I find it difficult to accept the fact that the19C, an age, the age perhaps, of private wealth and public squalor; should have left us such a splendid architectural heritage. The Marquis of Anglesey, Guest at Dowlais, Crawshay in Merthyr, Lord Tredegar and the rest, all amassed enormous fortunes and lived lives of undreamt luxury thanks to the labours of a work force that was badly housed, poorly paid and under nourished And yet these men left us so many splendid buildings. Not least the coal owners; David Davies, Llandinam, The Marquis of Bute and George and James Insole, the last-named the builder of Insole Court.

 

1)       The Early House 1855-73 

 

During the early 1850's, the growing fortunes of James Harvey Insole, a young colliery proprietor, enabled him to consider moving out of the fast growing town of Cardiff by building himself a small country house.

His choice of a plot of pasture land between the Fairwater and Ely Roads in Llandaff was probably influenced by its comparative proximity to Cardiff. It was also near the "village" of Llandaff that was emerging as a thriving ecclesiastical community, with a newly restored Cathedral.

Insole purchased his site from the Rev. Evans in early 1855, and by July of that year, had appointed his architects, Messrs Habershon.  Estimates for the building of the house  varied between £1950 and £2900.

`Ely Court' (it only became `Insole Court' in the 1930's), was a modest building, providing adequate accommodation for Insoles' wife, children and the three maids. Mr. Treseder was paid to lay out the gardens. These were to the south of the house, where a terrace was laid with  paving in a style similar to that at St. Fagans castle.  The beautifully carved stone balustrade also dates from this early phase, behind which was planted a pair of magnificent Cedars of Lebanon.

 

The Insole family coal mining interests at Cymmer in the Rhondda Valley, flourished throughout the 1860's and 1870's, and James Harvey was able to more or less retire from the business by 1878, at the age of 57,

 

 Insole began to concentrate his attention upon his home in Llandaff.  Insole Court itself, although a gentleman's house, had not been lavishly appointed.  Household accounts for the 1860's report only modest sums spent upon the house and gardens. But, by the early 1870's, Insole desired something grander, and by 1874 had embarked upon a rebuilding and redecorating scheme that was to last for much of the decade, and  transform the whole building.

 

2)  The Gothic Transformation 1873-8

 

When Insole was first building his house in 1855, the influence of Gothic revival architecture had yet to affect Cardiff.  By the early seventies, however, the story was very different.  John Prichard’s work at Llandaff Cathedral, and in Llandaff village, had set a new style; but even more importantly, the Architect William Burges was building his extraordinary new clock tower for the 3rd Marquess of Bute at Cardiff Castle. Local taste was somewhat nonplussed and there was a tendency to sneer.  Despite this, however, those with social aspirations soon began to emulate the Marquess' taste, for Lord Bute was, after all, the leader of local Society.

 

The National Architectural press, reporting on the newly completed clock tower in 1874, wrote disparagingly of the Tower’s local critics  and pointed out that:

"It is as well that [they] should hear of an attempt to copy the tower, as is now being copied not a hundred miles from Llandaff..."

It was at Insole Court - "not a hundred miles from Llandaff" that the "copy" was under construction.  Insole had obviously decided that what was good enough for Lord Bute was good enough for him, and the transformation of his house was also to be in the fashionable gothic style.

Insole did not, however, employ William Burges but instead he employed a local architect, George Robinson, of 32, St. Mary Street, (who designed the “Jackson Hall” in Westgate Street), and his young assistant, Edwin Seward (1854-1924). 

 

By 1878, further additions had been made, this time by Edwin Seward, on his own later to be responsible for some of Cardiff's finest buildings.  Seward added a north wing at right angles to the house, creating a courtyard to the entrance front.  This new wing , which housed a billiard room and domestic offices, was built in a half-timbered style.

 

Robinson and Seward added a gabled section to the east of the building and attached to this was the new tower, which originally had a steeply pitched slate roof, and rose to a height of  70 feet.  The tower no doubt caused as much local interest as Lord Butes' tower had three miles away.

Insole's tower, which included a Smoking Room at the very top, commanded superb views over the surrounding countryside, to the north could be seen the mineral-rich valleys, source of Insoles' wealth, whilst to the south was the coal-exporting port of Cardiff, and the Bristol Channel beyond.

