8673

 

II*  

Designated  

24/12/1982  

20/03/1998  

Former Root Shed, Leighton Farm  

 

Powys  

Forden with Leighton and Trelystan  

Forden  

Leighton Farm  

324304  

305230  

 

Situated at the SE corner of Leighton Farm and at the corner of a junction of minor roads through Leighton. The former Root Shed has a brick wall with stone coping on its east side.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Early 1860s and the last building to be erected at Leighton Farm, the model farm of the Leighton Estate. John Naylor had acquired the Leighton Estate in 1846-47 and 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, when Leighton Farm was bought by Montgomeryshire County Council. Leighton Farm was a model farm where rational farming methods were employed using techniques derived from science and industry. It was characteristic of its period but especially notable for its scale. Apart from the rationalisation of farm design, its principal aims were to provide better shelter for livestock and fodder, the recycling of manure as fertiliser, and mechanisation, principally in the form of turbines and hydraulic rams. The root shed may have contained root cutters, but its principal function was to store roots, which were brought in on carts and could be passed down through holes in the floor to wagons underneath, which in turn distributed the roots to the stockyards. The main farm complex is roughly square in plan and enclosed by perimeter roads (although important buildings were added beyond it). The farm was a piecemeal development but it is structured either side of a central E-W axis in which a threshing barn was built with hay and fodder storage buildings either side of it, all of which were linked by a broad gauge railway. On the N and S sides of this axis stockyards were built, served by 2 N-S service roads in addition to the perimeter roads. By 1849 4 small yards (Stockyard IV) had been built S of the Threshing Barn with a Stable fronting the road, these 3 elements forming the central block of buildings. On the E and W sides, fronting the road to the S, houses were built (on the W side with an office and further livestock sheds behind). After 1849 3 stockyards (Stockyards I, II, III) were built on the N side of the main axis. By 1855 there had been additions beyond the perimeter road, with the building of a Mill and Pig and Sheep houses (which enclose 2 further stockyards) on the N side and a further stock shed with yard on the W side. In the late 1850s a Sheep-Drying Shed and a further Fodder Storage Building in line with the main E-W axis had been added, followed by the Root Shed at the south-east corner of the complex in the 1860s. The buildings were carefully designed to achieve a strong visual impact when approached from the roads to the N or W. The landscape was carefully controlled so that Leighton Farm could not be seen from the main Buttington to Forden road to W, alongside which was a mixed woodland plantation. The main entrance to the farm was intended to be from the N side where there is an imposing gateway and lodge beside the church. The pig and sheep houses in particular create a grand facade when approached from the N, but Stockyards I and II, the Fodder Storage Buildings, Stable and Poolton at the south-west corner, are all designed to impress when viewed from the outside.  

Consisting of 2 parallel single-storey ranges with vaulted tunnels beneath. Brick on a random rubble basement, with roof of slate on the outer pitches, corrugated asbestos-cement and glazed panels on the inner pitches, and with coped gables on moulded kneelers. The S gable ends face the road and have wide round-headed doorways (the doorway to R lowered) with raised original vertical sliding gates in front of inserted sliding doors. The E side wall has breathers in lozenge patterns (and inserted door at S end). The N gable ends also have breathers in lozenge patterns. In the random rubble basement wall beneath are openings to 6 brick-vaulted tunnels (one now concealed by an inserted door).  

A row of central posts is now infilled with concrete blocks, dividing the interior into 2 units. The W range has a roof with king and queen posts and raking struts. The E range is said to have a sloping cartway. The W range has a modern concrete floor but the shafts through which the roots were passed can be seen in the vaulted tunnels of the basement.  

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. Leighton Farm is one of the principal foci of this development and is a Victorian model farm of national importance, representing the pioneering use of new technology, displaying a highly-structured layout and achieving an impressive architectural unity. Listed Grade II*, the former Root Shed is an integral part of the farm complex and is a rare and well-preserved example of a highly specialised building type.