesign and rebuilding of Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
Clough Williams- Ellis was equally capable in working in the Modernist idiom of the interwar years. This is well demonstrated by the recently restored Caffi Moranedd at Cricieth and the now demolished Snowdon Summit Station of 1934, which was demolished in 2007.
However, his more memorable creation in Wales is the capriccio (painting), capriccio town of Portmeirion on the coast of the Llyn near to Portmadoc. This is notable not only as an architectural composition, but also because Clough Williams-Ellis was able to preserve fragments from other now demolished buildings from Wales and Cheshire. These include the plaster ceiling from Emral Hall The village was built in two phases, one before 1939 and the other 1954-1976, with Williams-Ellis designing most of the buildings.
Post-war architecture in Wales
In the years following the 2nd World War resources mainly went on the provision of housing. During these years of austerity some public buildings were constructed including the village hall or Neuadd Tysul at Llandysul in Ceredigion
Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...
of 1955. This was the work of John Davies the county surveyor. The concrete frontage has been enlivened by the crow stepped gables and the attractive Festival of Britain lettering.
During the 1960s local Government started to commission some notable buildings. Foremost amongst these is the Wrexham Swimming baths of 1965–1967 by F.D. Williamson associates of Bridgend. The baths have a giant parabolic roof covers three swimming pool with the glassed end with the diving boards rising to four stories. These architects were also responsible for the Sport Wales National Centre of 1971 in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. In Brecon the County Library of 1969 by J.A. McRobbie, is a well designed Brutalist building in Ship Street, but its position is hemmed in and led to destruction of other older buildings in the street
In the Post War Period many major building projects started to be awarded to Welsh architectural firms. Leading firms were Percy Thomas Partnership and Alex Gordon and Partners in the south, and Colwyn Foulkes Partnership and Bowen Dann Davies of Colwyn Bay in the north. The Percy Thomas Partnership lost its identity when it was forced into liquidation in 2004. It has since become part of Capita Symonds
The first true skyscraper in Wales was the Capital Tower, Cardiff, Capital Tower in Cardiff. It was completed in 1969–1970 and providing of floor space over 25 storeys. It was originally known as Pearl House and was designed by the London firm John James Burnet, Sir John Burnet and Partners which became Burnet Tait & Lorne.
1980–2000
A notable project at the end of the 20th century was the creation of the National Botanic Garden of Wales
The National Botanic Garden of Wales ( cy, Gardd Fotaneg Genedlaethol Cymru) is a botanical garden located in Llanarthney in the River Tywi valley, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The garden is both a visitor attraction and a centre for botanical rese ...
. The most striking feature of this was the Great Glasshouse. Designed 1995–1996 by Foster and Partners and built 1997–1999. This is the largest single span glasshouse in the world 110 metres long and 60 metres wide. The roof, an "elliptical torus", is carried on twenty-four elliptical arches and covers 3,500 square metres, and provides Wales with a building of international note.
21st-century architecture
Ushering in the 21st-century architecture in Wales was Jan Kaplicky's of Future Systems Malator at Nolton in Pembrokeshire. The site overlooks St Bride's bay and is within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The house was built in 1998 and is a notable example of Sustainable architecture, Eco architecture. It is excavated into the sloping ground and is turf roofed. The house appears as a low hillock with only a metal flue rising from the grassThe seaward elevation is entirely of glass. Steel framed construction with a ring beam that supports the roof.
Tower blocks
Currently the tallest building in Wales is The Tower, Meridian Quay at Swansea, which is 107 meters high and completed in 2010.
The tower has 29 storeys, double the number of the previous tallest building in Swansea, the BT Tower, Swansea, BT Tower. Most of The Tower houses residential apartments. The design was by Latitude Architects and elliptical shape of the building is reminiscent of the work of the Austrian architect Heinz Tesar. The only other high rise buildings in Wales are in Cardiff.
