26998

 

II  

Designated  

21/10/2002  

21/10/2002  

Lovesgrove  

 

Ceredigion  

Faenor  

Aberystwyth  

Lovesgrove  

262867  

281647  

 

Situated at the end of a drive off the A4169 some 750m SW of the centre of Capel Dewi.  

Domestic  

 

Country house of 1882-3 by John Macvicar Anderson of London and Edinburgh (successor to the noted Edinburgh architects William Burn and David Bryce), built for Sir Gruffydd H. Pugh Evans (1840-1902), former senior judge at Calcutta. The National Library has unsigned plans from 41 Stratton St, the office of Anderson, also drawings for a different house with half-timber. A conservatory on the W entrance front was replaced by an extra drawing-room bay with sewing room and gable over before 1900 and there were additions to the E end service range also. Estate recorded from C17: Evan Edward of Lovesgrove and Nantceirio named 1672, Rees Lloyd in 1675 and 1693, part of the estate of Sir R. Vaughan of Hengwrt sold to the W. E. Powell of Nanteos in 1811. Gravestones in Llanbadarn Fawr to Evan Edwards of Love's Grove d 1807 and Edward Edwards d 1854, presumably tenants. In 1843 sold to John Evans (b 1804) of Commerce Ho, Bridge St, Aberystwyth, lime-merchant, who married heiress of the Pughs of Abermad. Two sons were distinguished barristers and judges in India: one rebuilt Abermad, the other Lovesgrove. Gruffydd Pugh Evans was knighted in 1892. His son Brig-Gen Lewis Pugh Evans VC, DSO (1881-1961) won the Victoria Cross in 1917 at Zonnebeke commanding a battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. Christopher Evans sold the house in 1982. It is now divided into two.  

Country house, grey tooled Llanddewi Brefi stone with ashlar dressings and greenish slates to overhanging eaves roofs with bargeboards and pendant finials. Domestic revival style. Large grey stone chimneys with ashlar quoins and cornices. Two storeys, with long S garden front and shorter entrance front to W, both with deep-eaved gables. Moulded stone-mullioned windows with plate-glass sashes, ashlar quoins. W front has 2 gabled bays to left and centre, and a third, added in late C19, projecting to right. Left bay has broad elliptical moulded arch to recessed porch, similar blind arch on inner back wall and door on right wall, arched double fielded-panelled doors in moulded surround. Three-light first floor window. Centre gable has 3-light window each floor, lower one lighting hall. Quoins to right show original corner, and chimney now in valley was on a S side wall. Added projecting gable in angle between W and S fronts has canted sides, 4-light window below, lighting drawing-room extension, 2-light above and gable carried on large timber solid brackets. Between old corner and new gable, one light each floor with parapet. S garden front has three well-spaced projecting gables, respectively with drawing-room, dining-room and kitchen on ground floors. Large chimneys serving each of these, one to right of first gable and two on lower ridge between second and third gables. Facade begins to left with return of entrance front addition: canted side, quoins at original corner, then one narrow window each floor before first gable. This has bargeboards stepped over a large full-height canted bay with ashlar ground floor, corbelled upper floor with quoins and then canted walls curved outward to carry the gable. One-light window to each canted side and 2-light to front each floor. Next a one-window section with 3-light each floor. Second large gable has canted sides, broad front, ashlar quoins, and 1-3-1 light windows each floor. Large timber brackets (as on W front right gable) carry overhang of roof. Narrow stained glass window each floor to right, part of dining-room, but structurally part of service range which has lower roof, eaves-breaking 2-light window under bargeboarded small gable and ground floor 2 single-light windows. Third gable has quoins, ground floor 3-light and first floor square oriel with ashlar moulded base, quoins and 4-light window. Gable is stepped to follow wall-face. One last section to right has roof brought down low over one single window. E end gable has 2-light, one light and 2-light mullion windows above 2 sash windows. Added L-plan section to N has ground floor arcade, open arch to E with gable over first floor sash and apex chimney, and open arch to S. Within are doors to S, W, and 2 to N. Asymmetric E gable with large chimney on N slope. Range continues E as single-storey with timber lintel to recess with door set back, then window in front wall, low roof hipped to E. N side has from right: return of W porch gable with rectangular light into porch, and quarter-round corbelling carrying upper floor. Then library projection, 2-storey, with canted side walls, canted hipped roof and N chimney. Single light NW , 3-light N, and NE corner single-storey projection with roof hipped to NE, quoins and 2-light E window. First floor E has single light and 2-light. Main range rear then has 3-light first floor stair light with stained glass. The building is double depth with complex roofs, the roof over the stair is parallel to the front roof but hipped to E, making a valley with a hipped roof running N, with offset N stack. N wall of service areas has 2 sash windows in flush surrounds, over lean-to stone porch and sash to left. To left of this is a double gabled projection, the right gable 2-window, the left gable one-window with big N stack. Finally a range runs E, asymmetrically gabled to E with large end chimney on N roof slope.  

Ground floor has sequence of rooms in late C19 taste. Entrance hall with double arch E into stair hall, and panelled ceiling divided by three plaster beams. N wall Jacobean style fireplace including some C17 carved timber, one overmantel panel marked EB 1639. Stair hall has open-well staircase up 3 sides to landing. Turned balusters (spiral twist over vase), square newels and ball finials. Fine stained glass of 4 small female figures, the Four Seasons, on pale coloured leaded backgrounds. Coved stair hall ceiling. SW drawing room has passage across N end, open into room, presumably originally access to conservatory. Main room has acanthus cornices, C20 marble E fireplace, and added deep W bay. N library has white-painted bookcases and good SW corner fireplace, with niches, panels and shelves in Queen Anne style, white-painted, but 3 panels of overmantel with applied mezzotints. S dining-room not inspected but said to have inglenook-type fireplace with stained glass.  

Included as a substantial and well-designed late Victorian country house, by a noted Scots architect, with mullion windows and deep-eaved roofs typical of the late Victorian Domestic Revival style, much used in Scottish hunting lodges. One of the remarkable group of smaller country houses around Aberystwyth, testimony to its regional importance.