View allAll Photos Tagged fireback
(lophura diardi) The Siamese Fireback is distributed to the lowland and evergreen forests of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. This species is also designated as the national bird of Thailand.
Name: Malayan crestless fireback (male)
Scientific: Lophura erythrophthalma
Malay: Ayam Merah Mata / Ayam Pegar Mata Merah / Merah Mata
Family: Phasianidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2022): Critically Endangered
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The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
South Front
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from near the Vine Walk.
Fireback Crayfish reside in a handful of first-order streams and seeps along the eastern bank of the Apalachicola River.
The Pierhead Building near Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.
The Pierhead Building (Welsh: Adeilad y Pierhead) is a Grade 1 listed building of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It stands as one of the city of Cardiff's most familiar landmarks and was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company.
The clock on the building is unofficially known as the "Baby Big Ben" or the "Big Ben of Wales", and also serves as a Welsh history museum. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the National Assembly for Wales, which also includes the Senedd and Ty Hywel.
It is a Grade I listed building.
Location
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
History
Built in 1896 by William Frame, assistant to William Burges as offices for the Cardiff Railway Company, sucessor to the Bute Dock Company. Medievalist style with strong influence of Burges (in contrast to the Classical dock offices at Barry) combining muscular Gothic and French Renaissance elements. 2-storeys; brightly constructed throughout in glazed terracotta, representing a fine example of the use of this material; abundant sculptural ornament and banding. Slate roofs; small-pane glazing, round headed to 1st floor and square headed below.
Interior
Entrance is onto square lobby, decoratively tiled and with panelled ceiling; round arched recesses to both sides with labels and nook shafts. This leads through to tall and grand hall; includes terrazzo floor, with central roundel repeating the company's motto and panelled ceiling. Church-like, double-arcaded hall of offices to rear through full height, moulded arch with foliage spandrels; terracotta detail includes twin pilasters between each arch, rising to carry the glazed clerestory roof along the central nave. The main stairwell leads off the front right hand corner of the entrance hall. The staircase is enriched by varied and colourful materials including granite treads, terracotta (stellar-section) balusters including enormous newels and green-glazed tile handrail; gilded Minton style tilework to dado (ca 1.8m high) - includes swagged band to top. The single-best room is the Port Manager's office on 1st floor with castellated and canopied 'medieval' chimneypiece with heavily foliated columns and herringbone tiled fireback; panelled ceiling with pendant to octagonal centrepiece. Round arch into corner tower bay in this office and that below. Crenellated and half-glazed partitions to 1st floor office corridors; panelled doors. Original ironwork spiral stairs inside clock-tower manufactured by St Pancras Ironwork Co, London; curved braces to treads.
Exterior
Design dominated by 2-stage clock tower at S end over main entrance; pyramidal roof and crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Clock faces recessed beneath semi-circular arches with fleuron panelled balconies; flanking lions heads and coats of arms. Splayed oriel over main entrance including crenellated transom and machicolated bracket base. Squat round arched entrance with deeply rounded jambs; battered bases to flanking octagonal and domed turrets. Panelled doors, half-glazed tympanum and swirling bands of foliage. Larger, Low Countries style, polygonal corner towers beyond, incorporated into main rooms and glazed to each face; pyramidal roof, gargoyles, colonnettes and foliage band between floors. 7-bay left hand side, the southernmost of which is taken up with exceptional chimney breast, heavily enriched with terracotta ornament including steam train and ship over the company's motto 'Wrth ddwr a than'; the whole set in a tiered frontispiece-like frame and topped by 3-linked chimney stacks; bronze commemorative plaque to base. Central 3-bays are divided by buttresses with polygonal faces and domed caps. Steep-hipped roof tower beyond over entrance inscribed Bute Docks Co. ; round arched with panelled surround; chimney stack and band of narrow round arched panels to top. Northernmost bay has bracketed gable-oriel with 3-light transomed window; gable has blind oculus and finials. Simpler right hand side with central 3-bays divided off as before; 2-windows near southern end are set in foliage surround. Plain N end.
Reason for Listing
Listed Grade I as a central and especially important building to the historical and visual dockscape of Cardiff; it is furthermore an exceptional Victorian building reflecting the confidence of the period in its flamboyant architectural detail, particularly in its use of terracotta.
References
M Parker and N Carter, Butetown, A Visitors Guide, 1989, p.5.
The Inner Harbour - An Historical Appraisal. An unpublished report prepared by The Survey of Cardiff for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, March 1989, pp 103-4.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
This impressive looking species is only found in the Thai-Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. We saw it a coup0le of times briefly in thick forest at Way Kambas National Park, South Sumatra. On the evening of the 11th September 2018 we found one roosting in a tall tree over the track we were walking along.