Millennium Centre
The most striking building of 21st-century Wales is the Wales Millennium Centre, Millennium centre on Cardiff Bay. The centre was designed by Jonathan Adams (architect), Jonathan Adams, of local practice Percy Thomas Partnership, Percy Thomas Architects
Wales Millennium Centre ( cy, Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru) is an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of .
The Centre comprises one large theatre and two smaller halls with shops, bars and restaurants. It houses the national orchestra and opera, dance, theatre and literature companies, a total of eight arts organisations in residence. It is also home to the Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre. The main theatre, the Donald Gordon Theatre, has 1,897 seats, the BBC Hoddinott Hall 350 and the Weston Studio Theatre 250.
The Senedd building, Senedd
![Senedd Wales gallery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Senedd_Wales_gallery.jpg)
The Senedd houses the debating chamber and committee rooms of the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament). It was completed in 2006.
The building faces south west over Cardiff Bay, it has a glass façade around the entire building and is dominated by a steel roof and wood ceiling. It has three floors, the first and second floors are accessible is to the public and the ground floor is a private area for officials. The building was designed to be as open and accessible as possible, the architects, the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP) said "The building was not to be an insular, closed edifice. Rather it would be a transparent envelope, looking outwards to Cardiff Bay and beyond, making visible the inner workings of the Assembly and encouraging public participation in the democratic process." The main area in the building is the debating chamber, called the Siambr, including a public viewing gallery. Other areas of the building are the Neuadd, which is the main reception area on the first floor and the Oriel on the second floor. The three committee rooms and the Cwrt are on the ground floor.
See also
* List of Welsh Architects
* Architecture of Cardiff
* Building stones of Wales
* Buildings associated with Owain Glyndŵr
* Castles in Wales
* Clough Williams-Ellis
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...
* John Nash (architect)
* Richard Clough
References
Literature
General literature
*Alfrey, J. (2001), ''Rural Building in Nineteenth- Century North Wales: The Role of the Great Estate'', Archaeologia Cambrensis. Vol 147, 1998, 199–216.
*Brodie, Antonia (ed.) Directory of British Architects, 1834–1914: Vols.1- 2, British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects, 2001
*Barnwell, E L. (1867), ''Domestic Architecture of South Pembrokeshire'', Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol 13, 193–204, 363–374 & Vol 14,1868, 70–84.
* Dineley, T. (intro. R. W. Banks) (1888), ''The Account of the Official Progress of his Grace Henry...Duke of Beaufort (Lord President of the Council in Wales and Lord Warden of the Marches) through Wales in 1684'' Blades, East and Blades, London.
*Emery, A. (2000) ''Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500'': Volume 2, East Anglia, Central England and Wales: East Anglia, Central England and Wales Vol 2. Cambridge University Press.
*
*Hilling, J. B. (1976), ''The Historic Architecture of Wales: An Introduction'', UWP. 2nd ed (2018),''The Architecture of Wales: From the First to the Twenty-First Century'',UWP.ISBN9781786832863
* Lloyd, T. (1986). 2nd ed., ''The Lost houses of Wales'', Save.
*Seaborne, M. (1992), ''Schools in Wales 1500–1900: Asocial and Architectural History.'' Gee & Son, Denbigh.
*Smith, p. (1990), ''Houses of the Welsh Countryside'', 2nd Edition, 1988, HMSO/ RCAHMW
*Smith, p. (1990), "Rural Building in Wales" in Barley M.W. (ed), ''The Buildings of the Countryside 1500–1750'', Vol 5, of ''Chapters from the Agrarian History of England and Wales'' (ed. Thirsk J.) Cambridge University Press, pp. 177–395. A major source for Welsh architecture, with much that is not covered in ''Houses of the Welsh Countryside''.
*
*Suggett, R. and Stevenson, G. (2010), ''Introducing Houses of the Welsh Countryside. Cyflwyno Cartrefi Cefn Gwlad Cymru.'' Y Lolfa/ RCAHMW.
*Tree, M. & Baker, M. (2008), ''Forgotten Welsh Houses'', Hendre House Publishing.
