Craig-y-parc House

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.[1] 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.[2] 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,[3] was an architect in the Arts and Crafts style, much influenced by Edwin Lutyens.[4] His major work was Tirley Garth in Cheshire, another Lutyenseque house for another rich industrialist.[5] 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.[6] The whole reputedly cost Evans a sum in excess of £100,000.[1]

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.[7][8] The school continues to provide residential care for children and young adults with disabilities, operated by Salutem Healthcare.[9]

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.[1] The architectural historian John Newman, in his Glamorgan volume of the Buildings of Wales, notes the strong influence of Lutyens.[4] 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.[4] The house is constructed of locally-quarried stone, with granite dressings. The house is listed at Grade II*.[1] 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".[6] The loggia,[10] and the garden terrace have their own Grade II* listings,[11] while the lodge, [12] and the walls and gate piers at the courtyard entrance are listed Grade II.[13]

• Newman, John (1995). Glamorgan. The Buildings of Wales. London, UK: Penguin. ISBN 0140710566.

• "Craig-y-Parc School".