Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
3266
Building Number
20
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
23/09/1950
Date of Amendment
05/05/2006
Name of Property
Ye Old College, Yr Hen Coleg (D. Wyn Roberts Ltd, Tailors, and 1-3 College Court)
Address
20 Castle Street
Location
Unitary Authority
Conwy
Community
Conwy
Town
Conwy
Locality
Walled town
Easting
278244
Northing
377555
Street Side
SW
Location
Fronting the street at the SE end of a block of commercial buildings.
Description
Broad Class
Commercial
Period
History
A storeyed house of c1500. A drawing of 1811 by J.S. Cotman shows a gable-end house of stone in the lower storey and timber-framed above, with oriel window. This window survived to at least 1950, and retains its ribbed brackets with a coat of arms ascribed to the Stanley family. In the late C19 an additional taller bay was added on the L side, and the original section of the building was re-roofed at R angles to the former roof. The shop front is from the 2nd quarter of the C20.
Exterior
The present shop and house comprises the 2-storey single-bay original house on the R side, and the taller narrower and gabled 3-storey C19 bay on the L side. Walls are rendered and roughcast under a steep slate roof on overhanging eaves. The original house retains high-quality timber-framing in its upper storey, incorporating chevron bracing. It also retains the ribbed coving of a former double oriel window. On the outer sides of the coving are ogee arches with blind tracery, and in the centre heraldic shield with birds around a central small shield. The window now has modern 3-light steel-framed casements, above which is a beam, possibly the tie beam of a former gable.
In the lower storey the mid C20 shop front has been built across both bays, with low stall riser and simple deep black fascia. Plate glass shop windows have thin stainless steel frames, and features a central island, behind which is a terrazzo floor leading to a central glazed door and overlight. The L-hand bay has a 1st-floor wood-framed cross window and 2-light pointed 2nd-floor window with Y-tracery.
The L side wall has a 4-pane sash window in 1st and 2nd floors. At the rear is a 2-storey wing behind the older part of the building, converted to separate apartments, and with replacement windows.
Interior
Not inspected, but the original house is said by RCAHMW to retain an arched-brace truss with curved collar beam, and windbraces concealed by plaster.
Reason for designation
Listed as incorporating one of the few surviving pre-Georgian buildings in the centre of the town, with significant timber-framing of high-quality, and for its later commercial use including an unaltered early C20 shop front, making an important contribution to the historical townscape.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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