 

By 1882, Insole Court was described, with some justice, as being "the leading residence of the locality" and the long programme of re-building was, for the time being, complete.  The resulting building  was not harmonious.  The effect is as if the older, plain house is wearing an unsuitable waistcoat of Gothic ornament.  An additional bay, and a Gothic conservatory had been added to the West, furthering the house's rather ungainly appearance. However, Seward has certainly created a mansion out of a somewhat ordinary house, and his elaborate style, with its lavish use of stone carvings, did, like the tower, reflect the style of Cardiff Castle.  The stonemasons, the local firm of W. Clarke and Sons, had already worked at the Castle, and at Llandaff Cathedral, but at Insole Court their work shows a particular taste for the grotesque.

Insole undoubtedly got what he wanted, although at considerable expense, and Seward wrote that enlargement and redecoration of J.H. Insole’s mansion had cost his client £10,000, an extremely large sum for the period, and more than five times the amount Insole had paid for the building of the original house.

 

If the exterior was impressive, the interior, which had been completely remodelled, was elaborate in the extreme. Two surviving interiors from this period give some indication of Insoles aspirations to copy not only the exterior of Lord Butes clock tower, but also the spirit of its decoration.

The Old Dining Room, which is situated off the entrance hall, is the finest surviving gothic interior in the house, and except for the Edwardian chimney piece, is to Edwin Sewards original design. 

The rooms most important feature is undoubtedly the painted frieze that runs around the top of the walls.  The frieze depicts the occupations of the four seasons, and like the walls of the Winter Smoking Room at Cardiff Castle, which has an identical theme, was painted by Fred Weekes, an artist who worked on William Burges’ most important schemes. 

Weekes' monogram, only recently identified, is to be found upon the flask carried by a character from "Winter." The frieze is painted on canvas, and is a rare example of a painted frieze by the Artist.

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Thes slides were taken after the extensive conservation work undertaken to the house in 1995, to remedy the ravages of dry rot. This had particularly affected the Old Dining Room, and part of the frieze by Fred Weekes had been obliterated.  Under the supervision of John Edwards, the city’s expert in historic buildings conservation, the room was restored. 

 

Weekes' frieze included two panels, one showing 'Dawn' or the Sun God, flanking another of 'Night' or the Moon Goddess.   These appear above the sideboard, which is another survivor from the original scheme and which sits within an alabaster archway .Again this is a device that Seward has derived from the Castle Smoking Room, and the Insole Court sideboard is likewise equipped with bookshelves, drawers for tobacco, cupboards and celarettes, which are decorated with gilded iron mounts.

Quality woodwork of this sort is quite a feature of the Insole Court interiors, and that of this smoking room is particularly fine. It has a high quality parquet floor and a ceiling of  pitch-pine.  Even the ceiling rose,  a quatrefoil of gilded iron set with balls of coloured glass, is derived from that of the Bachelor Bedroom at Cardiff Castle

 

Further elaborate metalwork is seen on the door of the smoking room, which is mounted with gilded brass hinges and lock plates decorated with the Insole griffin and scenes of medieval hunting. 

 

Although the smoking room at Insole Court is the most impressive Gothic interior left at the house, it is not the only one.  Upstairs, a small room overlooking the garden was in all probability, J. H. Insoles' study or library. Like the smoking room below, much of the wall decoration in the study is lost under several coats of white paint, but the surviving areas, most notably the vaulted ceiling is elaborately painted and gilded. 

 

Mottoes such as "the fount of wisdom flows through books" and "the wealth of the mind is the only true wealth" decorate the ceiling panels and draw attention to the room's function.

 

Carved stonework again appears here, and the window arch is faced with delicately carved Penarth alabaster, used extensively in Insole Court, a soft pink variety found locally, and used very briefly in buildings usually designed by Gothic revival architects.

 

The 'illustrated guide to Cardiff' for 1882 certainly appreciated the houses' style: "The interior of the house is elaborately decorated, costly marbles and alabaster being the leading materials employed in its embellishment; mural painting and stained glass are also effectively used in the decoration of this charming residence...".

 

 

 

 The staircase of the house was during the war sadly institutionally vandalised. The  splendid marble and alabaster balustrade still existed although in pieces stored under the stairs until some years ago when the FIC organised a series of fund raising events and at a cost of £18,000, £16,000 of which was raised by the Friends, the balustrade was restored.  

