24696

 

II*  

Designated  

31/01/2001  

31/01/2001  

Neuadd Wen  

 

Gwynedd  

Llanuwchllyn  

Bala  

Llanuwchllyn  

287857  

330045  

W  

Set within its own grounds within the village, not far from the station.  

Domestic  

 

House built in 1907 for Sir Owen Morgan Edwards (1858-1920), a native of Llanuwchllyn. Edwards was a significant scholar and educationalist and served as first Chief Inspector of Schools, as well as being history tutor and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and, for a short time, MP for Merioneth. He is regarded as having had an enormous influence on the promotion of Welsh language and culture at a particularly vulnerable time. Neuadd Wen (a pun on Whitehall, where he spent much time), was built by Edwards as his retirement home to designs by Samuel Evans, the County Architect. Gwyndy was split off from the main house in the post-War period.  

 

The interiors survive relatively unaltered, with simple moulded picture rails, architraves and cornices to most rooms. An inner porch leads to an entrance hall with parquet floor, with staircase and principal rooms leading off. This hall has a fireplace with simple classical wooden chimneypiece having egg-and-dart and triglyph frieze; dentilated cornice with mantelshelf. The fireplace has a very fine series of C17 and C18 Delft blue and white tiles to the splays and hearth; these depict animals, ships and mounted warriors. Part-glazed doors lead off, each having a segmental upper section of 6 panes with 3 bullseyes to the lower glazing tier. To the L is the Dining Room (front) and Drawing Room (rear), with Sitting Room and former service passage to the R (the latter now blocked-up at the junction between the two separated parts of the house). Jacobethan staircase of painted wood. Of narrow well type with square panelled newels having geometric finials. Those to the bottom flight are full height to the ceiling and have fluted upper sections with attached lateral brackets. These form a double shouldered arch and terminate in a pendant to the R and a wall corbel to the L. Moulded rail, swept up to the newels, and thick stick balusters. The staircase returns in a galleried landing on the first floor. The Dining Room has a lincrusta frieze with Art Nouveau-style decoration in shallow relief. Simple Arts and Crafts oak fireplace with segmental spandrels and narrow fluted brackets to the overmantel. The Drawing Room has a renewed (modern) fireplace, with frieze and cornice as before. At one end is a wide segmental arch leading to a large square recess with central fireplace. The arch is supported at each end by squat Tuscan columns with engaged pilasters beyond. Oak fireplace with fluted outer pilasters and dentilated cornice; blue glazed tiles to the fire surround. C18-style dado panelling to L and R, with fitted oak benching incorporated. The first floor bedrooms have 6-panel Jacobean-style doors. One has an Arts and Crafts fireplace of painted wood with dentilated mantelpiece and an oculus to the centre of a small overmantel; contemporary metal grate with turquoise glazed tiles to surround, incorporating a bucolic scene in its frieze.  

Listed Grade II* as forming part of an Edwardian Arts and Crafts house of considerable sophistication by the architect Samuel Evans, retaining largely unaltered exterior and interior character; the home of Sir O M Edwards, historian, writer, MP and educationalist.  

Neuadd Wen and Gwyndy Private house commission in restrained but stylish Arts and Crafts idiom, incorporating neo-vernacular as well as Jacobethan elements. Irregular plan of two storeys, with additional dormer floor and off-centre storeyed porch to the hipped-roofed main section; 2-storey wings to the sides, that to the R slightly advanced and with gable in the form of an open pediment, and that to the L with similar arrangement facing the rear. Of roughcast over brick construction with tiled roof and brick chimneys having simply-decorated upper sections corbelled-out; deep eaves and verges with flat wooden guttae. The porch is of red brick with fine buff-coloured sandstone dressings, including banding to define the windows and counter-changed decoration to the upper section; parapeted flat roof with shallow coped gables. Round-arched entrance, deeply-splayed and moulded, with flush flanking buttresses to R and L. Tiled floor to porch with simple marginal decoration; panelled ceiling. Round-arched entrance with rubbed brick jambs and voussoirs; original door with panelled lower section and 12-pane, segmentally-arched upper section; multi-pane arched fanlight. Above the entrance is an undressed sandstone block. This was a sandstone tablet with the patron's initials 'OME' carved upon it. Edwards, in a moment of modesty, decided to have it reversed during its insertion. The upper floor has a 3-light mullioned window; single-light rectangular windows to the returns on both floors; rectangular leaded quarries throughout. To the L of the porch is a 5-light casement window with 8 panes per light, and a 4-light window to the first floor, with 6-panes per light. To the R of the porch is a large multi-pane stair window with random bullseye panes; beyond this is a single-storey, flat-roofed and leaded bow window with similar casement sections, and a 3-pane window above. The cross-wing to the far R is now separated from the main house and forms Gwyndy. This has a 5-light window to the ground floor, as before, with an advanced, jettied upper section carried on scrolled wooden brackets. The first floor has a flat-roofed, canted oriel window with flanking lights, and an ocular window in the gable apex. Three flat-roofed dormer windows to the central section. The L side has 2 large canted, storeyed bays with flat roofs and casements as before. Between these is a single-light sandstone window to the ground floor with decorative lozenge motif above. The rear has 5-light windows to the gabled section at R, and 3 dormers to the central section, as before. Two, 3 and 5-light windows on ground and first floors, with boarded doors to the R and L of the main section, that to the latter with incorporated 2-light window. A single-storey red brick wash house and store adjoins the rear elevation advanced to the L. This has a segmental arch leading to a passage; brick gable-end chimney. A modern lean-to adjoins the main section to the R.