Penybont and District Local History Group Notes

Building Llandrindod Wells – Stephen Ashley

2^nd October 2023

Geraint welcomed everyone and mentioned that the November talk on the 6^th November would be by himself and his son about ‘Fires and Floods’ particularly in this area. He also mentioned that the December meeting will be at the Thomas Shop.

Annette Watkins announced that there will be and Antiques Afternoon in the Community Centre on Saturday 28^th October at 2.00 p.m. This will be in aide of the Community Centre and there will be valuations, tea and cakes, and of course a raffle, all for £10.

Geriant by way of introduction to the main event declared that Llandrindod ‘happened’ because of Penybont. The pub and the Police Station were here in Penybont, and the main shop in Llandrindod was the Emporium which was an extension of the Thomas Shop!

This was endorsed by Mary Davies, nee Thomas, in her vote of thanks.

Geraint then introduced Stephen Ashley who, he explained, is a retired building surveyor. Architects are contracted to design pretty buildings, but it is the surveyor that ensures that buildings stand up!

Main Topic: Building Llandrindod – Stephen Ashley

Stephen started by giving an outline of the history of Llandrindod. It is recorded that in the mid-18^th century a Shropshire solicitor attempted to Llandrindod. He got as far as Knighton but no-one knew where Llandrindod was! He finally arrived and stayed in a ‘nasty house’ run by a ‘nasty woman’! In 1840 it was described as ‘unfinished and full of poverty and neglect’.

By 1900 the town was reported to be “spick and span” and extremely fashionable.

The talk covered the period 1870 – 1910. After 1910 the town declined again until an investment of European money in the 20^th century helped to re-establish it.

Stephen encouraged members to look carefully and to discover the architectural features and detail within Llandrindod. He agreed that it was very easy to miss them and his talk aimed to identify some of the main features.

Turrets

There are 35 turrets in Llandrindod. There are some at the back of the Metropole Hotel. The back was originally meant to be the front of the Hotel. The main road through the town was built after the hotel was opened. Most of the turrets are copper which has oxidised to give their rich green colour. Originally built as the Bridge Hotel it became the Coleman’s Hotel before the owners bought a ‘job-lot’ of china and copper from another hotel called Metropole. The copper was already marked with the letter M leading to the name being changed to the Metropole. Other copper turrets and domes can be seen in the town, at the old Pump House, which is now in the grounds of County Hall, and also at the Boiler House where they still survive. There is still a copper dome on the Pavillion and a turret on the Glen Usk Hotel where the staff would watch out for trains arriving at the station.

There was a ‘French chateau’ look to the turrets in the High Street.

The Victoria Building in Middleton Street was a shopping arcade and later became the ‘Kino’ cinema. Originally it had a spectacular turret but this has not survived.

John Henry Millward built Victoria Buildings and most of Middleton Street, also the Pavilion and St John’s Church (Now New Life church). He is buried at Crossgates Church and his Greta Granddaughter is taking the Notes today!

Chimneys

There are fairly spectacular chimneys at the Railway Station, at Sunnycroft, Holy Trinity Church, Cecil Lodge, and once again at the Boiler House or Powys County Council, which reports ‘mogul’ chimneys. The builder of the Commodore, which was built to be the vicarage, got quite carried away with the chimneys that were erected around 1900 and are still standing!

Stephen has spotted some new chimneys in Cefn Llys Lane that have been built more recently in the same style and was very pleased to see them.

The Neuadd near the old Llandrindod Quarry has huge chimneys erected in the 14^th (or perhaps even 13^th) century and they still stand as originally built. Although the house has been modernised the chimneys are still in place. Stephen feels that these are chimneys of national importance having stood untouched for 600 years.

There are also lots of different and interesting finials (roof ends) in the town.

Walls

There were two types of brickwork used in the buildings of Llandrindod Wells – English Garden Wall Bond or Pash, the Flemish Bond.

Cavity walls were only introduced at the end of the 19^th century but they are featured in quite a few buildings in the town indicating that tin the development of Llandod the developers were at the forefront of this new technique in building.

Stephen then showed a picture of a house that he previously owned in the town. Pash bricks were used on all of the parts of the building that were visible, whereas cheaper bricks were used on the sides and around the back. The Rock Park Centre has very distinctive brickwork, which is well worth studying. Once when Stphen was in the Park he came across a young lad closely studying the brickwork. The lad said he was an apprentice bricklayer and he hoped, one day, he could lay bricks as well as these.

