History

The Bryntail (East) lead and barytes mine was worked over several centuries and the best ores may already have been exploited by the C19. Bryntail cottage is immediately N of Gundry's shaft, remains of which still survive. It was probably built or remodelled in the mid-late C19, perhaps c1870 when a new manager was appointed to the mine. The cottage was probably a lead-miner's small-holding, but the plan form suggests it may have originally have been a pair of cottages. It is shown on a map of 1880 and on the Ordnance Survey of 1903, by which time the shaft was marked as disused. A unit to the W end, clad in corrugated sheeting, is probably a later addition.

In 1915, the building was leased by the Central Secondary School Birmingham for use as a camp. The school had established its first summer camp in 1908, inspired by a visit of Robert Baden-Powell to Birmingham. The camp was based at Holt Fleet in the Severn Valley until 1915 when the site was requisitioned by the army, and new accommodation was found at Bryntail. The owner at the time was a Birmingham doctor, Arthur Montgomery Marsh Roberts, who had inherited the property through his mother’s family, the Marshes, a well-known family of solicitors and town mayors in Llanidloes. Instrumental in these early camps were two teachers from Europe – Herr Seckler and Monsieur Henri Guerra. As a German national, Seckler was interned during World War I, and it was through Guerra that Doctor Roberts made Bryntail Cottage available for use by the school. Henri Guerra and his twin brother René retired from their teaching careers to Llanidloes in the late 1930s and played significant roles in the town's life until their deaths in 1955. Henri) set up and ran the Bridgend Boys' Club, and the army cadets in WW2. René was the town's voluntary officer for evacuees during WW2 and was also the curator of the town museum.

Central Secondary School later became a grammar school which merged with Bryng Kenrick Girls’ Grammar School in 1974, and became a comprehensive school, which after a further merger became the International School, and then the Tile Cross Academy in 2017. The school maintains its association with the cottage, which is now cared for by the Bryntail Cottage Charity.

Exterior

Long single-storey cottage of white-washed rubble stone under a slate roof, with brick ridge stacks to L and R. The front has a gabled brick porch to R of centre, open to the front and with barge boards, within which is a panelled door. Two 12-pane horned sash windows to L of porch, and 2 similar hornless sashes to R. Further L is a unit clad in corrugated iron on a stone plinth under the same roofline. It has a

continuous outshut to the front, with open lean-to porch in R-return containing a panelled door; gable end with 2 x 12-pane horned sashes. To the rear is an open lean-to porch on timber posts to R of centre, inside which is a boarded door. Three 2-light wooden casements to L, that to L end with small panes, those to centre C20. Small lean-to against N gable end.

Interior

Not Inspected, but the building comprises two sections, each divided into two principal rooms with axial chimneys.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a good example of a small upland cottage associated with the lead-mining industry, retaining good C19 character and detail. The cottage is also of special historic interest for its later use as a school camp, an early and unusual example of an institution inspired by the early scouting movement.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29505796

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.

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