Sewards original, in 1895, had wall decorations, and  Gothic revival stencilling below a frieze of decorated ceramic tiles, was used throughout the stairs and landing. One feature that does not, unfortunately, survive is the magnificent figure of the Insole Griffin on the newel post, which appears to be of metal and acted as a gasolier.  Not seen for many years, its  fate is unknown. Another feature that has disappeared is to be  seen on the left of the photograph of the old staircase Set behind glass, within an archway under the stairs, appears to be an indoor rock garden, possibly for displaying a collection of ferns or possibly orchids, both of which the family cultivated. WE have hopes.

 

The Insole family were known as enthusiastic gardeners, and in the years following his extensions to the building, in 1879, and again in 1883, J. H. Insole bought large amounts of land around the house. This enabled him to build a second lodge to the South around 1880,on land facing Ely Road. The house now had a “Lower” as well as an “Upper” lodge.

 Apart from extending the estate, Insole was now able to considerably enlarge the gardens.  The remains of an impressive outdoor rock garden, which had been laid out in 1898 still exist, and the large boulders of Radyr stone, ordered at a cost of £14.10. have now been exposed to view, and perhaps might one day be restored.

 

In 1898, at the age of 77, Insole once again extended his house, by adding what were rather grandly called 'the octagon and circular wings' to the end of the North wing.

These additions are turrets rather than wings, and must surely have been decorative rather than practical.  Nevertheless, they cost Insole £775 at a time when the annual wages of a parlour maid were around £12.  Once again Insole employed W. Clarke to build this extension, which features some excellent stone carving.

 

Insole's wife, Mary Anne, had died in 1882, but eight years later he remarried a woman many years his junior.  It was his second wife, Marian, who inherited a life interest in Insole Court upon James Harvey's death in 1901.  Insole died a rich man, leaving  nearly a quarter of a million pounds as personal estate in his will.  2 windows in Cathedral.

 

When Marian Insole remarried some years later, James Harvey's surviving son, George, moved into the house with his wife and five children.  By 1906, the house's elaborate Victorian Gothic style was hopelessly old-fashioned, and George Insole decided to completely remodel the building, this time in a somewhat plainer, English Renaissance style.

 

3)  The Twentieth Century

                       

During the next three years, 1906-9, the house was, for the second time in its life, transformed The old tower was shorn of its pitched roof and upper Smoking Room and given a stone parapet instead. A vast new service wing was also built at this period, which included modern kitchens and additional servant's accommodation. The house was with these additions, one of the largest houses in the Cardiff area.

 

To complete this rather grandiose scheme, a large carriage porch or porte cochere was added to the earlier Gothic entrance, and the name of the house was changed from 'Ely Court' to 'The Court.'  Clarke and Sons accounts for the period 1906-9 show that well over £16,000 was spent on this phase, although it cannot be said that the resulting house was an architectural success.

 

Attempts to unite three quite different major phases of development into a cohesive whole were really rather difficult and it is quite obvious that the house has mushroomed in size over the years.  By the early 1900's, Llandaff had become one of Cardiff's leading suburbs.  The Insoles, who had purchased farmland in order to enlarge their Llandaff estate during the late nineteenth century, were now able to lease this profitably off as building land.  By 1912 developments of detached and semi-detached villas were appearing on the edge of the estate, providing homes for the City's fast-growing middle class.  Roads such as Palace Road, Caewal Road and Chargot Road are amongst those from this period.

 

The Edwardian period was for Insole Court, as for many large country houses, something of a golden age. The house was run by a large staff, as were the superb gardens, which were filled with many rare and unusual trees, shrubs and plants, some of which had been planted by James Harvey, 50 years previously. 

 

The decline of Insole Court, in common with many other estates, began as a result of the first World War of 1914-18.  George Insole had died in February 1917 at the age of 69 and the house was left to his son, Claude Insole who was himself killed in action the following year.

 

This double blow to the family involved the burden of double death duties, following which the house passed to  Claude’s  younger brother Eric, although their mother retained a life interest in the house.

During  the early 1920's the family fortunes declined as a result of the shipping crash, and with the slackening demand for coal, only Mrs Insole and two of her children, Eric and Violet, were living there.  

 

End of an era.  The 1930s.

Although their fortunes were diminished, the Insole family were still wealthy, owning property in the West Country as well as a farm in the Vale of Glamorgan.  However the Llandaff house, which had always been their main residence, was no longer the “country” house it had once been, and the encroachment of roads and housing came to a head in 1931.