*Thurlby, M. (2005), ''Romanesque Architecture and Sculpture in Wales'', Logaston Press.
*
*
County and Area surveys
* Haslam R. et al. (2009), ''The Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd'', Yale University Press.
*
*
*Lloyd T et al. (2003), "Pembrokeshire: The Buildings of Wales" Yale University Press
*Lowe R. (2002), ''Lost Houses in and around Wrexham'', Landmark Publishing.
*Morris B (1998), ''Old Gower Farmhouses and their Families''. The Gower Society. 1998
*John Newman (architectural historian), Newman, John (1995), ''The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan'', Penguin Books.
*Newman, John (2000), ''The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire''. Penguin Books.
* (1911), ''Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouth I – County of Montgomery''.
*RCAHMW (1981), ''Glamorgan: The Greater Houses'' HMSO.
*RCAHMW (1914), ''Inventory of Denbighshire''
*Scourfield R. and Haslam R. (2013), ''The Buildings of Wales: Powys; Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire'', Yale University Press.
Interiors and individual houses
* Kightly, C. (2005), ''Living Rooms: Interior Decoration in Wales 400–1960''. CADW.
* Davies, K. ''Artisan Art: Vernacular wall paintings in the Welsh Marches, 1550–1650'', Logaston Press.
*Siddons, M.P. (2000), ''The Heraldic Carvings at Gregynog'', Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol. 88, 53–62.
*Turner, R. C. (1995), ''Robert Wynn and the Building of Plas Mawr, Conwy''. National Library of Wales Journal. 29 (2): 177–209.
* Turner, R. C. (2008), ''Plas Mawr, Conwy'' (Revised ed.). Cardiff, UK: Cadw. .
Building materials
*Dillon, M. J. (1985), ''Bricks Tiles and Terracotta from Wrexham and Ruabon'' An Exhibition on one of the major industries of the Wrexham area. Grosvenor Museum, Chester. .
* Stratton, M. (1993), ''The Terracotta Revival : Building Innovation and the Image of the Industrial City in Britain and North America.'' London : Gollancz.
Vernacular architecture
*Alcock, N., Barnwell, p. and Cherry, M. (eds) (2020), ''Cruck Building: A Survey, Rewley House Studies in the Historic Environment'', 11, Shaun Tyas Donington, Lincolnshire.
*Britnell, W. J. (ed) (2001), ''Ty-Mawr, Castle Caereinion'', Montgomeryshire Collections, Volume 89.
*Brooksby, H. (1968–1973), ''The Houses of Radnorshire'' Transactions of the Radnorshire Society.
*Cherry, M. and Thompson, p. (2020), ''The Afterlife of Cruck Houses: Modernisation and Obsolescence in North Wales.'' in Alcock, N., Barnwell, p. and Cherry, M. (eds), pp. 323–358.
*Dunn, M. and Suggett, R. (2014) ''Darganfod Tai Hanesyddol Eryri / Discovering the Historic Houses of Snowdonia'', RCAHMW
*Fox, C. & Lord Raglan (1951–1954), ''Monmouthshire Houses'', National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. 3 Vols.
*Jones, S.R. and Smith, J.T. (1966–1967), ''The Houses of Breconshire'' Brycheiniog, 1963,
*Hughes, H. (1898), ''Old Houses in the neighbourhood of Llansilin'', Archaeologia Cambrensis, 5th series, vol 15, pp. 154–77.
*Lowe, J. (1993), ''Welsh Country Workers Housing 1775–1875'', National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
*Romilly, Allen J. (1902), ''Old Farmhouses with Round Chimneys near St Davids'', Archaeologia Cambrensis, pp. 1–24.
*Smith, p. (1998), ''Historic Timber Construction in Wales'' in Stenning D.F. & Andrews D.D. (eds) ''Regional Variation in Timber-Framed Building in England and Wales Down to 1550, The Proceedings of the 1994, Cressing Conference'', Essex County Council, Chelmsford. pp. 88–103.
