3935

 

II  

Designated  

31/03/1983  

03/05/2002  

Bryn Helen  

 

Gwynedd  

Caernarfon  

Caernarfon  

South Road  

248231  

362185  

E  

Set back from the road behind a forecourt wall, and at R angles to the road with a view to Caernarfon Castle.  

Domestic  

 

Built in the early C19 overlooking the Seiont and sited there for its elevated view of Caernarfon Castle. The house is shown on the 1834 town map and was probably built for Richard Mathias Preece, a stockbroker. The house was subdivided (Llwyn Helen occupying the original service wing) in the early C20 and is first shown as 2 properties on the 1918 Ordnance Survey. Bryn Helen was the birthplace of the electrical engineer Sir William Preece (1834-1913), who was chief engineer to the Post Office from 1892. Preece pioneered wireless telegraphy and improved railway signalling, and advocated the incorporation of the National Telephone Company into the Post Office, which was achieved in 1911.  

An L-shaped house comprising a 2-storey 3-bay main house facing N, and a rear service wing on the W side, the rear part of which is now a separate dwelling (Llwyn Helen). The main house is a symmetrical Regency style villa of scribed render with a hipped slate roof on wide panelled and bracketed eaves, with stacks to the L and R and to the rear wing. A lean-to veranda is on cast iron posts and has a replaced roof. The central bay has double half-lit panelled doors with margin glazing and fluted surround. To the L and R are small-pane sash windows continued to ground level, in canted bays. The upper storey has 12-pane hornless sash windows. The R side wall has a 12-pane segmental-headed sash window upper R, an inserted window upper L and added conservatory in the lower storey. The rear wing further R is set back slightly from the main range. In the upper storey it has a 12-pane hornless sash window with 4-pane casement to the R and inserted French doors in the lower storey (the wing continues further as Llwyn Helen). The L side wall has inserted windows in each storey. The rear has 12-pane horned sashes to the R and a narrow 8-pane sash to the stair window in the angle with the rear wing. The rear wing has a 12-pane sash window upper R, a small casement upper L and lean-to below.  

The entrance vestibule has a classical plaster cornice and a doorway under a neo-classical iron overlight with elliptical glazing pattern leading to the stair hall. The open-well stair has turned balusters and newels. The room to the L has a late C19 fireplace with fluted Ionic pilasters, and an elliptical-arched niche to the rear wall. The rooms R and L have classical plaster ceiling cornices. Panelled doors with thin vertical ribs are retained in the lower storey.  

Listed as a well-detailed early C19 villa retaining original character and detail, and representing the C19 suburban expansion of the town consequent upon Caernarfon's growth in importance as a port.