LOST HOUSES

William Westmacott, ca. 1800
Ink and watercolour, 24 x 35 cm
PD 8959

Westmacott may have designed this fire-place at Downing Hall, Whitford, near Holywell, one-time home of antiquary Thomas Pennant. Westmacott was responsible for Pennant's monument and an unexecuted proposal to renovate the service wing ca. 1830. The house which had been improved by Pennant, his son David and others was purchased for its land in 1920 by Darwen and Mostyn Iron Co. It burnt down two years later and suffered the final indignity of demolition during the 1950s.

EMRAL DRAWING ROOM

Hannah Linwood, 1820
Ink, wash and watercolour, 33 x 42 cm
PA 2755

Emral Hall, Worthenbury, near Wrexham was an immense U - plan house with an open southeast courtyard and a surrounding moat. The central and oldest part was early seventeenth century, the wings being added ca. 1725. Escalating maintenance costs and gradual decline during the twentieth century culminated in its demolition in 1936.

Much of its eminence derived from its elegant late sixteenth century interior. The vaulted plaster ceiling, magnificently sculpted to illustrate the life of Hercules, and the hall panelling were saved by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in the 1930s and incorporated into the Town-Hall at the Italianate holiday village of Portmeirion. This volume of attractive, informative yet somewhat primitive washes and watercolours contains topographical views of Emral's facades, estate buildings and interiors. An introduction in manuscript profiles the Puleston family who settled here during the reign of Edward I. Little is known of Hannah Linwood. She seems to have been adept at needlework pictures for in 1776 she exhibited her designs at The Society of Artists.

MIDDLETON HALL

J. Brettell (Lithographer), 1824
Printed Sales Catalogue, 39 x 25 cm
Carmarthenshire Sales Catalogue 518

Middleton Hall, Llanarthne, east of Carmarthen was built between 1793 - 95 by S. P Cockerell above the former home of the Middleton family. Its imposing neo-classical design, lavish interior and landscaped environment rendered it amongst the most elegant of modern mansions. It was destroyed by fire in 1931. Features of a once spectacular garden with pools and waterfalls were recently restored by Dyfed County Council and the park is now to become the National Botanic Garden of Wales in the largest Welsh Millenium project outside Cardiff. The £40 million project, scheduled for completion in May 2000 will provide Wales with a new national institution which in addition to attracting visitors - from May 1998 - will be a scientific research centre. Parkland will be re-established on most of the 568 acres with a botanic garden occupying 162 acres.

Our 4000 sales catalogues published to promote sales, including house contents and land, mostly feature houses and farms from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Many contain maps whilst a few display drawings, usually plans of the more valuable properties. Topographical prints and photographs also appear in some catalogues.

HARPTON COURT

Unknown Architect, ca. 1840.
Ink and watercolour, 43 x 70 cm
Harpton Court Collection (14c)

Outstanding in its elegance, this ashlar faced house set in open countryside between New Radnor and Walton was recognised as the best of Radnorshire's neo-classical houses. The north elevation dated from 1750 whilst the south may have been the work of John Nash ca. 1805 - 12 who replanned the interior for the long resident Lewises, one of the county's oldest families. The house was sold in 1953 and partially demolished in 1956. The north-west wing and the stable yard survive, together with a classical lodge, gatepillars, walls and railings at the former north driveway.

THE HAM

Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, 1869
Ink and watercolour, 17 x 24 cm, 18 x 23 cm
PA 5843, PA 5848

Two drawings from a set of nine depicting this Gothic-style mansion, designed by Wyatt for his brother-in-law Illtyd Nicholl. Built near Llantwit Major around the remnants of the original house its most singular feature is the Elizabethan banqueting hall of three stories with its open roof, large bay window, staircase, cross-passage with screen and minstrels' gallery. Contents included rare European and Oriental works of art and furniture, family portraiture and a valuable library. The Ham burned down whilst empty in 1947. These drawings were exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1865.

HAFOD GROUND PLAN

Day and Sons (Lithographers), ca. 1860
Printed, 26 x 39 cm
PZ 4436

Hafod Uchdryd was one of the most celebrated houses in mid-Wales. In 1783 Thomas Johnes, who had newly inherited his father's run-down property, began the notable transformation of the house and its setting into an 'Elysium' inspired by the Picturesque movement. The grounds were landscaped, trees planted and in 1786 work began on a large, capricious gothic mansion designed by Thomas Baldwin. In 1793 John Nash, then comparatively unknown, designed the octagonal library, long conservatory and its attached offices. He also seems to have been involved with the garden architecture.

HAFOD HOUSE

Northern London Polytechnic, 1955
Photocopy, 57 x 43 cm
PZ 4432

One of a series of measured drawings produced in 1954, just before demolition, shows the house as rebuilt by Baldwin after the fire of 1807. This design was less exotic than that of Baldwin's original house. The 'Friends of Hafod' society aims to protect Hafod, to promote an interest in its history, to collect related artefacts and to publish their researches. The Hafod Trust has a programme of restoration of garden walks in conjunction with Forest Enterprise.

HAFOD (CARDIGANSHIRE)

Kenneth Rowntree, 1948
Watercolour, 15 x 26 cm
PB 8510

Painted a few years prior to Hafod's demolition this work derives from our Rowntree collection depicting houses, chapels and townscapes reproduced in the King Penguin publication 'A prospect of Wales - a series of water-colours by Kenneth Rowntree and an essay by Gwyn Jones' , 1948. This Yorkshire-born artist and former Professor of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has visited and worked in Wales on many occasions since the 1930's and his paintings impart his affection for the country's landscape, people and language.