Interior
ENTRANCE HALL has fine stone fireplace (possibly by Sir Henry Cheere) based on William Kent design of c1720, with egg-and-dart surround, piers with floral drop, large side scrolls with grotesque heads, cornice with lattice frieze and finely carved centre floral panel. Doorways with plain square-headed architraves, but centre N door set in much larger Doric doorcase with fluted Roman Doric columns, triglyph frieze and broken pediment with bust, uncertain date possibly 1846-8 by Haycock. Moulded plaster wall panels and overmantel, and neo-Grec cornice with large mutules, probably by Haycock. Panelled window recesses and fielded panelled shutters. SW MORNING ROOM (library on 1814-17 plan) has an earlier to mid C19 character with unusual octagonal panels to doors in reeded frames with comer roundels. Panelled split-level window shutters. Ceiling with elaborate stepped cornice with a rope-scroll soffit and rich leafy scroll border. Centre acanthus rose with leaf sprays set in shallow coved recess with leaf-moulded circle around. Large W wall elliptical-arched recess with curved reeding set in panels of pilasters and fielded panelling. Re-opened blank window within. Guilloche decoration to arch. Chimneypiece of 1840s with coloured marble panels set in flush black marble framing. Fine cast iron grate. Thick N wall between Morning Room and Library with lobby opening onto garden. Lobby has 4-rib Regency vault with quatrefoil to centre. Brick arch over window. W LIBRARY (Mr Powell's Room on 1814-17 plan) is mid C19 in character, having plain marble fireplace and fire grate by TB Lewis & Son. Panelled window reveals, elaborate plaster ceiling with richly ornamented cove and Regency-style 6-panel doors with multiple mouldings. NW DINING ROOM remodelled in 1845-7 by Haycock (on site of much smaller room, called Evidence Room on 1814-17 plan). Heavy panelled ceiling with panelled soffits to main raised beams which are on moulded brackets, smaller cross beams between, all plastered with egg-and-dart mouldings to panels. Six-panelled doors with planted mouldings in panels, cornices on ornate console brackets. N wall grey marble chimneypiece with console brackets and iron grate. SILVER VAULT has barrel vaulted stucco ceiling. BUTLER'S QUARTERS in added NW wing have slate flagged floor.
Entrance hall gives onto rear stair hall, not central to entrance hall. STAIR HALL is divided by a massive pair of Tuscan plastered columns each with its own entablature block above and modillions in cornices, matching hall cornice. Two half-column responds. Fielded 6-panel doors in moulded architraves to entrance hall and side lobbies. Blank recess on S wall possibly indicating that hall is remodelled. Panelled dado. Lozenge pattern stone-flagged floor. MAIN STAIRCASE of c1750, open-well with short connecting flight on N wall. Wide treads, bracketted tread ends, heavy ramped rail spiralled at foot. and triple column-on-vase balusters to each tread. Plaster panels and panelled dado to walls and 2 long stair lights with stained glass armorial panels and coloured glass margins, c1850. Haycock was probably responsible for the wall panels and the rich panelled ceiling. This has 9 panels with moulded borders and ornament to ribs around centre square which has a small moulded rose. Elaborate cornice with egg-and-dart moulding under modillions with rosettes in soffits between.
BACK STAIR to E of main stair, dog-leg, mid C18 with heavy turned balusters and thick moulded ramped rail. Brackets to tread ends. Stair light has intersecting glazing bars to top sash and brightly coloured glass. NE KITCHEN fireplace has slate flag floors, broad N fireplace arch of squared stone voussoirs and range marked 'A.W. Vicars Aberystwyth' and 'Improved Patent Gradient Range'. Massive C19 fitted dresser. STORE with slate flag floor, meat-hooks, plate rack and copper basin and boiler. BACK HALL passage has flagged floor, servants' bells and room name plates, and turns E behind former SE front room (dining-room on 1814-17 plans) which has been subdivided into 3 small rooms in the C19. 1841 E WING has small rooms. BILLIARD ROOM reached by passage behind has 1860s deep-coved plaster ceiling with moulded cornice and 6 glass panels in centre flanked by panels with neo-classical corner rosettes.