In Lichfield near and around Staffordshire County Council - Lichfield College.
This is the Staffordshire County Council building for Lichfield College and Library Services.
It includes Lichfield Library, Lichfield Record Office, The Friary Gallery, Library, Art & Archives Committee, Education Committee and Lichfield College.
Scaffolding on the end near St John Street.
Sign at the corner of St John Street and The Friary.
Grade II listed.
Lichfield College and Lichfield Library, Lichfield
LICHFIELD
SK1109SE THE FRIARY
1094-1/8/232 (South side)
05/02/52 Lichfield College and Lichfield
Library
(Formerly Listed as:
BIRMINGHAM ROAD
Lichfield Friary Grammar School for
Girls)
GV II
Part of Franciscan Friary, converted to house and then to
school. c1295, altered and extended to north, 1538, for
Gregory Stonynge; extended, 1921-8, by GC Lowbridge, County
Architect.
Ashlar and brick; tile roofs with brick stacks.
T-plan with end cross-wings, original building forming end and
cross-wing of arm to right.
Original building, known as the Bishop's Lodging, forms L-plan
with short wing. Mostly ashlar with some brick.
North wing: 2 storeys with attic; 3-window left return range.
2 offset ashlar and brick buttresses; 3 coped gables. Pointed
entrance to right end has single-chamfered arch. Tall stair
window to left end has leaded glazing, 3-light ovolo-mullioned
window to left; 1st floor has 2 mullioned and transomed
windows of 3 lights; attic has casement windows with iron
opening casements. Two C20 lateral stacks.
End has early brickwork with offset below timber-framed gable
with ogee bracing and brick infill, ashlar angle to right with
return raking buttress; small window high up to right projects
and has leaded glazing, gable has slanting window.
Right return has gabled wing to right of centre and right end
gable. Left end of ashlar with some brick; ground floor has
2-light casement and pegged cross casement both with timber
lintels and leaded glazing; 1st floor has 3 windows with
12-pane sashes.
Wing has much ashlar and brick patching, raised eaves and
diagonal buttresses; 2 windows to ground floor, one to 1st
floor, all with 12-pane sashes, attic has small-paned
casement; left return has blocked 1st floor round-headed light
with spandrels, and lateral stack; right return has large
brick section and eaves, 1st floor door to fire-escape with
rubbed brick flat arch, and lateral stack. Gabled right end
has signs of blocked openings and brick gable and angle
buttress; 1st floor door.
Rear elevation, south wing, of 2 storeys; 5-window range with
central 2-storey porch with chamfered angles and parapet; 3
offset buttresses.
Recessed entrance has steps up to recessed glazed and
fielded-panelled door. Windows have paired 18-pane horned
sashes, those to 1st floor with cornices and parapets, left
end window with inserted half-glazed door; window to right of
entrance has ex-situ gravestone of C14 or earlier below:
calvary cross fleury and worn inscription to Richard the
Merchant, found in 1746.
C20 range of brick with ashlar dressings. 2 storeys; gabled
centre with flanking 6- and 3-window ranges and wing to left
end. 3-light ovolo-mullioned-and-transomed windows; coped
gables. Centre has gabled buttresses and entrance with Tudor
head in architrave with label mould; flanking windows with
cornice above taken round base of canted oriel with vine and
grapes to base, 1:2:1-light window, flanking 3-light windows
and light above.
Range to right to front of old range; gabled centre has 1st
floor oriel. Range to left is symmetrical with 2 gabled
projections with oriels. Wing has gabled buttresses;
2:3:2-light windows and cusped panelling between floors;
7-window left return. Rear has hall wing with tall windows
with small-paned glazing and tall lateral stack; later
additions.
INTERIOR: old part has brick-vaulted cellars with ashlar
benches and shelves; C20 paired sashes to corridors and
staircase; ground floor room to wing has chamfered beams,
square panelling, corner fireplace with pilasters, frieze and
dentilled cornice; niche with shaped shelves and architrave;
attic with exposed trusses, north wing with curved principals.
C20 part has ex-situ C16 fireplace from panelled room, ashlar
with Tudor arch and lettering: GREGORY STONYNG to spandrels,
Delft tiles and cast iron fireback; late C20 alterations.
During the C18 the house was the home of Mrs Cobb and her
niece, friends of Dr Johnson, who often visited them.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London:
1974-: P.191-2; Mullins H: History of the Friary School:
Lichfield).
Listing NGR: SK1161509321
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from the Rockery
7D, 1/125, F-2.8, 300mm, ISO 1250
7:00 in the morning at the edge of the forest. Very dark. These guys feed at the edge of the forest daily. Start around 5:45 in the morning and are gone by 7:00.
