7930

 

II  

Designated  

19/07/1950  

16/12/2005  

The White House with terrace and railings  

 

Powys  

Montgomery  

Montgomery  

 

322230  

296590  

 

Situated some 50m N of R.H. Bunner store, towards the junction with Princes Street.  

Domestic  

 

A substantial house of late C16 to early C17 origin, the south (righ-hand) dormer, dated 1637, thought to have been added a little later. Timber-frame clad in lath and plaster circa 1865-70 when the central dormer added and when the two end dormers, previously jettied, were probably made flush with the framework below and the attractive iron Gothic windows added. C19 rear wings. A beam in the right gable is inscribed 'Hugh Benet: & Johan Benet: Anno : 1637'. Hugh Bennett was a bailiff in the C17, his father had the house from Richard Davies of Caerhowell. The house was owned by the Wynnstay estate in 1839. Occupied by doctors from the later C18 to 1982. Richard Baxter was probably there in the late C18, listed in directory of 1811, George Towns there in 1839 and 1858-9, Drs Henry and Robert Cockerton c.1870 (listed at Castle Terrace in 1858-9), Dr Thomas Morgan in 1880 and 1889, followed by Dr Dick Kirk and then Dr S.J. Stewart from the 1920s to 1963. Dr Stewart lived there until his death, and the practice moved to Well Street in 1982. The timber-frame was briefly exposed during works in 1977, when the building history was deduced to be that a single rectangular dwelling with central dormer of c. 1600 had been altered in 1637 when the centre dormer was moved to one end and another added. Later both were enlarged and a smaller central one added.  

House, painted plaster covering timber-frame, on a painted rubble stone plinth. Slate roofs. Two lateral chimneys on the rear wall. Three- bay front of basement and one and a half storeys. Three gables, the centre one smaller, separated by short sections of roof with projecting eaves. Modern centre porch in front of a half-glazed door with framework of pilasters and entablature. To each side, a rectangular, early C19 casement-pair with iron glazing bars and Gothic heads to top panes, the left one of two lights and the right one of three. All the gables have C19 plain bargeboards and wooden cross-windows. An exposed tie beam across right gable is inscribed "Hugh Bennet: and Iohan Bennet: Anno: 1637". Rendered right end wall. Left end wall has a small casement pair above and an earlier C19 square bay window below, with cast-iron small-paned lights with Gothic heads to top panes on sides, and three Gothic heads with intersecting glazing bars to front (same pattern as on Nos 7, 9 and 11 Arthur Street). Bay has a door on left, rear, side approached by flight of steps with iron rail. Rear stone and brick chimney has been shortened (according to evidence of old photograph). Added wing to left of one bay with brick end stack. C19 painted brick with dentilled eaves broken for a cambered-headed sash window over a wide oriel window with three full-length windows to front. The narrower outer sashes are 16-pane, the centre one 24-pane with Gothic tracery to the top panes. Beneath these is a transom over 2-3-2-pane bottom lights. Below the oriel is recessed door and basement window. House is fronted by a stone-flagged path on a rubble stone retaining wall with iron hooped railings. Steps up with plain iron railings from left end.  

Timber-framed structure with plaster infill visible in left ground floor room. Stopped and chamfered axial ceiling beams in both ground floor rooms. Staircase with turned balusters.  

Included as a substantial detached house with C17 origins and strong exterior character, including locally distinctive window detail. .