History
Ancient seat of the Lloyd and Rosindale family and a manorial site since at least the late C13; Henry Rosindale, who came to Denbigh with De Lacy in 1288 is said to have married the heiress of Foxhall (or 'Foulk's Hall). The Lloyds (as they became) were one of the most significant of the early Denbighshire families, the house providing High Sheriffs for the years 1555, 1567, 1592, 1623, 1636, 1669, 1720 and 1746.
The most historically important member of the family was Humphrey Llwyd (1527-1568), one of the great Renaissance figures of Wales. Both physician and noted antiquary, Llwyd was the private doctor to Lord Arundel before joining Lord Lumley as the librarian of his important collection. Following his marriage to Lumley's sister and heiress, he returned to Foxhall in 1563 and continued to produce various tracts and published works on medical and geographical subjects. Through the intermediary of his friend Sir Richard Clough, Llwyd corresponded with Ortelius in Antwerp, providing him with useful geographical knowledge as well as maps of Wales and Britain; these were published as supplement to Ortelius' 'Theatrum' in 1573.
The present house is complex in its evolution, though retains significant medieval and Tudor fabric. The primary house was an open hall with a solar cross-wing and an upper chamber. The present hall block appears to be a later C15 replacement of an earlier hall, whose crosswing, however survives. Of the hall, a stone corbel with decorated wall post remains visible, suggesting that the roof (of this second phase) was originally of hammer-beam type. A resited triple-arched screens partition is contemporary. Of greatest interest, however, is the gabled crosswing. This is a 5-bay medieval solar wing and originated as a raised chamber (open to the roof) above an undercroft with slit lights. Its construction is of roughly-squared stone blocks and differs from the masonry of the hall range which it evidently predates. Its roof-structure survives intact and is of early arched-braced collar type, with pointed-arched trusses and large, broad curved wind braces. The gable has a shallow projecting 2-stage chimney breast, corbelled-out at the main floor level and flanked by slit lights. In its style and construction this wing conforms to the raised solar or hall block tradition found in the more elevated English manorial architecture from the late C12 onwards.
Given the antiquity and status of the site, this cross-wing could conceivably be of late C14 origin, and may originally have had an associated timber-framed hall. If this is indeed of such an early date, it ranks as one of the earliest surviving non-military domestic stone buildings in north Wales. A perpendicular window insertion probably relates to an early Tudor remodelling which the house appears to have undergone in the early C16. Additions and alterations of this period include a fine Tudor-arched stone hall entrance (now internal), together with a storeyed kitchen wing to the N and possibly a range adjoining the hall block to the SW (now much altered). The floor level in the solar cross-wing was raised already early on, probably in the second-half C16. At the same time, or else shortly afterwards, the hall was ceiled over and a central chimney was introduced, thereby generating the present chimney-backing-on-entry plan. A fine ex situ heraldic shield of the 1630s (now in the house) testifies to further work at this time, though this may merely have been cosmetic. The house was extended to the NE in the early C19 when it acquired the present kitchen wing. Various C19 and C20 alterations, including new glazing to many of the windows in the post-war period.