It was in this year that the Cardiff orbital road scheme, which had been planned to improve traffic movement around the city, threatened the Insole estate which was in the path of the projected route of the new "Western Avenue." 

The new road was going to effectively cut the gardens in half, and completely isolate the lower lodge. Selling only  this affected portion therefore seemed foolish, and in 1932 , the family sold the entire estate to the Corporation under a compulsory purchase order. The sale comprised the house and 57 acres, for the sum of £26,250.  This figure had valued the house itself at £5,500, a third of what the Edwardian extensions alone had cost, but property prices had, of course, plummeted during the 1930's.  Mrs Insole, and Eric Insole, actually remained in residence at the house.  They paid no rent for the first two years, and thereafter paid £262.00 per annum, which represented 1% of the sale price.

 

The land surrounding the house was developed for housing, a council resolution was made that the value of these new houses would be in the £600-800 bracket.  Roads such as Heol Harlech, Insole Gardens and Bishops Walk sprang up during the next few years.  The lower lodge was demolished, and replaced by “The Insole” shops on the corner of Ely and Waungron Roads.

 

In 1937 the Insole family notified the council that they intended to quit the house in March of 1938.  (Originally they intended leaving in 1934.)  Therefore the building had to have a new use, and various inspections were made for the purpose of deciding what it should be The decision was made for them by the advent of war. The  ARP vacated their headquarters in the Law Courts in April of 1940, and moved to the building now officially known as 'Insole Court' for the duration. 

One amusing legacy from this period is to be seen on the Hall chimneypiece, where some wag has drawn in pencil, images of the wartime leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and De Gaulle !.  The garages opposite the entrance were built at this time, to house the A.F.S. fire engines.

 

The Post - War years.

After the war, the police and fire services having vacated, various uses were again suggested.  In 1946, use of the house as a boarding school for epileptics or as a Grammar school were possibilities.

In the end, however, a proposal that had been made as far back as 1937 was revived - that of using part of the house as a local library.

 This proposal, together with further use of the building as a community centre was adopted.  The first and second floors of the house were at first thought to be fitted for use as offices for the City Council, but by late 1946 it was decided that these floors would be made into six self contained flats,  converted at a cost of £1,000.

 Confusingly, the house was again renamed, this time as “Llandaff Court."  As this was the name of another local Mansion, the name “Insole Court” has never fallen out of use. The public library, which was on the ground floor, was a much used and loved local facility until it was closed in the late 1970’s.  However, community use continued in the shape of the Llandaff Citizens Association, which had built their “hut” in 1954, (demolished after an arson attack in 2004/5) and of course the numerous local activity groups who continued to use the building.     

In 1991, in response to the threatened sale of the house by Cardiff City Council, the “Insole Court Action Group” was formed, and this pressure group helped save the house from  closure, or even possible demolition.  Renamed “The Friends of Insole Court” in 1994, the society now has an enthusiastic and dedicated membership.

 

The property continued to be in need of tender loving care, but the ploy that FIC had thought to be so clever some years previously, that of getting the Court designated a 2* listed building proved to be 2 edged in that it made any repairs subject to the approval of CADW and consequently protracted and expensive.  In truth the authority would have been glad to get the place off its hands.  In Nov. 2007 Cardiff County Council seemingly exaggerated the recommendation of the Fire Officer on the discovery of asbestos and faulty wiring to close the place on Health and Safety grounds.  FIC embarked on a vigorous campaign of protest and demonstration and finally bullied the council into formulating a £2 and half million repair and refurbishment project over 3 years; the first of which ends next April.

 

The greater part of the ground floor was reopened on Nov. 3^rd, 2008, 2 years to the day of its precipitate closure and it has to be said that what has been done, has been well done. FIC is now locked in discussion with the Council about what happens next.  The balance between some sort of Council use and Community use may well prove to be difficult to arrive at.  What is certain is that what part of the house that has been restored is already proving inadequate to host all of the activities planned for it. FIC has succeeded in getting a grant from the Heritage Commission of just over $40,000 to appoint a full time development officer over 18 months to plan and implement a heritage experience.  So you see, the story of Insole Court is not complete and the next 2/3 years promise to be as intersesting as the last 150.  As our protest literature exhorted the public to “watch this space”