19571

 

II  

Designated  

20/03/1998  

20/03/1998  

Valve House  

 

Powys  

Forden with Leighton and Trelystan  

 

Leighton Park  

324442  

304857  

 

Approximately 1.1km SSE of Leighton Church, set back from W side of Estate road between Park Pool and Goppas, and at S end of conifer plantation.  

Water Supply and Drainage  

 

Constructed 1850s and part of a system that pumped water from the River Severn to pools on Moel-y-Mab. The building houses valve rods whereby water pumped from the river at Cilcewydd Mill could be controlled. The Valve House was part of the Leighton Estate, acquired by the Liverpool banker John Naylor in 1846-47. Here he embarked on an ambitious programme of building, principally Leighton Hall, church and Farm, which was largely completed by the mid 1850s. Naylor introduced new rational farming methods at Leighton, notably pioneering the recycling of manure as fertiliser for which he had to add hydraulic engineering systems on a large scale. Naylor continued to extend and improve the Estate until his death in 1889. His grandson, Captain J.M. Naylor, sold the Estate in 1931.  

One-storey, of brick but faced in snecked, rock-faced Cefn stone with rusticated quoins and dressings. Slate roof with overhanging eaves. The E and W walls have small round-headed openings (the glazing bars are missing) with prominent keystones. The similar S window is larger. On the N side is a round-headed doorway with planked door. Above the openings is a deep cornice on a corbel table, above which the side walls are of dressed stone while the gables are faced in blue brick.  

Brick floor with valve control lever, an exposed valve rod and fixing bolts of another valve rod.  

The Leighton Estate is an exceptional example of high-Victorian estate development. It is remarkable for the scale and ambition of its conception and planning, the consistency of its design, the extent of its survival, and is the most complete example of its type in Wales. The Valve House is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton. It is a highly specialised building type which represented a bold attempt to revolutionise agricultural techniques utilising new technology, in the context of a model farm of national significance.