Craig-y-parc House

{{Infobox historic site

| name = Craig-y-parc House

| image = Craig-y-Parc School - Pentyrch - geograph.org.uk - 1735750.jpg

| caption = "Under the spell of Lutyens, a beautifully resolved composition", John Newman

| type = House

| locmapin = Wales Cardiff

| map_relief = yes

| coordinates = {{coord|51.5192|-3.3042|display=inline,title}}

| location = Cardiff, Glamorgan

| area =

| built = 1914-1918

| owner = Thomas Evans

| architect = Charles Edward Mallows

| architecture = Arts and Crafts

| governing_body = Salutem Healthcare

| designation1 = Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales

| designation1_free1name = Listing

| designation1_free1value = Grade II*

| designation1_offname = Craig y Parc

| designation1_date = {{Start date and age|2022|02|01|df=yes}}

| designation1_number = PGW(Gm)6(CDF)

| designation2 = Grade II* listed building

| designation2_offname = Craig-y-parc House

| designation2_date = 31 January 2000

| designation2_number = 22816

| designation3 = Grade II* listed building

| designation3_offname = Loggia at Craig-y-parc and attached terrace walls and steps

| designation3_date = 31 January 2000

| designation3_number = 22817

| designation4 = Grade II* listed building

| designation4_offname = Garden terrace and steps at Craig-y-parc

| designation4_date = 31 January 2000

| designation4_number = 22818

| designation5 = Grade II listed building

| designation5_offname = Walls and gatepiers to courtyard entrance at Craig-y-parc

| designation5_date = 31 January 2000

| designation5_number = 22819

}}

Craig-y-parc House is a country house in Pentyrch, Cardiff, Wales. Dating from 1914 to 1918, it was built for Thomas Evans, a colliery owner, by Charles Edward Mallows. The house reputedly cost £100,000. Craig-y-parc is a Grade II* listed building. The garden and park surrounding the house has its own Grade II* listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, is a designated conservation area and contains a number of listed structures. The house now operates as a residential school for children and young adults with disabilities.

History

Thomas Evans began his career as a railwayman. Known as "Small Coal Evans", he reputedly made his fortune by collecting coal that had fallen from coal trucks operating on the railways in the South Wales Coalfield.{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=22816|desc=Craig-y-parc House|grade=II*|access-date=9 August 2020}} By 1940, he held a CBE, was the Chairman of the Cardiff Coal and Shipping Exchange, Vice-chairman of the Ocean Coal Company and a Justice of the peace for Glamorganshire.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dmm.org.uk/whoswho/e012.htm|title=Durham Mining Museum - Thomas Evans, C.B.E.|publisher=Durham Mining Museum|website=www.dmm.org.uk|access-date=9 August 2020}} In 1914, Evans commissioned Charles Edward Mallows to build a house some seven miles north of Cardiff in woods close to the village of Pentyrch. Mallows, who died the year after work had begun,{{Cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=204148|title=Charles Edward Mallows - biography|publisher=Dictionary of Scottish Architects|website=www.scottisharchitects.org.uk|access-date=9 August 2020}} was an architect in the Arts and Crafts style, much influenced by Edwin Lutyens.{{sfn|Newman|1995|p=513}} His major work was Tirley Garth in Cheshire, another Lutyenseque house for another rich industrialist.{{NHLE|desc=Tilney Garth|num=1330306|grade=II*|accessdate=9 August 2020}} Mallows also had full responsibility for the design of the gardens surrounding the house, which he laid out to an Arts and Crafts-influenced design.{{NHAW|uid=198|num=PGW(Gm)6(CDF)|desc=Craig y Parc|class=HPG|access-date=6 February 2023}} The whole reputedly cost Evans a sum in excess of £100,000.

Following Evans' death in 1943, Craig-y-parc came into the possession of the National Coal Board before being sold in 1954 to the Spastics Society which opened a residential school at the site in 1955.{{cite web |title=D1046 - Thomas Evans of Pentyrch, Papers - 1859-1971 |url=http://calmview.cardiff.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=D1046 |website=Canfod |publisher=Glamorgan Archives |quote=Thomas Evans died on 24 December 1943}}{{Cite web|url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300022816-craig-y-parc-house-pentyrch|title=Craig-y-parc House, Pentyrch, Cardiff, Cardiff|publisher=British Listed Buildings online|website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk|access-date=9 August 2020}} The school continues to provide residential care for children and young adults with disabilities, operated by Salutem Healthcare.{{Cite web|url=https://www.craigyparc-school.co.uk/|title=Craig Y Parc School|publisher=Salutem Healthcare|access-date=9 August 2020}}

Architecture and description

Craig-y-parc is a large mansion with the entrance front to the north, and the garden front, onto which all the main receptions rooms face, to the south. The architectural historian John Newman, in his Glamorgan volume of the Buildings of Wales, notes the strong influence of Lutyens.{{sfn|Newman|1995|p=513}} This is seen particularly in the lodge, and in the north frontage, which Newman compares to Little Thakeham. He admires Mallow's originality on the garden front, where a row of columns forms an arcade.{{sfn|Newman|1995|p=513}} The house is constructed of locally quarried stone, with granite dressings. The house is listed at Grade II*. The gardens are also listed at II*, on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. The listing record notes their "strongly axial design" and considers them "a very good example of [an] architectural Edwardian garden". The loggia,{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=22817|desc=Loggia at Craig-y-parc and attached terrace walls and steps|grade=II*|access-date=9 August 2020}} and the garden terrace have their own Grade II* listings,{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=22818|desc=Garden terrace and steps at Craig-y-parc|grade=II*|access-date=9 August 2020}} while the lodge,

{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=22820|desc=Lodge at Craig-y-parc|grade=II|access-date=9 August 2020}} and the walls and gate piers at the courtyard entrance are listed Grade II.{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=22819|desc=Walls and gatepiers to courtyard entrance at Craig-y-parc |grade=II|access-date=9 August 2020}}