301

 

I  

Designated  

06/11/1962  

 

Golden Grove  

 

Flintshire  

Llanasa  

Holywell  

Golden Grove  

308902  

381513  

 

In its own grounds on the N side of minor road between Llanasa and Gwaenysgor.  

Domestic  

 

Built in 1578 (date on building) by Edward Morgan. It comprised a main range with hall, passage and kitchen, a parlour in a cross wing on the E side, which was possibly balanced by service rooms in a cross wing on the W side that was subsequently demolished. A secondary dwelling at right angles and originally freestanding may be of this date but is probably later as its ovolo-moulded window differs from the cavetto mouldings used in the main house. Modifications were subsequently made to the main house, including a first-floor fireplace dated 1604. The crow-stepped gables may also be of this date. The next major changes occurred c1700. In the main house Corinthian columns replaced the original screen between passage and hall, while the present stair was built, possibly in the projection of an original stair. The present moulded door surrounds and panelled doors are also of this date. Later in the C18 or early C19 an L-shaped wing was added that linked both houses together, and is shown on the 1839 Tithe map. Then an outshut was added behind the main house that provided rear passages on both floors to give independent access to the rooms. In 1877 the house was purchased by Henry Pochin, whose daughter Lady Aberconway altered and added to parts of the house. The L-shaped linking wing was partly remodelled as the service wing, with additions made at the rear. The original kitchen in the main house was remodelled as a second parlour with a new bay window and fireplace. All of these changes are shown on the 1899 Ordnance Survey.  

A large Elizabethan mansion on a S-facing sloping site, comprising the original main range set across the slope, a secondary dwelling originally detached and set down the slope at right angles to the main range, and an L-shaped linking wing between the 2 original houses. The main house is 2-storey with attic and has a storeyed porch L of centre, a parlour cross wing at the R end, and a stair projection and added outshut behind. It is of rubble stone and has a graded slate roof behind crow-stepped gables on moulded kneelers, which have ball finials at the apex of each gable. Two stone lateral stacks are behind, with an end stack to the L. The front retains original cavetto-moulded mullioned and transomed windows incorporating C19 small-pane glazing. The porch has 2 Tuscan columns supporting a renewed wooden entablature, and a gabled upper storey with 3-light window and a diagonally-set apex pinnacle with ball finial. The doorway has a depressed arch with a shield engraved '1578 EMK', and a studded door with strap hinges. On the R side of the entrance is the hall, lit by a 2-light and two 3-light windows, with similar windows in the upper storey. Further R the cross wing has large 4-light windows in both storeys and smaller 2-light mullioned attic window. Its side wall facing the hall has a 4-light window in the lower storey and 3-light window above. On the L side of the entrance is a C19 5-light bay window and 2 original 3-light windows above, without transoms. The L gable end is pebble-dashed. It has an inserted 2-light window lower R and an inserted casement upper L in the added outshut. The pebble-dashed rear outshut has 2-light casement lower R and a 3-light casement to the centre. To the lower L is a lunette (possibly a former doorway as it is in line with the screens passage) incorporating a casement. Another lunette is in a projection further L that abuts the stair turret. This has a stepped gable, a c1700 48-pane sash window with thick glazing bars lighting the stair, and a small-pane fixed light in its L side wall under a stone segmental head. To the L of the stair projection is the cross wing, which has a tall stone stack. In the lower storey are French doors inserted in place of a former gabled porch, and a 3-light window incorporating a casement upper R. The wing linking the main house and secondary dwelling is 2-storey with attic and has a basement storey in the N-S arm necessitated by the fall of the ground. The wing is of rubble stone and has a replaced hipped slate roof and 2 rendered ridge stacks. Facing the front (S) it has 3-light mullioned and transomed windows in both storeys, but larger below. Its return, downhill, elevation has a segmental horned sash window in the basement and a 2-light mullioned window above. The lower house further down the slope is 2-storey, with crow-stepped gable to the downhill end, and a replaced slate roof, with a single lateral stack behind. Facing the front, the former doorway to the hall lower R is replaced by a window. A window is also inserted to its L replacing an earlier mullioned window. At the L end, lighting the room above the original parlour, is an ovolo-moulded 2-light mullioned and transomed window, the mullion missing above the transom where a sash window is inserted. A similar but larger cross window is to the R (partly obscured by vegetation). The lower gable end of the house has late C19 small-pane casements, 3-light below and 2-light above. To their R the rear wing has a boarded door with glazed panels, a horizontal-sliding sash window upper R and a segmental-headed 2-light casement below. The wing has an external stack, with an added outshut on its N side. Windows are casements beneath stone lintels. The N-S arm of the linking wing has C19 detail. It has a window centre-R lighting the service stair, and placed above a lower gabled projection with a half-glazed door on the R and 3-light casement L, both under stone segmental heads. On the R side of the projection is a pebble-dashed external stack. The 2-storey N elevation of the linking wing is 4-window with C19 casements, and has a 2-storey projection housing lavatories at the R end, abutting the cross wing of the main house.  

