Full Report for Listed Buildings


The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.

Summary Description


Reference Number
11768
Building Number
 
Grade
II  
Status
Designated  
Date of Designation
20/06/1963  
Date of Amendment
25/02/2000  
Name of Property
Ivy Tower  
Address
 

Location


Unitary Authority
Neath Port Talbot  
Community
Tonna  
Town
 
Locality
Dan-y-lan Farm  
Easting
277640  
Northing
198291  
Street Side
 
Location
Approximately 0.7km S of Tonna church, prominently sited on high ground to the E of Dan-y-lan Farm.  

Description


Broad Class
Domestic  
Period
 

History
Erected c1780 by John Johnson, architect of Leicester, as an eye-catcher folly at the NE end of the Gnoll grounds. It comprised a 2-storey castellated summer house. Johnson had an extensive private practice and built or altered many country houses, mostly in Essex and the Midlands. He was a business associate of Sir Herbert Mackworth, with whom he established a bank in Bond Street in 1785. Mackworth employed Johnson to design the castellated Georgian front to Gnoll House, while Johnson's other major work in S Wales was Clasemont House near Swansea of c1775 but demolished in 1819. The extensive park and grounds at the Gnoll had been laid out for Sir Humphrey Mackworth 1724-7, followed by its extension with an informal cascade in the 1740s. The Ivy Tower and other follies, including a gazebo sited above a grotto, were added by Sir Herbert Mackworth in the 1780s. The late C18 was the heyday of the Gnoll grounds, although it was revived in the C19 by the Grant family and Charles Evan Thomas. The estate was acquired by the local authority in 1923. The Ivy Tower, detached from the main grounds, was gutted by a fire in 1910 and has subsequently fallen into ruin.  

Exterior
A ruined and ivy-clad 2-storey castellated tower of rubble stone. It is octagonal and buttressed in the lower stage and circular above, with a string course between. The lower stage has segmental-headed windows in the cardinal directions, with a segmental-headed doorway to the SW, while the upper storey has windows and a doorway on the SE side with 2-centred heads, above which are small quatrefoil recesses. The castellated parapet projects forward. Inside is a fireplace on the NW side with the chimney accommodated in the castellations.  

Interior
 

Reason for designation
Listed for its architectural interest as a prominent example of an eye-catcher folly associated with the Gnoll Estate.  

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





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