My grandfather's grandfather bought land in Llanfairfechan in the middle of the 1800s, but Herbert went to public school in Nottingham and then to Cambridge University. In those days you couldn't study architecture, so he did an art degree instead.

He then became an assistant to the famous architect Edwin Lutyens, but family circumstances brought him back here and he built this house, Wern Isaf. It's a bit bigger than the other houses he built, but it is typical of his style.

His houses are very much gabled, probably because of the local weather - the rain runs off the roof. Their design is also in keeping with the environment as he was always interested in the history and architecture of north Wales.

His houses were made from local materials, like the granite of Llanfairfechan - I think Wern Isaf was built with boulders collected on site.

Wern Isaf was the original name, because it's in a wood and it's very wet here, but my grandfather called it Rose Briar, as someone had given them a lovely Pembrokeshire briar which still smells gorgeous.

It's Grade II* listed, which means it's unchanged from when it was built - both inside and out. The house is like a link between past and present. It's as though you walk straight into the 1930s. It was built in 1900 and we've been terribly lucky as it was let out for 50 years between the death of my grandfather and when I returned to live here, but there wasn't an awful lot of damage.

It's all open plan, there are no corridors and the hall goes right up to the second floor ceiling. It has been known as 'the house of light', as there are so many windows, which are awful to keep clean!

There's quite a lot of original furniture downstairs, for example the original William Morris fabrics - my grandfather used them a lot, especially in his church work. There are also lots of needlework pictures, as my grandmother was very keen on that.

We open up to visitors during the afternoons in March, except for Tuesdays. Everyone knows we live here, so they don't expect the perfection of a museum when they visit. Many like to see a lived-in house rather than a cold old mansion.

I also try and keep the garden tidy as it's one of the Historic Gardens of Wales, though I've no idea what the criteria is for that. Maybe it's a garden which hasn't been changed, ruined by landscaping. Thankfully, my grandfather's idea was for it to be wild, so that's how we keep it. It's certainly lovely in spring, which is why we open in March.

Between the two world wars he also built The Close in Llanfairfechan, a semi-circle of about 30 houses. He owned the land, so he was able to be architect and be on site.

He built the Institute in Llanfairfechan, which we've just managed to get grants to preserve. There was a bit of confusion as to who owned it after the trust lapsed, but now that's sorted out and it's available for the local community to use, with a stage and a committee room.

In Bangor he built houses on Ffriddoedd Road and Lon Seiriol, off Beach Road, where businesses had got together to provide houses for local people to rent, an early version of council houses.

My father, PM Padmore, was my grandfather's assistant and married the boss's daughter - my mother.

After my grandfather died in 1941, my father busied himself with war work before becoming Bangor diocesan architect. He was primarily inspector of all the churches and vicarages in the area, but if a new church was to be built, he would be the one to do it. He built the church in Penrhosgarnedd.
Pam Phillips

There are more photos of North's work in our Llanfairfechan town tour.