FIRST FLOOR landing and gallery remodelled by Haycock, c1848. Stair rail continued along LANDING front, and colonnade beyond: paired centre columns and half column responds, opening to long axial gallery. Enriched frieze below cornice. Axial GALLERY in three parts, main centre part with columns on S wall matching colonnade, disguising that saloon is not on axis. Greek cornice with triglyphs and mutules all around. The wall columns frame the door to the saloon and a false door each side, in shouldered architraves. Slightly set back to each side of the colonnades are arched doorways with moulded arches and pilasters, those to E of stair giving access to S to subdivided SE room and N to back stairs. Broad arches with pilasters and triple keystones open into outer galleries, full-height pilasters in angles. Outer galleries have a central feature each side: a large panel in shouldered surround with head breaking into pulvinated frieze of an ornate broken pediment, and ceilings with mutule cornice but not the triglyph frieze. W gallery has 2 opposed doors at E end, both arched with pilasters, opening onto bedrooms, and one each side at W end, square-headed with cornice over bolection-moulded frieze. The E gallery has one corniced door each side at E end with cornices. Both galleries have end windows in shouldered architraves. SALOON or MUSIC ROOM in centre of S front has sycamore floor replaced 1799 after dry rot. Remarkable French Rococo style decoration probably of the 1840s by Haycock, suggested by some heaviness of the moulding and the outsize mirrored panels, which cannot be C18. Antechamber at N end divided from main room by an arcade with 4 scagliola plaster columns. Fine N doorcase with pediment on consoles and leaf-scroll frieze, and 6-panel door. Flat ceiling with applied rococo scrollwork. Big wall mirrors with quadrant-curved rebated corners, one each side of door and one on each side wall, in moulded surrounds with plaster loops in angles. Main room has extensive use of gold leaf throughout. Dado rail, plaster big wall panels similar to mirror frames, marble fireplace on W wall and very large mirror opposite in shouldered surround with rococo scrollwork above and below. Chimneypiece is very fine in 4 colours of marble with big console brackets and carved drops below, and centre relief panel with fox and goose motif, possibly mid C18 by Sir Henry Cheere. Fireplace has brass surround and iron grate. Very large oval mirror over fireplace with rich rococo scrolls all around. S wall has mirrors between windows. Rococo scrollwork also over and between the arches of the N arcade. Rich cornice with leaf-scroll frieze, dentils, acanthus modillions with rosettes to soffits between and moulded border to sunk ceiling. Ceiling has oval centrepiece, 4 corner roundels and 4 rectangular panels with concave-curved ends, one each side of oval. The roundels have relief fruit motifs, the side panels have cartouches and leafy floral sprays and the oval has a reeded border with leaf ornament, large centre pendant rose with spiral acanthus, in a rich surround of floral and fruit plant trails. SW NIGHTINGALE ROOM, the main bedroom, has elaborate stucco ceiling with rococo branches and leaf trails framing relief busts of Shakespeare and Milton. Dentil cornice. N wall chimneypiece with painted timber surround to grey marble, bolection-moulded frieze with fruit festoon on centre panel, and cornice over. Wall panel above with eared corners and broken pediment with flower vase in centre. Fireplace has fine 'Ironbridge' grate of c 1790, incorporating reliefs of the iron bridge and neo-classical vases and motifs. BATHROOM adjoining, former DRESSING ROOM, has grey marble fire surround with panelled pilasters and curved corners to panelled lintel. Timber surround with moulded frieze and cornice. NW DAMASK ROOM or PINK ROOM over dining room is of c1846-8 with plain moulded cornice and N wall marble plain fireplace with grate. MACAW ROOM has 6-panelled door, dentil cornice and timber fire surround and mantle. Two rooms in subdivided SE corner, BOUDOIR and BLUE ROOM have similar earlier C19 Gothic arcading to frieze, cornice and small cove with fluting around ceiling. Marble fireplace. NE POWELL ROOM has dado and long fielded panels, moulded stucco cornice and fire grate by W Davies.
The TOP FLOOR has 1950s ceilings, following removal of the attic storey above. Six-panel doors to rooms. A cast-iron fireplace to one bedroom at NE, with twisted columns. S rooms retain early C18 raised fielded panelling and dado rails. C19 mouldings to windows, shutters and doors. Remnant of stairs to attic storey and roof, now blocked, still traceable. Roof was formerly of 3 ridges, remnants of original pegged trusses.
CELLARS with slate steps and flagged and cobbled floors. Wine cellar with tiled floors and brick and slate wine racks. Elsewhere, wine racks of 1848 with segmental-headed brick arches. Massive stone arch to centre chamber and 2 blocked C18 2-light wooden windows. Gerald Morgan (2001) saw rough ceiling beams, now masked, possibly reused sections of scarfed crucks. Massive timber door to half barrel-vault beneath main entrance, with side chambers vaulted in brick. Front wall has sash windows with narrow glazing bars.
SERVICE RANGE of 1841 in poor condition: C19 staircase with ramped rail, turned newels and stick balusters.