8664

 

II  

Designated  

24/12/1982  

20/03/1998  

Upper Cable House  

 

Powys  

Forden with Leighton and Trelystan  

Forden  

Moel y Mab  

324947  

305218  

 

Located approximately 1km SE of Leighton church and reached by a path S of Leighton House.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Erected late 1850s to receive the cables of a funicular railway, a pioneering example of its type, although it was disused by 1884 and the rails had been taken up by 1902. Its purpose is uncertain: It is said to have been used to take animal feed from Leighton Farm to the cow houses at the Slurry Tank on Moel y Mab, but it is also likely to have been used for pleasure. The cutting for the incline is still visible. The upper storey of the Cable House was used as a Summer House by the Naylor family, it providing panoramic views across the Severn valley to Powis Castle. The Upper Cable House was an integral 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. He continued to extend and improve the Estate until his death in 1889. His grandson, Captain J.M. Naylor, sold the Estate in 1931. Naylor introduced new rational farming methods at Leighton, pioneering new technology such as funicular railways and water-powered turbines.  

In a rustic Gothic style, of 2 storeys and attic, the lower storey of rock-faced, snecked Cefn stone and upper storey of timber framing in square panels and white brick nogging. Below the timber framing is a moulded string course. Hipped slate roof rises to a flat apex which has wrought iron brattishing. Two tiers of gabled roof dormers. In the upper storey are diagonal braces in the outer panels forming saltire crosses. On the W, downslope side is a 3-window range with 2-light casements in the upper storey (the rear elevation is similar, with single casements in the side walls). In the lower storey are 2 cross-windows to the front beneath cambered lintels. Below each window, within a shallow projecting plinth, are slots for the cables (bricked up to R). In the L side wall is a boarded door with iron studs and fake ornate strap hinges. At plinth level to the front are 2 bays of coursed stone, continuing as a retaining wall on the L side.  

Not inspected (November 1996).  

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 Upper Cable House is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton. Its distinctive character is derived from its well-preserved rustic Gothic detail, and it has special engineering significance as a rare survival of funicular railway architecture.