Treberfydd House is a

Gothic Revival 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 ...

house, built in 1847–50 just south of

Llangorse Lake Llangorse Lake ( cy, Llyn Syfaddon, variant: ) is the largest natural lake in Mid and South Wales, and is situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park, near the town of Brecon and the village of Llangors. The lake is famous for its coarse fishin ...

in the

Brecon Beacons National Park The Brecon Beacons National Park ( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog) is one of three national parks in Wales, and is centred on the Brecon Beacons range of hills in southern Wales. It includes the Black Mountain (range), Black Mountain ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, to the designs of architect

John Loughborough Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...

. It remains a private home to the Raikes family and is a

Grade I 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 ...

History

The house was built for Robert Raikes (1818–1901), grandson of

Robert Raikes (1765–1837) Robert Raikes Esq. (1765 – 1837), was an English banker, originally from London, that later established a bank in Kingston upon Hull. After 1805 he lived at Welton House in Welton, East Riding of Yorkshire, where in 1818 he had built a fa ...

, a Hull-based banker. Robert Raikes was a prominent member of the

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

-based Christian

Tractarian The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

movement, and moved his family into the area in order to promote his beliefs and assist in the development of the area. The house was designed by

, a young architect who was just beginning to experiment with the revived Gothic style of architecture. Pearson had already done some work for Raikes in the Hull area, including a chapel for his grandmother. Pearson was also asked by Raikes to modernise the church at Llangasty and build a school – both of which are at the end of the lane which leads down to

. The church, the interior of which is "an almost untouched Tractarian survival", is still in use, but the school is now a private house. Pearson became a well-known architect – he designed

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. It i ...

among other well-known churches. The Raikes involved themselves in local society, Raikes becoming

High Sheriff of Brecknockshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Brecknockshire or Breconshire. The office of High Sheriff of Brecknockshire was established in 1535 since when a High Sheriff was appointed annually by the Queen until 1974 when the office was merged into that o ...

in 1851. Their later years were challenging; the failure of Raikes Bank in the 1860s saw the house being leased for over twenty years, before becoming the family home again in 1895. The most prominent tenants during that time were Abraham Darby 4th and his wife Matilda Frances, of Coalbrookdale, owner of the Ebbw Vale Steel Works. Abraham Darby died at Treberfydd in 1878. In 2007 Treberfydd was featured as the setting for "

Human Nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

" and "

Family of Blood "The Family of Blood" is the ninth episode of the third series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 June 2007. It is the second episode of a two-part story written by Paul Co ...

" in the

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...

series of ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' and in 2012, the exterior of the house was featured in the Christmas Special. The house remains a private home and events venue, but is opened to the public for a limited number of weeks each summer. Treberfydd's gardens were designed by W.A. Nesfield. Elaborate flowerbeds were laid out in the pattern of the Raikes monogram, although these have not survived.

Architecture and description

The architectural historian Mark Girouard notes the influence of

Augustus Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

on Treberfydd's design. Robert Scourfield and Richard Haslam, in their 2013 revision of the ''Powys'' '' Pevsner Buildings of Wales'' series, follow Girouard, and consider that the house is "better than the massing of ugin's

Scarisbrick Hall Scarisbrick Hall is a country house situated just to the south-east of the village of Scarisbrick in Lancashire, England. History Scarisbrick Hall was the ancestral home of the Scarisbrick family and dates back to the time of King Stephen (113 ...

Alton Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia *Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario *Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealand, ...

". The house was built of stone dug out of the fields in front of the house, and is decorated with gargoyles,

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

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows. It contains a collection of furniture, numerous carved stone fireplaces and Minton floor tiles, all of which were designed by the architect. Treberfydd is surrounded by of landscaped gardens. The house is Grade I

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

, being an "outstanding early Tudor Revival house ...with excellent detail inside and out, the interior retaining almost all its original fittings." It is also the earliest surviving major work by

. The stable court has a Grade II* listing, and the entrance gateway, walled garden, terrace walling and steps, and a garden cottage are listed at Grade II.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * {{Cite book , last1 = Scourfield, first1 = Robert , last2 = Haslam, first2 = Richard , series=The Buildings of Wales , title=Powys: Montgomeryshire,Radnorshire and Breconshire , url=http://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300185089&nat=false&sort=%24rank&sf1=keyword&st1=Powys&m=1&dc=1 , year=2013 , location = New Haven, US and London , publisher=

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, isbn=978-0-300-18508-9

External links