Croesawdy, Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn (Y Drenewydd a Llanllwchaearn), Powys

History

Constructed c1880-1 for Samuel Morgan, flannel manufacturer and wool merchant, and owner of the Severn Valley Mills. Designed by local architects Jones and Parke. Builder Edward William. Originally called Bod-Forgan.

Construction of the Severn Valley Mills had begun in 1877, on land to the south of New Road against the railway line, and the factory was in operation by the following year. It was a steam powered factory designed to incorporate all the processes of flannel production except for fulling. It employed 200 workers and was the third and final great steam mill in Newtown. The adjacent area was developed with housing for workers in the mills and other urban trades and industries in the same period.

Croesawdy was deliberately sited close to the mill and on an elevated position overlooking New Road, adjacent to the factory, but perhaps also as an intentional display of wealth. The building was designed to be fashionable, with clear influences from the Domestic Revival movement in its traditional stylistic references and asymmetrical composition, and with high quality finishes and fittings. The entrance hall was recorded in the 1980s as having a mosaic floor with motifs from ancient Greece and decorative Minton tiles.

Unfortunately for Morgan, and mirroring the fluctuating prosperity of the Welsh textile industry, his business was not a success and by 1883 he had been declared bankrupt. The mill was later acquired by Pryce Jones to become part of his mail order business in the town. The mill was eventually demolished c1981.

By 1892 Croesawdy was owned by a Mr and Mrs Talbot, then in 1896 by Mr Kershaw, a dentist who practiced from the house. By 1906 the house had been acquired by AJW James, another local mill owner. James set about the modernisation of his Cambrian Mills in Newtown and Powysland Mills in Welshpool with updated electric machinery, but he was not successful and in May 1906 took his own life. Ownership of the house is unknown until it was acquired in the later C20 by the local authority who ran Montgomery College of Further Education on the site. They extended the house to the rear and constructed a further dining hall block. It was acquired by a private owner c2001 and was in use as a private house at the point of inspection.

Edward Jones and Edward Parke were architects in the town and local region in the 1880s, designing a range of buildings from the 1860s until the turn of the C20. Both practiced in their own right, forming a partnership from 1880 for a few years.

During that time, they were responsible for works at the Old Baptist Chapel and the Cemetery in Newtown (both 1883) and the new workhouse at Knighton (1885). Jones was also engaged on alterations and extensions to the Severn Valley and Powysland Mills in 1892, presumably after it had passed into new ownership after Samuel Morgan. Both architects worked on a range of chapels and other buildings across Montgomeryshire. Their partnership and activity reflect a shift from the earlier dominance of J W Poundley and D Walker. They had had been very active across Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire and in Newtown itself in the decades preceding the construction of Croesawdy.

Exterior

Large, detached house in Domestic Revival style. Red brick to ground floor with sandstone dressings and stone plinth. Stone string course. Timber framing to the first floor and gables, with decorative bracing and some quatrefoil panels. Carved bargeboards, moulded corbels to the overhanging gables. Clay tiled roof with scalloped bands, decorative ridge tiles and finials. Axial stacks (reduced). Casement windows, largely 6-light with a variety of decorative coloured glass, windows to the first floor replaced to match the existing and retained original coloured glass panes. Main entrance elevation to New Road, 3 bay with projecting gabled bay to left. Central entrance up stone steps with brick with stone piers and cornice, and a further flight of steps up to doorway to main entrance. Segmental arched doorway, triple ordered with stone base and hoodmould. Timber door with raised and fielded panel below and paired glazed upper panels, cusped with margin glazing and coloured inserts; overlight above. Bay window to right. Parapets above both doorway and bay window with pierced lancet tracery. Return elevation to Ffordd Croesawdy has paired gabled bays with tower attached to right, square with canted corners and tall polygonal roof with decorative finial. Narrow windows at its base, repeated in bay to right. Elevation continues to right with single bay of rear wing with similar detail. Left elevation with projecting central gabled bay. Bay windows to ground floor. Later single storey extension added to left. Plain brick above with continuation of roofline to 2-storey extension. Plain brick elevation to rear, windows to ground and first floor and attic. C20 extensions to rear are not of special interest.

Interior

Retains plan form, layout and fittings. Grand central entrance hall with moulded archways. Stair to rear right with paired iron foliated balusters and moulded timber handrail. Principal reception room to front left with a large elaborate fireplace surround and deep bay window. There is a dining room rear left with a deep coffered ceiling and dado panelling. Throughout original doors (mainly 6-panel), fireplaces, skirtings, architraves and cornicing survive. All of these elements are of obvious high quality and standard and consistent with what would be expected for the home of a wealthy industrialist in the late C19.

Reasons for Listing

Included for its special architectural interest as a well preserved example of a late C19 industrialist’s house displaying good use of design and materials, reflecting contemporary and regional architectural styles. It has special historic interest as a visible and prominent part of the late C19 development of the mid-Wales textile industry, a building that through its architectural character reflects the relative prosperity of the period.

External Links

Cadwr Listing

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