16778

 

II  

Designated  

11/03/1981  

29/02/1996  

No 2 Park Houses  

 

Powys  

Welshpool  

 

Powis Castle  

321769  

306524  

 

Forms the S range of Dairy Square to the NE of the castle, and overlooks the Croquet Lawn.  

Commercial  

 

Little is known about the origins of this building, which was shown as a malt-house on Thomas Farnolls Pritchard's plan of 1771. The brickwork, and the first phase of openings, may indicate a late C17 or early C18 date; the existing openings are probably C18. The building was extended to the E, probably shortly after 1771, and was probably re-roofed at the same time. The original pattern of fenestration, and the later fenestration in the W part of the building seem to indicate a non-domestic use, though not necessarily the malt- house recorded by Pritchard. The presence in part of the interior of fire-proof construction also suggests a non- domestic purpose. More recently, the building has formed estate offices and accommodation - a use which may have been established in alterations and extensions post 1771.  

 

Towards the centre of the earliest (W) range at first floor level, one room forms 3 bays of conventional early C19 fire-proof construction, with brick-arches between cast- iron beams carried on cast-iron columns. The largely C17-C18 building forms a handsome element in the gardens at Powis and is of special interest as an early estate building, modified and adapted for particular uses.  

 

Nos.1 & 2 Park Houses N elevation to Dairy Square: Brick with slate roof, and some rubble in basement storey. Early doorway to left, up steps with squared balustrade: paired 6-panelled doors in bolection moulded architrave with stone quoins, flanked by windows with steeply cambered brick heads. Additional doorway to the right is inserted, and cuts the steeply arched head of an earlier window. The two other windows on the ground floor are both insertions (of early date); a series of steeply arched window heads remains visible. At first floor level there is also a series of blocked windows, their steeply arched heads partially cut by the present eaves line. Existing windows are clearly secondary. All existing windows are iron, with small panes and central opening lights: these may have been inserted when the building was extended to the left, since the fenestration in these 2 left-hand bays is of similar type. S elevation to garden: 2 storeys over full-basement, which is partly rubble. The elevation is divided by the wall which forms the E boundary of the Formal Garden: in the left hand section, early fenestration is visible at basement level, similar in style to the early blocked windows in the N elevation: a series of 5 steeply arched windows, with a further window alongside the wall to the right (the section beyond the wall was not inspected); inserted doorway to left, and paired secondary windows to the right. On the upper storeys, the fenestration is aligned, as a closely spaced series of 5 windows to the left, all with plastered plain architraves; of the wider-spaced windows to the right, one has a steeply arched head, and may be early; the others have single ring cambered heads and are probably secondary. Most of the windows are cast-iron with small panes and central opening vents, but there is one mullioned and transomed leaded light, perhaps a survival from an early phase. In the section to the right of the wall, the windows have wood mullions and transoms, and larger panes.