Clydach House,

Llanelly Llanelly () is a village, Community (Wales), community, and parish in the county of Monmouthshire, South East Wales. It formerly existed in the historic county of Brecknockshire. The population of the community and ward at the 2011 United Kin ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

is a house dating from 1693. Constructed as the home for the manager of an ironworks in the nearby

Clydach Gorge The Clydach Gorge (also known as Cwm Clydach) is a steep-sided valley in south-east Wales down which the River Clydach, Monmouthshire, River Clydach flows to the River Usk. It runs for from the vicinity of Brynmawr in Blaenau Gwent eastwards and ...

, it remains a private residence and is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Clydach Gorge became an important centre for ironworking in the 17th century. Clydach House was built in 1693 for Francis Lewis, manager of the Llanelly Furnace. Lewis's arms are above the front door, together with the date of 1693. Sir Bartle Frere, colonial administrator and son of the manager of the Clydach Ironworks, was born at the house in 1815.

Architecture and description

The architectural historian John Newman describes Clydach as a "symmetrical, double-pile house". It is of three storeys, constructed of white rendered stone. The building has original

casement windows A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a case ...

and a contemporary internal staircase. The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust describes it as a "gentry house", indicating its size and relative sophistication. It has been described as being "in the Tudor style. Clydach is a

, its listing record describing it as "a remarkably well-preserved ironworks manager’s house".

Footnotes

References

* {{Cite book , last=Newman, first=John , authorlink=John Newman (architectural historian) , series=The Buildings of Wales , title=Gwent/Monmouthshire , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knRf4U60QjcC&dq=The+Buildings+of+Wales%3A+Gwent%2FMonmouthshire&pg=PA2 , year=2000 , publisher=Penguin , location=London , isbn=0-14-071053-1 Grade II* listed buildings in Monmouthshire Grade II* listed houses Houses completed in 1693