Craig-y-parc House is a country house in

Pentyrch Pentyrch ( cy, Pen-tyrch) is a village and community located on the western outskirts of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The village gives its name to a Cardiff local authority electoral ward, Pentyrch, which covers the village and immediat ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales. Dating from 1914 to 1918, it was built for Thomas Evans, a colliery owner, by Charles Edward Mallows. The house reputedly cost £100,000. Craig-y-parc 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 Irel ...

. The garden and park surrounding the house has its own Grade II* listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, is a designated

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

and contains a number of listed structures. The house now operates as a residential school for children and young adults with disabilities.

History

Thomas Evans began his career as a railwayman. Known as "Small Coal Evans", he reputedly made his fortune by collecting coal that had fallen from coal trucks operating on the railways in 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, espec ...

. By 1940, he held a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, was the Chairman of the Cardiff Coal and Shipping Exchange, Vice-chairman of the Ocean Coal Company and a

Justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Glamorganshire. In 1914, Evans commissioned Charles Edward Mallows to build a house some seven miles north of Cardiff in woods close to the village of

. Mallows, who died the year after work had begun, was an architect in the Arts and Crafts style, much influenced by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

. His major work was Tirley Garth in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, another Lutyenseque house for another rich industrialist. Mallows also had full responsibility for the design of the gardens surrounding the house, which he laid out to an Arts and Crafts-influenced design. The whole reputedly cost Evans a sum in excess of £100,000. Following Evans' death in 1943, Craig-y-parc came into the possession of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

before being sold in 1954 to the

Spastics Society Scope (previously known as the National Spastics Society) is a disability charity in England and Wales that campaigns to change negative attitudes about disability, provides direct services, and educates the public. The organisation was found ...

which opened a residential school at the site in 1955. The school continues to provide residential care for children and young adults with disabilities, operated by Salutem Healthcare.

Architecture and description

Craig-y-parc is a large mansion with the entrance front to the north, and the garden front, onto which all the main receptions rooms face, to the south. The architectural historian John Newman, in his ''Glamorgan'' volume of the Buildings of Wales, notes the strong influence of Lutyens. This is seen particularly in the

lodge Lodge is originally a term for a relatively small building, often associated with a larger one. Lodge or The Lodge may refer to: Buildings and structures Specific * The Lodge (Australia), the official Canberra residence of the Prime Ministe ...

, and in the north frontage, which Newman compares to

Little Thakeham Little Thakeham is an Arts and Crafts style, Grade I listed private house in the parish of Thakeham, near the village of Storrington, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. Designed by architect Edwin Lutyens in 1902, the house was ...

. He admires Mallow's originality on the garden front, where a row of columns forms an arcade. The house is constructed of locally quarried stone, with

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

dressings. The house is listed at

Grade II* 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 Irel ...

. The gardens are also listed at II*, on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. The listing record notes their "strongly axial design" and considers them "a very good example of narchitectural Edwardian garden". The

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 ...

, and the garden terrace have their own Grade II* listings, while the lodge, and the walls and gate piers at the courtyard entrance are listed Grade II.

References

Sources

External links

*{{cite web , title=Craig-y-Parc School , url=https://www.craigyparc-school.co.uk/ Grade II* listed buildings in Cardiff Country houses in Wales Craig-y-parc Grade II* listed houses Houses completed in 1918 Registered historic parks and gardens in Cardiff