The Brickwork on the Coleg Powys building was Art Nouveaux inspired and was originally a Grand Hotel. Different, but no less grand, brickwork can be seen in South Crescent. (The Former Wallis Shop which is now the Winston Phillips Estate Agents is a good example.)

Another example is a plaque showing Queen Victoria’s head, the

Victoria Building (Now Butterfills).

Lettering Still Visible on Buildings

There is a sign just off Middleton Street which reads Middleton Terrace. The name Middleton Street did not start to be used until what was a residential street started to be a shopping area. Originally the shops were on the High Street.

On the corner of the High Street with Oxford Road a sign ‘cars for hire’ is still visible in the brickwork. (Pritchard’s Garage had premises there in addition to the main garage). On the AutoPlace, Norton’s advertised the sale of cycles, motor cars and aircraft in very artistic script. Similarly, the plaque above the door to the old Police Station and Court has ‘County Police Station’ inscribed in stone.

There are various Art Nouveau shop fronts; e.g. The Tattoo Parlour, which was previously Shewan’s Chemist. There are large areas of glass frontages: e.g. Harpers Cake shop and café in Middleton Street (now Phil Evan’s Insurance Broker)

Mosaic Tiling

There are examples of mosaic tiling on the floors outside shops:- e.g. Eadies in Park Crescent; and majestic entrances at Temple Bar, Albert Hall and the old Courthouse.

Staines Glass

Stained glass is widely seen:- e.g. Marlborough House Flats (J.O. Davies) and Quisisana in Western Promenade (this was formerly a Doctor’s surgery and the name means ‘Here is Health’).

Cast Iron

Cast Iron is everywhere – it does not seem to have been repurposed for the war! Examples are Cadwallader Flats (the old Post Office), Pritchard’s Funeral Directors and Powerprint in the High Street has balconies, similarly the Glen Usk Hotel. There were extensive balconies on the Pavilion but these were removed in the 1970’s for Health and Safety reasons. (Stephen commented that amongst the audiences at the Pavilion there were many who said they played on these balconies and no one ever came to any harm.)

There is also some wonderful cast Iron on the Railway Station canopy (this originally came from the Pump House Hotel), on Bradleys, the Gwalia and Tredawel on Ithon Road, A more recent example is the iron fence erected outside Wrathan House in Temple Street bearing a picture of a wren.

Buildings

There are two very important buildings in the town:

The Museum

This was opened as a Carnegie Library in 1911. Andrew Carnegie, a Scotsman, emigrated to New York and was given access to a private library, which he used to educate himself. He promised to open new libraries to enable others to do the same. When he became very wealthy he kept his promise and opened 3000 libraries to give people this opportunity. One such library was the library in Llandrindod.

New County Hall

The ‘Prairie Style’ of architecture was introduced by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Peter Wharton the County Architect had always wanted to design a building in this style and hence the New County Hall was born. Stephen showed us photos of that building and contrasted them with the Government Buildings in Spa Road – Ho contest!

Stephen remarked that there seem to be no on-going plans in Llandrindod to conserve old buildings?

Interesting Facts about the Town

Four Victorian Postboxes in Llandrindod: one outside Cadwallader flats in Park Terrace, one on the road to Howey, one on the Northbound Platform of the Railway Station (relocated from Machynlleth), and one at the Boiler House or the New Powys County Hall. Probably thousands of visitors have posted their postcards in these boxes.

If you were a guest at the Pump House Hotel and had a horse, you had to enter the grounds of the Hotel via the gate at Princes Avenue. This is a self-opening gate. The rider would tap on the knob on the gate and it would open without the rider having to get off the horse. The mechanism can still be seen.

Russell, the dog sculpture in Rock Park was crafted in 2004. It is very popular with Stephen’s grand-children.

There is a brickwork circle with notations in the grounds of Boys of Boden and this marks the place where an anti-aircraft gun was set up to defend the Elan Valley dams!

The old brickworks were in Cadwalader Way where the recycling centre is now. There was a pit there and nothing can be built on top.

Stephen finished by saying that there are a number of useful information boards around the town and asked if anyone had any questions.

There were a few comments and questions before Mary Davies gave Stephen thanks for his most inte