Architecture of Wales

[13] Timber-framed houses in Wales are concentrated particularly in the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire and mainly in areas which lack good building stone but have an abundance of ancient woodland that provided the timber for construction.

[15] A complete listing of tree ring dates for Wales is maintained by the Vernacular Architecture Group[16] at the Archaeological Dataservice[17] and slightly over 200 samples have been taken, though not all have provided positive results.

Its left side is 16th-century (the square framing under the render was felled in 1583), probably a hall-house enlarged when the close-studded taller right end was rebuilt in the early 17th century to provide a new parlour and porch, both slightly jettied.

[55] The nearby Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant, the birthplace of William Morgan, translator of the bible into Welsh, has been dated to 1565, but there is evidence that this was the re-building of an earlier cruck hall house of around 1500.

[65] A later and more developed example of Renaissance architecture is Ruperra Castle, built in 1628 for the Welshman Sir Thomas Morgan and the design ideas may originate from his travels on the Continent.

[72]The Old Hall at Y Faenol (Y Vaynol), Y Felinheli (Port Dinorwic) is an E-shaped building consisting of low 16th-century blocks with a more ornate right wing, which was probably added in the 1660s by Sir Griffith Williams.

[82] The plasterwork also incorporates a number of classical themes, but these are not as well executed as the badges and other emblems: Turner describes them as "rather token additions", and Smith considers this part of the decoration to be "naive".

Taylor used similar windows to light the Court Room of the Bank of England[109] In the 19th century, the design of Market Halls changed, they were now single-storied and larger areas were made available for trading.

This was built in Bath stone in the Greek Doric style by the architect George Vaughan Maddox of Monmouth in 1837–1839[110] The best known early bridge in Wales is over the river Conwy at Llanrwst which is often attributed to Inigo Jones.

Taliaris is by an unknown, but on stylistic grounds it has been suggested that it is the work of a Bristol or Somerset mason or architect[128] A further example of this type of house was the early 18th-century Glanbran, Cynhordy, Carmarthenshire which is described as Palladian with Mannerist touches.

[129] Houses with the typical Palladian arrangement of a central block attached wings or flanking pavilions were built at Dyffryn Aled in Llansannan in Denbighshire[130] and Trawscoed at Guilsfield in Montgomeryshire.

At Kinmel Park near St Asaph, around 1790, he built a stylish house for the Rev Edward Hughes, who derived great wealth from the development of the Parys Copper mines on Anglesey.

However, the Orangery he also built for Thomas Mansel Talbot at Margam Abbey from 1787 to 1790, exhibits a much more refined appreciation of Neo-classicism and may well be considered the best example of this architectural style in Wales.

Swansea Museum of 1839–1841, originally the Royal Institution of South Wales is a finely detailed and well balanced example with a three bay portico supported on Ionic columns.

These volumes give the impression that both the established gentry and the Nouveau riche bankers and industrialists in Wales needed to justify a legitimacy for building in this style and the expenditure they were lavishing on them.

Clutton demolished much of the main block of the earlier house and replaced it with a three storied castellated building in bright red sandstone and placed at the west corner a big octagonal tower.

The house consists of 15 bays on the E. front with end pavilions[196] For a short period at the start of the 16th century, Italian craftsmen introduced the art of highly fired Terracotta moulded brickwork and ornamental plaques into Tudor England.

In 1986 Edward Hubbard described them as "unconventional and pompous",[201] but taste to-day might be more appreciative and they can be seen as late and almost playful take on castellated Gothic revival architecture with some Art Nouveau detailing.

The building reflects that Llandridod was the social capital of Wales at the time and Tom Norton, for whom it was built was both an early bus proprietor and also aviator, hence the fascia letting CYCLES – MOTORS- AIRCRAFT.

These have been attributed to C E Barnard,apparently a Civil Engineer and were originally built alongside the Glamorgan Canal, possibly giving the inspiration to build in the Venetian Gothic style.

Penson had an extensive practice in the south of Wales, particular in church building and restoration, but examples of his use of the Italianate style include Llandovery Town Hall and the gate lodge to Nanteos.

The grid pattern layout at Pembroke Docks has been attributed to the land surveyor George Gwyther, while the Royal Dockyard and its buildings were probably to the original design of John Rennie and carried out by Edward Holl, architect to the Navy Board.

In the areas of the Steel and Tinplate industries similar housing exist and Ironworkers cottages at Rhyd-y-Car in Merthyr Tydfil have been rebuilt at St Fagan's Folk Museum.

[240] Another example of Douglas working in the Tudorbethan style was Wigfair Hall, a large country house of 1882–1884 standing in an elevated position above the River Elwy near the village of Cefn Meiriadog, Denbighshire, Wales.

[246] This is a minor masterpiece with its clean white outline, faced in stone, gabled at each end with a hipped roof and the angled battered buttresses from ground level to the eaves.

[253] In 1881 Seward enlarged the Cardiff Union Workhouse with a new entrance building on the Cowbridge Road frontage with a 3-storey tower and clock face, still in a late Gothic revival style.

[264] A very similar building, which appears to be copying the Barry Offices on a lesser scale to this is the Stiwt or Rhosllannerchrugog Miners' Institute, close to Wrexham, which was built much later, between 1924 and 1926, by the local architects John Owen and F A Roberts.

[265] In Barry the Docks Office was followed in 1903–1908 by the town hall, which was built by the architects Charles E Hutchinson and E Harding Payne in red brick and lavish Bath Stone adjoined by a seven-bay public library with the centre three bays defined by giant Ionic pilasters.

Classical front in brick with giant Ionic columns is mixed with modernist fenestration and detailing[285] Examples of Art Deco buildings in Wales are limited largely to Cinemas and houses.

[296] An important later commission was the redesign and rebuilding of Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire Clough Williams- Ellis was equally capable in working in the Modernist idiom of the interwar years.