4 kinds of Pheasants in a few hours at Phu Luang
Wildlife Sanctuary. 2017.07.23
Red Junglefowl 4, Silver Pheasant 3, Green peafowl 4, Siamese Fireback 7
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from near the Vine Walk.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from the Rockery
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from the Rockery
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from the Rockery
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
South Front
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
chimney
The Pierhead Building near Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.
The Pierhead Building (Welsh: Adeilad y Pierhead) is a Grade 1 listed building of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It stands as one of the city of Cardiff's most familiar landmarks and was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company.
The clock on the building is unofficially known as the "Baby Big Ben" or the "Big Ben of Wales", and also serves as a Welsh history museum. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the National Assembly for Wales, which also includes the Senedd and Ty Hywel.
It is a Grade I listed building.
Location
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
History
Built in 1896 by William Frame, assistant to William Burges as offices for the Cardiff Railway Company, sucessor to the Bute Dock Company. Medievalist style with strong influence of Burges (in contrast to the Classical dock offices at Barry) combining muscular Gothic and French Renaissance elements. 2-storeys; brightly constructed throughout in glazed terracotta, representing a fine example of the use of this material; abundant sculptural ornament and banding. Slate roofs; small-pane glazing, round headed to 1st floor and square headed below.
Interior
Entrance is onto square lobby, decoratively tiled and with panelled ceiling; round arched recesses to both sides with labels and nook shafts. This leads through to tall and grand hall; includes terrazzo floor, with central roundel repeating the company's motto and panelled ceiling. Church-like, double-arcaded hall of offices to rear through full height, moulded arch with foliage spandrels; terracotta detail includes twin pilasters between each arch, rising to carry the glazed clerestory roof along the central nave. The main stairwell leads off the front right hand corner of the entrance hall. The staircase is enriched by varied and colourful materials including granite treads, terracotta (stellar-section) balusters including enormous newels and green-glazed tile handrail; gilded Minton style tilework to dado (ca 1.8m high) - includes swagged band to top. The single-best room is the Port Manager's office on 1st floor with castellated and canopied 'medieval' chimneypiece with heavily foliated columns and herringbone tiled fireback; panelled ceiling with pendant to octagonal centrepiece. Round arch into corner tower bay in this office and that below. Crenellated and half-glazed partitions to 1st floor office corridors; panelled doors. Original ironwork spiral stairs inside clock-tower manufactured by St Pancras Ironwork Co, London; curved braces to treads.
Exterior
Design dominated by 2-stage clock tower at S end over main entrance; pyramidal roof and crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Clock faces recessed beneath semi-circular arches with fleuron panelled balconies; flanking lions heads and coats of arms. Splayed oriel over main entrance including crenellated transom and machicolated bracket base. Squat round arched entrance with deeply rounded jambs; battered bases to flanking octagonal and domed turrets. Panelled doors, half-glazed tympanum and swirling bands of foliage. Larger, Low Countries style, polygonal corner towers beyond, incorporated into main rooms and glazed to each face; pyramidal roof, gargoyles, colonnettes and foliage band between floors. 7-bay left hand side, the southernmost of which is taken up with exceptional chimney breast, heavily enriched with terracotta ornament including steam train and ship over the company's motto 'Wrth ddwr a than'; the whole set in a tiered frontispiece-like frame and topped by 3-linked chimney stacks; bronze commemorative plaque to base. Central 3-bays are divided by buttresses with polygonal faces and domed caps. Steep-hipped roof tower beyond over entrance inscribed Bute Docks Co. ; round arched with panelled surround; chimney stack and band of narrow round arched panels to top. Northernmost bay has bracketed gable-oriel with 3-light transomed window; gable has blind oculus and finials. Simpler right hand side with central 3-bays divided off as before; 2-windows near southern end are set in foliage surround. Plain N end.
Reason for Listing
Listed Grade I as a central and especially important building to the historical and visual dockscape of Cardiff; it is furthermore an exceptional Victorian building reflecting the confidence of the period in its flamboyant architectural detail, particularly in its use of terracotta.
References
M Parker and N Carter, Butetown, A Visitors Guide, 1989, p.5.
The Inner Harbour - An Historical Appraisal. An unpublished report prepared by The Survey of Cardiff for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, March 1989, pp 103-4.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
weather vane
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from near the Lavender Court & Folly.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
South Front
Statue seen at the back of the house.
The Pierhead Building near Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.
The Pierhead Building (Welsh: Adeilad y Pierhead) is a Grade 1 listed building of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It stands as one of the city of Cardiff's most familiar landmarks and was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company.