The main house retains its original plan form of hall with screens passage, an outer kitchen (converted to a second parlour in the C19) and a parlour in the cross wing at the upper end, with a former service room behind it that provides access to the later linking wing. The screens passage is defined by its opposing doorways and 2 round wooden columns on stone bases, and with Corinthian capitals, that replaced the original screen c1700. The passage and hall both have beamed ceilings with plaster panels with marginal mouldings (partly restored). In the hall the 2 main cross beams and secondary beams all have stepped stops. The main lateral fireplace has an ovolo-moulded stone surround, a wood-panelled overmantel and C19 decorative tile panels inserted. The hall has a lozenge patterned stone floor. The stairway to the R of the fireplace has a dog-leg stair with twisted balusters and square newels. The original kitchen on the L of the screens passage has a beamed ceiling similar to the hall, and a C19 fireplace with tooled stone orthostats and lintel inserted when the room became a second parlour. The parlour in the cross wing has a beamed ceiling and plaster panels similar to the hall. It has a rich Jacobean-style fireplace, and a wainscot with blind baluster studs of c1700. A full-height timber-framed partition divides the parlour from the small service room behind it. The lower storey has bolection-moulded door frames with some panelled doors, including double panelled doors to the main parlour from its service room. Mullioned windows have either plain chamfers to the inner faces or are left square. The room above the hall is divided by a timber-framed partition with infilled doorway, probably an insertion of c1700. The larger of the 2 rooms has an ovolo-moulded stone fireplace. A similar fireplace is in the cross wing above the parlour, which also has a beamed ceiling, while the room behind it in the cross wing has a fine stone fireplace with lintel projecting on brackets. Above it is a shield engraved 'EMK' and the date 1604 in raised figures. In the attic, the main range has a 6-bay roof composed of tie and collar beams, 3 posts, and diagonal struts above the collars. The cross wing has a similar 3-bay roof. A triangular-headed doorway from the main range to the stair projection suggests that a second flight of stairs to the attic has been removed and that this was the original access to the attic. A Tudor-headed doorway is between the main range and the cross wing. The N-S arm of the linking wing houses the C19 service rooms, including a plain dog-leg service stair. Beneath the linking wing is an L-shaped cellar, partly brick and stone vaulted, which continues under the original house as far as the base of the stair. The lower house was originally 2 rooms. A timber-framed screen dividing hall and parlour has been removed but evidence of its existence survives in the form of mortices in one of the cross beams. The hall has a wide fireplace which has a flattened arch with pronounced keystones. The lower storey has a joist-beam ceiling. The upper storey remains 2 rooms although details of what must be the original partition are concealed. In the larger room is an ovolo-moulded stone fireplace. A deep plaster cornice has survived in fragmentary form. It has egg and dart friezes above and below repeated panels showing a ploughman and horse, only 2 of which have survived in full. The plaster ceiling has a central elliptical panel with square marginal panels, and at the angles are fleur-de-lis in relief.  

Listed grade I, Golden Grove is of exceptional interest as a complete Elizabethan house incorporating a smaller C17 secondary house, both retaining important interior detail from the late C16 to c1700.  

Llanasa Tithe map, 1839;,
Ordnance Survey, 2nd edition 1899, Flintshire sheet II.13, scale 1:2500;,
Cadw/Icomos Register of Parks and Gardens in Wales, PGW (C) 31;,
Hubbard, Edward, The Buildings of Wales: Clwyd, 1986, pp384-5;,
Smith, Peter, The Houses of the Welsh Countryside, 2nd ed 1988, maps 28, 35, 45, 47, 48, 49, 53;,
RCAHM Wales files.,