Full Report for Listed Buildings


Summary Description of a Listed Buildings


Reference Number
4650
Building Number
 
Grade
II*  
Status
Designated  
Date of Designation
06/12/1951  
Date of Amendment
31/01/2001  
Name of Property
Crogen  
Address
 

Location


Unitary Authority
Gwynedd  
Community
Llandderfel  
Town
Corwen  
Locality
Llandrillo  
Easting
300637  
Northing
337010  
Street Side
N  
Location
Located at the eastern boundary of the community within its own grounds; set back from the road and accessed via lodged drives.  

Description


Broad Class
Domestic  
Period
 

History
Gentry house of late medieval origin, though with adjacent motte testifying to an earlier medieval defensive site. Formerly the seat of the Lloyds of Crogen; a Morgan Lloyd is recorded as the owner in 1639. By 1649 the estate was in the possession of Maurice Wynn, the Receiver General of North Wales and younger brother of Sir Richard and Sir Owen Wynn, the second and third baronets of Gwydir. The house retains the solar/parlour cross-wing of the late medieval house, originally probably timber-framed, and encased in stone in the late C16 or early C17. The house was restored and partly rebuilt in Gothic style c1831 (the date appears on down pipes). A painting of 1792 by T Walmsley shows the house before the C19 remodelling. A fine C14 ecclesiastical window, the tracery lights of which are still visible in the Solar wing, was evidently incorporated before the remodelling, and possibly represents post-Dissolution salvage.  

Exterior
Medium-sized country house in simple Regency Gothic style, its picturesque asymmetry reflecting its earlier origins. Irregular plan, of hall and cross-wing type, in which the wing is the surviving primary block. Further service ranges to the rear loosely enclose a courtyard. The house is of local irregular stone construction with traces of former render; slate roofs, mostly shallow-hipped, with oversailing verges and plain bargeboards, plain chimneys. The primary (E) wing is of two-and-a-half storeys, and has a steeply-pitched roof with gable to the entrance front. This has a large 4-light wooden C19 Gothic window with cusped upper lights, and forms a pair of French windows with 3-pane glazing to each section; stucco surround and simple returned label. Above this is a pointed-arched window of similar type with intersecting wooden tracery and small-pane glazing. This is an 1830s insert into a pre-existing tall window opening which was correspondingly partly filled in. Of this earlier window only the pointed-arched upper section remains. Early C14 and of sandstone, the surviving cusped tracery lights are of good quality; the window evidently originated as a 2-light ecclesiastical tracery window. The cross-wing's E elevation has two large, early projecting lateral chimney stacks to the Solar cross-wing, with triple off-set stacks having moulded capping. The right-hand chimney has had an arched window inserted at ground-floor level and the masonry infilled flush, so that the chimney is now corbelled-out at first-floor height. Between the two is an arched French window to the ground floor with a 2-light window above, the latter with pointed-arched heads and multi-pane lights; labels and surrounds as before. Adjoining flush with this wing on the L is a lower, 2-storeyed porch extrusion. This has an entrance with part-glazed doors and geometric glazing to the margins; stucco surround and label, as before. Two-light window to the first floor with intersecting tracery lights and small-pane glazing, with similar surround and label; C20 flag pole affixed to upper gable. Set back to the L of the porch are 2 further bays, that to the far L gabled. French windows with surrounds to the ground floor, that to the L a 2-light, that to the R of 4-lights; cusped tracery heads. The first floor has a 2-light window with lozenge glazing to the L and a 4-light window with simpler cusping to the heads; no label to the latter. The gabled section to the L has a broad storeyed, canted bay projecting to its western return; this with hipped roof. Set back and half overlapping the rear gable of the Solar wing is a rectangular 2-storey block with large central stack and rendered E gable. Extruded in the angle between this and the Solar block is a lean-to porch with slated roof and canted Gothic bay; French windows with arched lights as before. Adjoining the rear block to the N is a single-storey service range with whitened inner elevation facing a small slate-flagged court. The outer (garden) elevation, facing E, has a 3-light window with a depressed-arched garden niche built in to the R; plain stucco surround; a large rectangular pitched-roofed louvre surmounts the roof of this block. Adjoining this to the N are two store buildings: the first has a mono-pitch corrugated asbestos roof, with a boarded door facing the service court and a window with boarded shutter to the L; the second has a pitched slate roof with doorway and window beyond to the S face. Adjoining this at right-angles to the W, and separated by a short rubble wall, is a rectangular single-storey slated range with three C20 12-pane 2-part casements to the N side; two boarded doors flank a square light to the R on the S side, modern boarded garage doors to the W gable. This block partly encloses a cobbled service court on the N side, which leads out from the narrow flagged yard to the rear of the main range. Closing this on the W side is a large, 1830s, 3-storey service wing with wide, shallow-pitched roof and 2 central chimneys, that to the W especially large. This has a 3-bay yard elevation with whitened ground floor having a boarded door to the R; 2-part 12-pane casements to the upper floors, with intersecting glazing bars. Entrance with boarded door to the N gable, with 2 blocked openings (former entrances) to its L; simple triple-light Gothic window to the first floor. Adjoining this range to the R (W) and curving around in an arc to the N is a rubble wall, some 2m high, which defines the service court to the W; wooden gate adjacent to the building. The W side has a broad full-height canted central bay to the storeyed service range, which projects into a narrow gravelled yard defined on the W side by sloping revetment walls. These return eastwards towards the house with the southern (front) lawns ramped up to effectively screen this service yard from the front view. Here 4 stone steps lead down to a coal shed with brick arch, boarded doors and 4-pane overlight.  

Interior
Small entrance hall with pointed-arched doorway to a stairwell beyond; late C19 polychromed tiled floor. The Dining Room leads off to the L. This has a good Gothic sandstone fireplace in accomplished Perpendicular style, with pierced quatrefoil oculi and cusped, latticed frieze; foliated bosses to moulded cornice. The room has a Gothick cornice of intersecting tracery and a wide Tudor-arched bay to the front; panelled, blind-tracery architraves and three 7-panel doors; similar shutters and reveals. Narrow full-height (c1830) well stair with swept mahogany rail and cast iron Gothic ogee balusters. The first-floor medieval Solar was originally open to the roof (now sub-divided). This was of 4 bays and one of the original trusses is visible; shallow pointed arch with moulded principals.  

Reason for designation
Listed Grade II* for its special interest as a second-quarter C19 Gothic-style country house incorporating a late-medieval solar cross-wing with good C16/early C17 chimneys; one of the ancient gentry seats of Meirionnydd.  

Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]





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