574

 

II*  

Designated  

22/10/1952  

12/12/1994  

Black Gates & Screens at Entrance to the Tower  

 

Flintshire  

Nercwys  

 

 

324246  

362205  

 

Located on the W side of the main Mold-Nercwys road, slightly set back and at right angles with it.  

Domestic  

 

The Black gates were made c.1726 for George Wynne Esq. and originally graced the main carriage drive to the contemporary (new) Leeswood Hall. Long attributed to the Davies brothers, the gates are now ascribed by some to Robert Bakewell. They are contemporary with, and by the same hand as the White Gates at Leeswood, a large vista screen opposite the house and still in situ. Moved already in the early C19, the Black Gates were again relocated to their present position in recent times  

Wrought iron decorative gates with complex overthrow, flat, 2-dimensional piers and 2 bays of lower flanking screen-work. The piers are of openwork with scrolls, arrow and bell motifs, arches and shells. Arched tops with urn-finials. The gates are segmentally arched and the overthrow is highly decorative with foliate forms, shell-motifs, scrolls and a central roundel with an intertwined GW cypher. Surmounting the overthrow is a gilded lion-crest. Similar 2- part flanking screen sections with dividing and end pilasters and open foliate and geometric finials. The gates and flanking sections have 2 tiers of fleurs-de-lis ornament, at ground and dado height.  

 

These gates are acknowledged to be amongst the finest of their type and date in the region.