The clock on the building is unofficially known as the "Baby Big Ben" or the "Big Ben of Wales", and also serves as a Welsh history museum. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the National Assembly for Wales, which also includes the Senedd and Ty Hywel.
It is a Grade I listed building.
Location
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
History
Built in 1896 by William Frame, assistant to William Burges as offices for the Cardiff Railway Company, sucessor to the Bute Dock Company. Medievalist style with strong influence of Burges (in contrast to the Classical dock offices at Barry) combining muscular Gothic and French Renaissance elements. 2-storeys; brightly constructed throughout in glazed terracotta, representing a fine example of the use of this material; abundant sculptural ornament and banding. Slate roofs; small-pane glazing, round headed to 1st floor and square headed below.
Interior
Entrance is onto square lobby, decoratively tiled and with panelled ceiling; round arched recesses to both sides with labels and nook shafts. This leads through to tall and grand hall; includes terrazzo floor, with central roundel repeating the company's motto and panelled ceiling. Church-like, double-arcaded hall of offices to rear through full height, moulded arch with foliage spandrels; terracotta detail includes twin pilasters between each arch, rising to carry the glazed clerestory roof along the central nave. The main stairwell leads off the front right hand corner of the entrance hall. The staircase is enriched by varied and colourful materials including granite treads, terracotta (stellar-section) balusters including enormous newels and green-glazed tile handrail; gilded Minton style tilework to dado (ca 1.8m high) - includes swagged band to top. The single-best room is the Port Manager's office on 1st floor with castellated and canopied 'medieval' chimneypiece with heavily foliated columns and herringbone tiled fireback; panelled ceiling with pendant to octagonal centrepiece. Round arch into corner tower bay in this office and that below. Crenellated and half-glazed partitions to 1st floor office corridors; panelled doors. Original ironwork spiral stairs inside clock-tower manufactured by St Pancras Ironwork Co, London; curved braces to treads.
Exterior
Design dominated by 2-stage clock tower at S end over main entrance; pyramidal roof and crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Clock faces recessed beneath semi-circular arches with fleuron panelled balconies; flanking lions heads and coats of arms. Splayed oriel over main entrance including crenellated transom and machicolated bracket base. Squat round arched entrance with deeply rounded jambs; battered bases to flanking octagonal and domed turrets. Panelled doors, half-glazed tympanum and swirling bands of foliage. Larger, Low Countries style, polygonal corner towers beyond, incorporated into main rooms and glazed to each face; pyramidal roof, gargoyles, colonnettes and foliage band between floors. 7-bay left hand side, the southernmost of which is taken up with exceptional chimney breast, heavily enriched with terracotta ornament including steam train and ship over the company's motto 'Wrth ddwr a than'; the whole set in a tiered frontispiece-like frame and topped by 3-linked chimney stacks; bronze commemorative plaque to base. Central 3-bays are divided by buttresses with polygonal faces and domed caps. Steep-hipped roof tower beyond over entrance inscribed Bute Docks Co. ; round arched with panelled surround; chimney stack and band of narrow round arched panels to top. Northernmost bay has bracketed gable-oriel with 3-light transomed window; gable has blind oculus and finials. Simpler right hand side with central 3-bays divided off as before; 2-windows near southern end are set in foliage surround. Plain N end.
Reason for Listing
Listed Grade I as a central and especially important building to the historical and visual dockscape of Cardiff; it is furthermore an exceptional Victorian building reflecting the confidence of the period in its flamboyant architectural detail, particularly in its use of terracotta.
References
M Parker and N Carter, Butetown, A Visitors Guide, 1989, p.5.
The Inner Harbour - An Historical Appraisal. An unpublished report prepared by The Survey of Cardiff for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, March 1989, pp 103-4.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
South Front
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
stained glass window - looked better on the inside.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
South Front
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
chimneys
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Seen from near the Lavender Court & Folly.
The Pierhead Building near Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.
The Pierhead Building (Welsh: Adeilad y Pierhead) is a Grade 1 listed building of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It stands as one of the city of Cardiff's most familiar landmarks and was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company.
The clock on the building is unofficially known as the "Baby Big Ben" or the "Big Ben of Wales", and also serves as a Welsh history museum. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the National Assembly for Wales, which also includes the Senedd and Ty Hywel.
It is a Grade I listed building.
Location
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
History
Built in 1896 by William Frame, assistant to William Burges as offices for the Cardiff Railway Company, sucessor to the Bute Dock Company. Medievalist style with strong influence of Burges (in contrast to the Classical dock offices at Barry) combining muscular Gothic and French Renaissance elements. 2-storeys; brightly constructed throughout in glazed terracotta, representing a fine example of the use of this material; abundant sculptural ornament and banding. Slate roofs; small-pane glazing, round headed to 1st floor and square headed below.
