BRYNGWILLA LODGE - Wales

Completed:  2004
Extent:  Renovation of high brick work, roofing and entrance, clean up of all exterior and interior. Awards: Oswestry and District Civic Society Building Award 2005

Bryngwilla lodge was built as part of the extensive remodelling of the main house [Brynkinalt Hall] its grounds and parklands by Charlotte, Viscount Dungannon in 1808. Charlotte, the maternal grandmother of the Duke of Wellington had married into the Trevor family in 1795. The lodge marked the entrance to the estate from the English side of the border and stood empty for most of the last century.

Our brief was to restore the building and convert this to the principal estate office. We had obtained grant funding from CADW for the main house although as this lodge is situated just across the border into England, no funding was available.

The building was almost a shell and suffered from oxidisation and expansion of hidden iron cramps within the high level stonework. Several stone copings were missing, the windows were smashed in and the existing ironwork in a poor state. There were however enough traces of the decorative plasterwork, internal joinery and other mouldings to instigate an authoritative scheme of repair.

The upper turrets were partially dismantled to remove the iron clamps and nonferrous fixings were used as a replacement. New stone was cut to follow the patterns taken from the surviving originals. New iron and copper spiked finials were fabricated to match the single existing example and new glazing set in iron casements and lead canes was reintroduced.

To each side of the lodge a crenelated flank wall concealed an open yard. To increase the level of accommodation and to strengthen these walls these areas were roofed over, in lead, with new steel framed glazing.