Abandoned Kennels Tower & Grotto Cave! Talacre Abbey, North Wales

In this explore we visit Talacre Abbey Grotto in Wales. Further info on the site below.

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Talacre Abbey was built 1824-9 by Thomas Jones, architect, for Sir Edward Mostyn, on the site of an earlier house. The grotto was added to the gardens in final quarter of the C19 and is first shown on the 1899 Ordnance Survey. The adjacent folly tower is earlier, built in the third quarter of the C19.

Exterior:
Built partly into the natural rock, and partly using rubble and mortar to create a rock-cut appearance. The grotto has 3 well-hewn entrances, while its interior has a central chamber open to the sky, and passages with niches, carved seats and a number of carved grotesque figures in the walls. The chief of these is inside the lower entrance, and comprises a heraldic lion (representing the Mostyn family) with its mouth open, and openings at its back for lighting fires that would send flames and smoke from the lion's mouth.

Reasons for Listing:
Listed grade II* as an especially notable example of a Romantic grotto retaining original grotesque carvings, and as an important component of the pleasure grounds at Talacre Abbey.


The Kennels House:

Exterior
A 4-storey house and mill on a steep site. The house is 2 stories and faces the track to the S. The mill below it is 2-storey and faces N to the lower ground where there is a courtyard with kennels. The N side is polygonal and the cottage is slightly stepped inwards. Of snecked rubble stone with lintelled openings and graded slate roof with central paired stone stack. The front of the house has a doorway and flanking windows, all boarded up, under hood moulds linked by a string course, and set below the level of the track. In the upper story is a single window to the center with hood mould. The rear of the dwelling has 2-light casements to each facet in its lower story and corresponding 2-light casements alternating with blind windows in its upper story. The mill below it has, in its lower story, 2 doorways in each side wall and windows in each facet, all boarded up. The upper story has small windows in its side walls.

The courtyard has a polygonal N side respecting the mill plan and retaining walls flanking the mill and cottage. On each side are 2 former kennels in the facets, of which the NW retains a corrugated iron roof while the others are roofless and the SE is ruined and overgrown. A gateway is in the N facet, and on the SW side are stone steps from the track above.

EW

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