Exterior

History: Built c1830 as a flannel factory, sited so as to enable the use of water power, alongside the Lledan Brook. No evidence of the power system survived C20 alterations - it is possible that the building was hand-powered. In 1924, the interior of the building was re-ordered to permit its use as a cinema, and an entrance block was built onto the gable (possibly on the site of an earlier building for instance a wheel house?). In use as a cinema until 1938 and subsequently disused until conversion to flats in 1994-5.

Exterior: Random local rubble with slate roof. A long and narrow single range - 4 storeys with a basement. 14-window range. Basement storey openings are all blocked (and appear to have been so for some considerable time); upper windows are regularly spaced and aligned, and all have cambered voussoir heads. In the E elevation a former loading bay towards the S has been filled in, and a wide entry with sliding doors inserted on the ground floor. The main entrance to the building is through the former cinema vestibule block: this is 2 storeyed, trapezoidal in plan: recessed centrepiece with moulded architrave houses paired doors divided by a pilaster to the ground floor, and a band of 4 small paned windows above. Heavy cornice bands surmount this, and there is a central tripartite window with small panes in moulded scrolled architrave above. Adjoining the building against the S gable end is a lower range with a massive segmentally arched opening filled in which may at one time have been connected to the factory.

Interior: The original interior of the building had been largely gutted on conversion to a cinema, and very little of the original structure is visible inside.

The building has been altered on conversion, but retains its external character as a former industrial building which is of considerable historical interest as an urban factory building on a large scale - the only one to survive in Welshpool.

References: Ion Trant, The Changing Face of Welshpool, 1986, p.126.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29494378

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

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  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
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  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)