9842

 

II*  

Designated  

21/10/1964  

09/08/1996  

Mabws Hall  

 

Ceredigion  

Llanrhystyd  

Llanrhystyd  

Cwm Mabws  

256534  

268549  

 

In Cwm Mabws. Reached at end of driveway off E side of road, 1km NE of Rhyd-Rosser.  

Domestic  

 

Late C17 house, including staircase, probably built for Richard Lloyd, Sheriff in 1693. This may be the "New Mabws" of a deed of 1723. A remodelling in 1773 has been suggested from tax returns. Meyrick (1810) refers to a "very large edifice", built for John Lloyd, who inherited in 1750 and died in 1806. The late C17 house can be discerned by the first and ground floor window openings to E and N and the buttressed N wall may be older: a datestone of 1632 is said to exist. The plan of the original house is uncertain, but a roughly square house facing E with spine-wall chimneys seems likely and is typical of the late C17. Home of the Lloyd family of Ystrad Teilo and Mabws from the C17, passing to the Lloyds of Ffosybleiddiad in 1750. Sold to A.G.Begbie c.1885. Restored by the Gunton family after 1949.  

Rubble construction, L-plan with main S front and shorter E front. Massive hipped slate roof, the ridge off-centre. Wide eaves with large paired brackets. Late C19 yellow brick chimney stacks, one to left end, 2 left of centre (one to ridge, the other in front on slope), one to ridge right and another to rear right. Main S front of 7 bays and 3 storeys with basement also to left, where the ground slopes away. Upper 3/6 hornless sash windows, the rest are 6/6 hornless sashes. The window frames are moulded and look C18, but the sashes are C19. Ground floor with windows blocked to third bay from left and also to the 2 right bays. Basement two C19 6/6 horned sashes. Cambered stone voussoired heads and slate sills. Door in fifth bay, in added stone porch with round arched entry. East front: Five bays, 3 storeys, probably the original C17 entrance facade. Ground and first floor windows with steeply cambered heads of rough stone voussoirs. Second (added) floor with different stonework, window heads as front. Upper windows as front. Ground floor with tall 4/4 horned sashes, probably lowered in the C19. Rear has N end of original house to left, and, set back to right, the rear of the added 3 bays. Original part is broad, possibly originally 4-bay, now mixed fenestration. Massive stepped buttress to right of centre, up to second floor. Three second floor square windows, one blocked. First floor original cambered heads to blocked window to left and above later 6/6 sash to right. Narrow 4/4 sash to centre. Ground floor later C19 2-4-2-pane canted bay to left, centre 6-pane light in larger opening, added brick lean-to to right. W end wall has full-height basement and large chimneybreast, the upper part roughly stepped, presumably when house was raised. Lean-to at base of chimney (porch to separate dwelling to rear). First floor (ground floor elsewhere) 6/6 sash to centre right and tier of 3 6/6 stair-lights in angle to extreme right. Middle stair-light has original cambered voussoirs above. Added W end section shows clearly from way that rear N wall curves in to acknowledge stair lights. This N wall has a basement porch and 6/6 sash to ground and first floors above. West end of main range has bracket eaves as on S front but is otherwise windowless. Rubble shed attached.  

Late C17 open-well staircase up to second floor. Closed strings with convex moulding, thick balusters, part-twisted and part-turned. Broad moulded handrails and plain square newels. Later turned supporting posts. C18 beams to ground floor with roll-mouldings. Drawing Room (SE) with good C18 timber chimneypiece, lugged surround with scrolled sides: central tablet to moulded mantleshelf. Good C18 doors with 6 raised and fielded panels and thick architraves. Panelled window shutters. Dining Room (NE) with Victorian fireplace. Entrance hall formed from passage and small room: C19 fireplace. Present kitchen to NW with chamfered beam. Service rooms in large basement, including housekeeper's room with Victorian cast iron range and kitchen with massive iron range and later chamfered central post, which runs through the centre of the table. Small brick-vaulted cellar under W addition. First floor with C18 lugged timber fire-surrounds each with a central tablet to the mantlepiece, the carving of varied simple designs. Some roll-moulded beams, but most beams replaced by iron railway lines. Six-panel (raised and fielded) doors. Wide oak floorboards. Second floor with simpler doors and chimneypieces. Sawn roof trusses probably late C19. Massively thick wall between old house and added W part.  

Listed Grade II* for its architectural interest as an important C17-C18 country house with very good surviving internal detail of both main building periods; such a complete house is extremely rare in West Wales.