*Smith, p. (2001), ''Ty-Mawr and the Aisle Truss Houses of Wales'', in Britnell W. ''Ty-Mawr Castle Caerenion'', Montgomeryshire Collections Vol. 89 2001, pp. 201–18
*Smith, p. and Owen C.E.V. (1965–6), ''A short architectural note on Ystradfaelog, the Bryn and Lower Gwestydd '', Montgomeryshire Collections Vol. 59, pp. 102–111.
*Suggett, R. (2005), ''Houses and History in the March of Wales: Radnorshire 1400–1800'' RCAHMW
*Suggett, R. (2020), ''Crucks in Wales'', in "Alcock N, Barnwell P and Cherry M (eds)", pp. 274–299.
*RCAHMW (1988), ''Farmhouses and Cottages'' Glamorgan Inventory: Vol.4 part 2.
* Wiliam, E. (1988), ''Home-made Homes: Dwellings of the rural poor in Wales'', National Museum of Wales.
* Wiliam, E. (2010). ''The Welsh Cottage. Building traditions of the rural poor 1750–1900'' RCAHMW.
Agricultural buildings
* Robinson, J. M. (1983), ''Georgian Model Farms: A Study of Decorative and Model Farm Buildings in the Age of Improvement 1700–1846''. Oxford.
* Wade-Martins, S. (2002), ''The English Model Farm – Building the Agricultural Ideal, 1700–1914'' English Heritage/Windgather Press.
* Wiliam, E. (1986) ''Historical Farm Buildings of Wales'', John Donald, Edinburgh
Industrial buildings and transport
*Hughes, S. (1990), ''The Brecon Forest Tramroad: The Archaeology of an Early Railway System'', RCAHMW.
*Hughes, S. (2000), ''Copperopolis: Landscapes of the Early Industrial Period in Swansea''
*Lowe, J. (1985), ''Welsh Industrial Workers Housing 1775–1875'', National Museum of Wales.
Architects
*Crook, M. (ed) (1981), ''The Strange Genius of William Burges: Art-Architect'', 1827–1881. National Museum of Wales. .
*Darby, M. (1997), ''John Pollard Seddon (Catalogue of Architectural Drawings in the Victoria & Albert Museum)''.
* Davey, Elaine (2013) ''A National Architect? :The Percy Thomas Practice and Welsh national identity'', Cardiff School of Planning and Geography Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosoph
* Davey, Elaine and Thomas, Huw (2014) Chief Creator of Modern Wales: The neglected legacy of Percy Thomas''. North American Journal of Welsh Studies, Vol
*Haslam, R. (1996), ''Clough Williams-Ellis'', RIBA Drawings Monograph No2.
*Jenkins, D.E. (n.d ? 2014), ''The Penson Dynasty: Building on the Welsh Border, 1822–1859.'' Oswestry Civic Society.
*Mansbridge, Michael (1991), ''John Nash: A complete catalogue'', Phaidon Press
*Suggett, R. (1995), '' John Nash Architect in Wales'', ,
*Voelcker, A. (2011), ''Herbert Luck North: Arts and Crafts Architecture for Wales'', RCAHMW.
External links
*British Listed Buildings: Wale
*, Coflei
*VAG (Vernacular Architecture Group) – Database of Dendrochronological dates including Wales
*Archiseek: Images of mainly Victorian and Edwardian architecture in Wale
*Description of Listed Buildings in Wrexham with excellent photograph
*Banerjee, Jacqueline ''Edwin Seward (1853–1924) and the Building of the Welsh Capital'
*Welsh Building Stones: Welsh Stones Forum
*Welsh Brickmaking and Brickyards
*''An Index of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors, Builders, working in Wales.'
A detailed listing of Welsh Architects.
{{Architecture of Europe
Architecture of Wales, 01
Buildings and structures in Wales by style
Buildings and structures in Wales
National Trust properties in Wales