Abbotsfield is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed building in

Rhosddu Rhosddu (; ) is a suburb and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, covering the north-western parts of the city of Wrexham and comprises the wards of Grosvenor, Garden Village and Stansty. At the 2011 Census, the population of the comm ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

, North Wales. It was formerly a private residence, and later a council office, until it was converted into the Abbotsfield Priory Hotel in the 1970s, later adding a restaurant and bar. The building is now The Lemon Tree restaurant, bar and hotel.

Description

The building is located on the corner of

Grosvenor Road South Tyneside College is a large further education college in South Tyneside in North East England. Its main site is in the town of South Shields. The college offers part-time and full-time courses for young students and adults. It was formed i ...

and Rhosddu Road, It is two storeys,

grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed, and in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style. The building is of coursed and squared tooled sandstone, with the roof being made of slate and has scalloped bands and ridge cresting. The building is arranged as a L-plan with its entrance located at the centre, at the angle of the building's wings. The building's entrance contains an asymmetric

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d porch with polished granite shafts to a deep-moulded arch engraved with the text "Trust in God" on a scroll. To the doorway's left is an advanced wing. While the interior of the building has largely retained its original layout, with details such as the encaustic-tiled entrance hall, and

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

rossette panelled staircase still surviving.

History

The building was designed in the 1860s by local architect James Reynolds Gummow as a private residence for Edward Jones. The building was the first house built on the Rhosddu end of Grosvenor Road, and was constructed and built from 1863 to 1865. In 1895, it was the home of John Arthur Eyton-Jones, a local surgeon. It later became an Area Education Office for the

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

and later Clwyd council. During the World Wars, one wing of the building served as the Abbotsfield Priory War Nursery. The council later sold building in the 1970s to become a hotel in 1982 as the Abbotsfield Priory Hotel, a family-run hotel with fourteen bedrooms by 1995. When it became a hotel and a bar in the 1970s and 1980s, various older pieces of other older Wrexham buildings were moved into the building, such as a mahogany bar from the Raglan Arms on Lambpit Street, with the mahogany structure serving as the building's bar. In 2000, the building was converted into ''Graffiti Italiano'', an Italian restaurant. It is now "The Lemon Tree" restaurant, bar and independently owned hotel, with twelve and later 18 bedrooms. The hotel building underwent a complete refurbishment in March 2010, with the name "The Lemon Tree" being added, and was further renovated in 2020–21. In December 2014, the restaurant was taken over by locals Sam Regan and his wife Emma. The restaurant served food they self-described as "modern

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Description

History

References

Further reading