8669

 

II  

Designated  

24/12/1982  

20/03/1998  

Gateway at the N entrance to Leighton Farm  

 

Powys  

Forden with Leighton and Trelystan  

Forden  

Leighton  

324350  

305988  

 

At the N entrance to Leighton Farm on S side of a minor road between Leighton and Trelystan, and immediately E of the churchyard.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Contemporary with the adjacent church and Church Lodge, and forming the N entrance to Leighton Farm, the model farm on the Leighton Estate. John Naylor, a Liverpool banker, had acquired the Leighton Estate in 1846-47 and embarked on an ambitious programme of building, notably Leighton Hall, church and Leighton Farm, all designed by the Liverpool architect W.H. Gee and largely completed by the mid 1850s. Leighton Hall was constructed 1850-56, the church 1851-53. Naylor continued to extend and improve the Estate until his death in 1889. His grandson, Captain J.M. Naylor, sold Leighton Hall and the Estate in 1931.  

Gateway with entrances to Leighton Farm and church. The tripartite gateway to the Farm is framed by ashlar piers which are octagonal on square bases and have copings with cruciform gablets with trefoil infill. The coping of one of the central piers is missing. The central gates are missing but the ornate cast-iron side gates have fleur de lys finials. The gateway is linked to the churchyard gateway by a curved wall of snecked stone and coping surmounted by iron railings and with an intermediate pier. The churchyard gateway is flanked by similar piers and has cast-iron gates similar to those of the Farm gateway. To the N of this the wall continues with railings above and ends in a pier similar to those already described.  

 

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 gateway is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton. Its is an impressive mid C19 gateway and an integral component of a strong visual group comprising church, lodge and gateway, all designed in a Gothic idiom.