History

Mid C18 town house, said to have been a court house in the C19, possibly for the Borough Sessions, whereas the County Sessions were held in the Town Hall. A local phrase 'to take a man up the steps', meaning to summons him, may allude to the steps to the front door, as do the recorded names, Penygrisiau and previously Tanygrisiau.
It was owned by the Powis estate, marked on 1839 tithe map as occupied by Francis Allen. Occupied in the late C19 by Thomas Davies, bailiff, who also once kept the Dragon Hotel. It became commercial premises in the early C20 with two large inserted shop windows; these wereremoved and windows put back in the 1980s, one found in the basement, the other copied. The first shop-window was inserted after c.1910 for Owens hardware shop, and the second, to right, in the 1930s for the Co-operative Stores, which closed in the 1970s. The S end wall and chimneys are Victorian, as is an insertion in the NE angle to rear. The street is locally known as Castle Street.

Exterior

Town house, red brick laid in English bond, with slate roof and brick end stacks with heavy C19 dentilled caps. Two storeys and basement, three bays. Rendered plinth. Flat eaves. Cambered headed large 24-pane sash windows with cambered brick heads, the ground floor ones replaced in late C20, the left one a copy, the right one found in the basement. Central flight of four square stone steps, diminishing upwards in size to a tall doorway with flush-panelled 6-panel door in architrave frame, under a fanlight with radiating bars with open pediment hood on console brackets. Louvred basement opening to left. Rebuilt C19 red brick S end wall. Rear E has small casement-pair dormer and attached rubble stone two-storey rear wing with broad low pitched roof. S wall has 6-panel door and three-light window with top-lights. A later C19 narrower wing is parallel to N.

Interior

Central hall with straight flight of stairs, the lowest treads modern, the rest mid-C18 with turned balusters of column on short column form. Similar balusters to first floor landing. Upper flightand attic landing have good turned column-on-column newel and shaped flat balusters of late C17 type, but presumably C18 also. Ground floor SW room has 6-panel door, covered axial beam and modern fireplace. The NW front room has two covered beams and chimneypiece in pink and grey veined marble with paterae, moved from upstairs room. N cloakroom to rear has N end cross-window with iron opening light. Rear NE wing is a C19 insertion. Rear NW wing is possibly also added in late C18 with high-ceilinged kitchen and bedroom above. Kitchen has plank door and two brick-headed fireplaces on E wall, one a broad cambered arch supported on iron straps, the other narrower round arched. First floor S rooms are narrow with plank doors evidence of chimneybreasts cut back. Attic has no roof trusses but very long heavy purlins to walls each side of the stair (similar to the Old Stores House, Arthur St). N end loft window. Cellar under NW room only, rubble stone lined with curved corners.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a substantial mid Georgian town house carefully restored, with consistent detail and a good interior.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29486836

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)