Interior
Entrance is onto square lobby, decoratively tiled and with panelled ceiling; round arched recesses to both sides with labels and nook shafts. This leads through to tall and grand hall; includes terrazzo floor, with central roundel repeating the company's motto and panelled ceiling. Church-like, double-arcaded hall of offices to rear through full height, moulded arch with foliage spandrels; terracotta detail includes twin pilasters between each arch, rising to carry the glazed clerestory roof along the central nave. The main stairwell leads off the front right hand corner of the entrance hall. The staircase is enriched by varied and colourful materials including granite treads, terracotta (stellar-section) balusters including enormous newels and green-glazed tile handrail; gilded Minton style tilework to dado (ca 1.8m high) - includes swagged band to top. The single-best room is the Port Manager's office on 1st floor with castellated and canopied 'medieval' chimneypiece with heavily foliated columns and herringbone tiled fireback; panelled ceiling with pendant to octagonal centrepiece. Round arch into corner tower bay in this office and that below. Crenellated and half-glazed partitions to 1st floor office corridors; panelled doors. Original ironwork spiral stairs inside clock-tower manufactured by St Pancras Ironwork Co, London; curved braces to treads.
Exterior
Design dominated by 2-stage clock tower at S end over main entrance; pyramidal roof and crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Clock faces recessed beneath semi-circular arches with fleuron panelled balconies; flanking lions heads and coats of arms. Splayed oriel over main entrance including crenellated transom and machicolated bracket base. Squat round arched entrance with deeply rounded jambs; battered bases to flanking octagonal and domed turrets. Panelled doors, half-glazed tympanum and swirling bands of foliage. Larger, Low Countries style, polygonal corner towers beyond, incorporated into main rooms and glazed to each face; pyramidal roof, gargoyles, colonnettes and foliage band between floors. 7-bay left hand side, the southernmost of which is taken up with exceptional chimney breast, heavily enriched with terracotta ornament including steam train and ship over the company's motto 'Wrth ddwr a than'; the whole set in a tiered frontispiece-like frame and topped by 3-linked chimney stacks; bronze commemorative plaque to base. Central 3-bays are divided by buttresses with polygonal faces and domed caps. Steep-hipped roof tower beyond over entrance inscribed Bute Docks Co. ; round arched with panelled surround; chimney stack and band of narrow round arched panels to top. Northernmost bay has bracketed gable-oriel with 3-light transomed window; gable has blind oculus and finials. Simpler right hand side with central 3-bays divided off as before; 2-windows near southern end are set in foliage surround. Plain N end.
Reason for Listing
Listed Grade I as a central and especially important building to the historical and visual dockscape of Cardiff; it is furthermore an exceptional Victorian building reflecting the confidence of the period in its flamboyant architectural detail, particularly in its use of terracotta.
References
M Parker and N Carter, Butetown, A Visitors Guide, 1989, p.5.
The Inner Harbour - An Historical Appraisal. An unpublished report prepared by The Survey of Cardiff for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, March 1989, pp 103-4.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
The Statue of Ivor Novello can be seen here with the Pierhead Building.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
chimneys
In Lichfield near and around Staffordshire County Council - Lichfield College.
This is the Staffordshire County Council building for Lichfield College and Library Services.
It includes Lichfield Library, Lichfield Record Office, The Friary Gallery, Library, Art & Archives Committee, Education Committee and Lichfield College.
Grade II listed.
Lichfield College and Lichfield Library, Lichfield
LICHFIELD
SK1109SE THE FRIARY
1094-1/8/232 (South side)
05/02/52 Lichfield College and Lichfield
Library
(Formerly Listed as:
BIRMINGHAM ROAD
Lichfield Friary Grammar School for
Girls)
GV II
Part of Franciscan Friary, converted to house and then to
school. c1295, altered and extended to north, 1538, for
Gregory Stonynge; extended, 1921-8, by GC Lowbridge, County
Architect.
Ashlar and brick; tile roofs with brick stacks.
T-plan with end cross-wings, original building forming end and
cross-wing of arm to right.
Original building, known as the Bishop's Lodging, forms L-plan
with short wing. Mostly ashlar with some brick.
North wing: 2 storeys with attic; 3-window left return range.
2 offset ashlar and brick buttresses; 3 coped gables. Pointed
entrance to right end has single-chamfered arch. Tall stair
window to left end has leaded glazing, 3-light ovolo-mullioned
window to left; 1st floor has 2 mullioned and transomed
windows of 3 lights; attic has casement windows with iron
opening casements. Two C20 lateral stacks.
