6844

 

II  

Designated  

16/12/1976  

04/11/2005  

Camden Court  

 

Powys  

Brecon  

Brecon  

 

305509  

228074  

N  

Prominently sited above road near junction with Cwrt-y-Camden.  

Education  

 

Originally built as the Congregational Memorial College and opened in 1869. After the Act of Uniformity following the Restoration (1660), Nonconformists were barred from Oxford and Cambridge universities ("The Great Ejectment"), and had to make arrangements for their own education. The Congregationalists set up an academy at Abergavenny in 1757, and came to Brecon in 1839. The present building was built in 1869 as a memorial to the early Nonconformist martyrs; architect Rev Thomas Thomas. The College left Brecon in 1959, and the building was subsequently converted to flats.  

Former college. "Tudorbethan" style. Brown stone with bathstone dressings. Symmetrical front massed round tall central tower. Stone mullion and transom windows. The central tower of 5 storeys, has pyramidal roof with weather vane, and buttresses; entrance with Tudor-headed doorway. Tower flanked to each side by a recessed 2-window block of 2 storeys and attics; gabled dormers. To each side, beyond these, an advanced gabled block with two-storey splayed bay window with panelled parapet, above which is a four-light window to second floor and round window to attic. Beyond gabled blocks, a lower single window block of 2 storeys and attic with gabled dormer. At ends, a gabled block with pointed attic window.  

 

Strongly designed college building with added historic interest in the history of Nonconformist education in Wales.