End has early brickwork with offset below timber-framed gable
with ogee bracing and brick infill, ashlar angle to right with
return raking buttress; small window high up to right projects
and has leaded glazing, gable has slanting window.
Right return has gabled wing to right of centre and right end
gable. Left end of ashlar with some brick; ground floor has
2-light casement and pegged cross casement both with timber
lintels and leaded glazing; 1st floor has 3 windows with
12-pane sashes.
Wing has much ashlar and brick patching, raised eaves and
diagonal buttresses; 2 windows to ground floor, one to 1st
floor, all with 12-pane sashes, attic has small-paned
casement; left return has blocked 1st floor round-headed light
with spandrels, and lateral stack; right return has large
brick section and eaves, 1st floor door to fire-escape with
rubbed brick flat arch, and lateral stack. Gabled right end
has signs of blocked openings and brick gable and angle
buttress; 1st floor door.
Rear elevation, south wing, of 2 storeys; 5-window range with
central 2-storey porch with chamfered angles and parapet; 3
offset buttresses.
Recessed entrance has steps up to recessed glazed and
fielded-panelled door. Windows have paired 18-pane horned
sashes, those to 1st floor with cornices and parapets, left
end window with inserted half-glazed door; window to right of
entrance has ex-situ gravestone of C14 or earlier below:
calvary cross fleury and worn inscription to Richard the
Merchant, found in 1746.
C20 range of brick with ashlar dressings. 2 storeys; gabled
centre with flanking 6- and 3-window ranges and wing to left
end. 3-light ovolo-mullioned-and-transomed windows; coped
gables. Centre has gabled buttresses and entrance with Tudor
head in architrave with label mould; flanking windows with
cornice above taken round base of canted oriel with vine and
grapes to base, 1:2:1-light window, flanking 3-light windows
and light above.
Range to right to front of old range; gabled centre has 1st
floor oriel. Range to left is symmetrical with 2 gabled
projections with oriels. Wing has gabled buttresses;
2:3:2-light windows and cusped panelling between floors;
7-window left return. Rear has hall wing with tall windows
with small-paned glazing and tall lateral stack; later
additions.
INTERIOR: old part has brick-vaulted cellars with ashlar
benches and shelves; C20 paired sashes to corridors and
staircase; ground floor room to wing has chamfered beams,
square panelling, corner fireplace with pilasters, frieze and
dentilled cornice; niche with shaped shelves and architrave;
attic with exposed trusses, north wing with curved principals.
C20 part has ex-situ C16 fireplace from panelled room, ashlar
with Tudor arch and lettering: GREGORY STONYNG to spandrels,
Delft tiles and cast iron fireback; late C20 alterations.
During the C18 the house was the home of Mrs Cobb and her
niece, friends of Dr Johnson, who often visited them.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London:
1974-: P.191-2; Mullins H: History of the Friary School:
Lichfield).
Listing NGR: SK1161509321
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
(lophura diardi) The Siamese Fireback is distributed to the lowland and evergreen forests of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. This species is also designated as the national bird of Thailand.
The interior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
The Story Rooms - fireplace
The Pierhead Building near Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.
The Pierhead Building (Welsh: Adeilad y Pierhead) is a Grade 1 listed building of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It stands as one of the city of Cardiff's most familiar landmarks and was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company.
The clock on the building is unofficially known as the "Baby Big Ben" or the "Big Ben of Wales", and also serves as a Welsh history museum. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the National Assembly for Wales, which also includes the Senedd and Ty Hywel.
It is a Grade I listed building.
Location
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
History
Built in 1896 by William Frame, assistant to William Burges as offices for the Cardiff Railway Company, sucessor to the Bute Dock Company. Medievalist style with strong influence of Burges (in contrast to the Classical dock offices at Barry) combining muscular Gothic and French Renaissance elements. 2-storeys; brightly constructed throughout in glazed terracotta, representing a fine example of the use of this material; abundant sculptural ornament and banding. Slate roofs; small-pane glazing, round headed to 1st floor and square headed below.
Interior
Entrance is onto square lobby, decoratively tiled and with panelled ceiling; round arched recesses to both sides with labels and nook shafts. This leads through to tall and grand hall; includes terrazzo floor, with central roundel repeating the company's motto and panelled ceiling. Church-like, double-arcaded hall of offices to rear through full height, moulded arch with foliage spandrels; terracotta detail includes twin pilasters between each arch, rising to carry the glazed clerestory roof along the central nave. The main stairwell leads off the front right hand corner of the entrance hall. The staircase is enriched by varied and colourful materials including granite treads, terracotta (stellar-section) balusters including enormous newels and green-glazed tile handrail; gilded Minton style tilework to dado (ca 1.8m high) - includes swagged band to top. The single-best room is the Port Manager's office on 1st floor with castellated and canopied 'medieval' chimneypiece with heavily foliated columns and herringbone tiled fireback; panelled ceiling with pendant to octagonal centrepiece. Round arch into corner tower bay in this office and that below. Crenellated and half-glazed partitions to 1st floor office corridors; panelled doors. Original ironwork spiral stairs inside clock-tower manufactured by St Pancras Ironwork Co, London; curved braces to treads.
Exterior
Design dominated by 2-stage clock tower at S end over main entrance; pyramidal roof and crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Clock faces recessed beneath semi-circular arches with fleuron panelled balconies; flanking lions heads and coats of arms. Splayed oriel over main entrance including crenellated transom and machicolated bracket base. Squat round arched entrance with deeply rounded jambs; battered bases to flanking octagonal and domed turrets. Panelled doors, half-glazed tympanum and swirling bands of foliage. Larger, Low Countries style, polygonal corner towers beyond, incorporated into main rooms and glazed to each face; pyramidal roof, gargoyles, colonnettes and foliage band between floors. 7-bay left hand side, the southernmost of which is taken up with exceptional chimney breast, heavily enriched with terracotta ornament including steam train and ship over the company's motto 'Wrth ddwr a than'; the whole set in a tiered frontispiece-like frame and topped by 3-linked chimney stacks; bronze commemorative plaque to base. Central 3-bays are divided by buttresses with polygonal faces and domed caps. Steep-hipped roof tower beyond over entrance inscribed Bute Docks Co. ; round arched with panelled surround; chimney stack and band of narrow round arched panels to top. Northernmost bay has bracketed gable-oriel with 3-light transomed window; gable has blind oculus and finials. Simpler right hand side with central 3-bays divided off as before; 2-windows near southern end are set in foliage surround. Plain N end.
Reason for Listing
Listed Grade I as a central and especially important building to the historical and visual dockscape of Cardiff; it is furthermore an exceptional Victorian building reflecting the confidence of the period in its flamboyant architectural detail, particularly in its use of terracotta.
References
M Parker and N Carter, Butetown, A Visitors Guide, 1989, p.5.
The Inner Harbour - An Historical Appraisal. An unpublished report prepared by The Survey of Cardiff for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, March 1989, pp 103-4.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Faces S across Cardiff Bay. To E of the Industrial and Maritime Museum, between entrances to Bute East and West Docks.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
clocks
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
South Front
Statue seen at the back of the house.
The exterior of Dyffryn House at Dyffryn Gardens.
It is in Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. Not too far from Cardiff. The gardens are owned by the National Trust. There is also a house on the site, that is undergoing refurbishment, it opens at midday (the parts that are open though).
Dyffryn House was first home to Admiral Sir Thomas Button in the 16th century. Then in the 18th century the Pryce family took ownership. The last family to live in the house was the Cory family from the late 19th century.
Bought by John Cory the house you see today is mostly his remodelling. John's only daughter Florence was the last of the family to live here, passing away in 1937.
The estate was bought by Sir Cennydd Traherne, a local land lower. This is when it began it's life as a training centre and then a conference centre.
The conference centre closed in 1998. For a brief period the house as due to become a hotel. Much of the damage was caused by this plan.
In 2013, 17 years after doors closed, the National Trust has reopened the house to keep the story going.
The house is Grade II* listed.
Location
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
History
Built 1891-3 for John Cory, the well known local industrialist and philanthropist; the architects are said to be Habershon and Fawckner of Newport. There had been an Elizabethan house on the site, successively owned by the Button and Pryce Families. Dyffryn is principally renowned for its gardens, which were laid out for Reginald Cory (John's son) by Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and prolific garden designer; work began in 1904-5. After Cory's death Dyffryn was sold in 1937 and purchased by Sir Cennydd Traherne who leased the property to the County Council. Some internal alterations were carried out in conversion to a conference centre.
Interior
Lavish interiors the main rooms of which are designed in a wide variety of styles in a manner often favoured by wealthy C19 owners. Some of the chimneypieces are said to have been brought from other houses. The single most important room is the Great Hall which echoes those of major C16 country houses (eg Hampton Court and Burghley) with its full height, mock hammerbeam roof and large end window. The walls are enriched with two tiers of pilasters carrying friezes, a dentilled cornice to top and corbelled round arches with gilded keystones below over a panelled dado. 5-bay implied double-hammerbeam roof which is herringbone-boarded. Grand timber chimneypiece with massive cornice carried by full height terms; stone fireplace surround and overmantel with Ionic columns flanking coat of arms. Enormous window to N end with coloured glass depicting Queen Elizabeth I; round-arched doorway below with double doors and marble columns. Splayed dais recess to W wall with coffered ceiling. At S end the minstrels gallery is carried on curved brackets and spans an open passage leading from the staircase hall giving access to the Great Hall and neighbouring rooms, the doorways to which are surmounted by large plaster relief 'tondi'. To the E of the Great Hall is the Billiard Room which has a dado, with integral bench seating, below a deep band of carved panelling in an exceptionally florid Renaissance manner; similar frieze and chimneypiece and a deeply panelled ceiling with ceiling bosses. The Orchid room to S has painted ceiling, Ionic columns and gilded surrounds to wall panelling. Immediately next door is the Rose Room which is in a broadly C18 French style (see especially the delicately painted ceiling with corner roundels and the gilded festoons to the beaded surrounds of the wall panelling). The fine marble chimneypiece however is more ca.1600 in style with tapered figural pilasters, Smythson-like bosses and strapwork surrounding an equestrian figure with a French inscription: "Dieu Benit La Zouche de Courson". To the W is the Tulip Room (now Dining room) with ribbed ceiling including Gothic foliate bosses; bowed W end backs onto the Bar while the N wall backs onto the wainscotted Staircase Hall which at its E end has wall-arcading in a similar manner to that of the Great Hall. Broad stairs with long flights; shaped tread ends and panelled newels with finials. 1st floor landing has paired marble columns and beyond that the stairs continue in a similar manner to 2nd floor. The Oak room opens off the Staircase Hall. This was formerly the dining room and has a panelled ceiling, wainscotting and mullioned and transomed windows all in a Tudor/Elizabethan manner; similar style inglenook-like fireplace with oval smoke window. The two remaining public rooms to W are the Bar and Lounge for the conference centre. The former has lightly ribbed ceiling but luxuriantly foliage encrusted marble chimneypiece in an C18 manner and reuses a remarkable French style 7-double branch chandelier; modern panelling. The lounge has unusual plaster ceiling with broad ribs and thistle, rose and daffodil ornament to square, diamond and lozenge shaped panels. Fine French chateau style marble chimneypiece with putti flanking round-arched fireplace containing Fleur-de-lis fireback.
Exterior
Eclectic design derived from the French Renaissance and English Baroque styles, the former is particularly seen in the Mansard roof and some of the window treatment and the latter in the Great Hall block to the main facade. 2 storeys and attic; rendered elevations with freestone dressings. Hipped mansard slate roof with balustraded parapet over the main cornice; stone chimney stacks with bracketed cornices. The main front to N is dominated by the tall, square Hall block that projects to left of centre; this has balustraded parapet with urns and a pedimented front over a giant, 5-light, round-arched window enriched with keyblocked ornament. The symmetrical part of the design is that there are 3 storey 'towers' to centre and ends. Ground floor is advanced to right of the hall block with similar parapet and urns. Includes two, 5-light, bay windows, with similar glazing to that of the hall; between these is a similar 3-light window beside the present, round-arched, main entrance with spandrel ornament. In front of the hall block is a projecting lobby/porch and a porte-cochere onto the Carriage Court; this has paired Doric columns and a rusticated entrance surround. Glazing is mostly of horned sash type; the attic windows to the pedimented dormers are round-headed in a French manner; some heavily keystoned casement windows to ground floor left with voluted architraves. To right stone wall screens modernised part and the rear of the stable courtyard. 5-window left hand (E) side including shallow splayed bay. Symmetrical 13-bay garden front to S including projecting end 'towers' and broader projecting central bay, which is pedimented in a similar manner to that of the hall block; includes tripartite to 2nd floor and bay window below. The 'towers' have niches containing statues to ground floor. Midway between central and end bays are 2-storey splayed bays; these are linked to the central classical veranda which has paired Doric columns and balustraded parapet with ball finials. Modern extension to W and beyond that is the converted former stable courtyard with pyramidal clock-tower to S range, originally the coach-house; semi-circular windows to loft.
Reason for Listing
Graded II* for its exceptional interiors and also for the importance of its setting at the heart of Dyffryn Gardens.
References
Information from Mrs P Moore;
Mawson T (1926) The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 5th ed., p386.
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Notes:
Set within the large public grounds of Dyffryn Gardens; 2km to south of St Nicholas.
Source: Cadw
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Door - the house doesn't open before 12pm, so we had a look around the wonderful gardens first.
Danum Valley, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. Female.
NEAR THREATENED
See the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species listing here: www.iucnredlist.org/species/22727431/94948930