Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
The Poem
Eglwysbach, Conwy, Wales
A Grade II listed building in Bodnant Gardens, Eglwysbach, Conwy, designated on 12 November 1996.
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade II
- Broad class
- Commemorative
- Date of designation
- 12 November 1996
- Locality
- Bodnant Gardens
- Community
- Eglwysbach
- Unitary authority
- Conwy
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 53.23090, -3.79967
- Cadw reference
- 17565
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesLlyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1795 map "To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most humbly inscribed by his obedient humble servant" (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1795 · To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most… (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales)
- 1883 · Watershed map England, Wales 3. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1899 · 106 Bangor (Outline) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1899 · 106 Bangor (Hills) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1901 · Sheet 9 and 10. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
Cadw's description
Location
Located at the end of the dell on a rock outcrop; overlooking the Afon Hiraethllyn some 300m S of Bodnant House.
History
Built 1882/3 as a mausoleum by Henry Davis Pochin (d.1895), industrial chemist and founder of the present gardens at Bodnant. The interior sculpted detail is by S Barfield, architectural sculptor of Leicester, who may also have been responsible for the overall design. The Poem replaces a former summerhouse.
Exterior
Square storeyed tower in Neo-Norman style, with lower semi-octagonal apsidal projection to W; of rough-dressed, snecked local stone with sandstone dressings and slate roofs. The tower has a shallow pyramidal roof and an arcaded parapet with octagonal turrets at the corners; foliated bosses to lower parapet. Plain stringcourses to the upper section and a high moulded plinth to the lower, both returned around the sides; stepped angle buttresses. Central round-arched entrance, via 3 steps, with plain bosses to voussoirs and supported on engaged columns of red marble; sandstone shaft rings and stiff-leafed capitals. Above, a large round-arched plate tracery window with ringless columns, as before. Beneath this, a sandstone band with, in raised, decorative lettering:`The Poem.' Similar upper windows to N and S sides with a segmentally-arched basement entrance to the latter; wrought iron grille. Sandstone quoins to 3-stage apsidal projection, with plinth moulding as before and plain cill course to the upper section. Simple lancets with decorative iron grilles to basement level; three large oculi to upper stage.
Interior
Richly-appointed interior with arcaded niches above dado level, all composed of exotic marbles from various parts of the world;. the niches contain tablets and marble busts commemorating various members of the family. The marble cladding formerly extended above the arcading to the vaulted ceiling, though this has been removed in recent years; richly-coloured stained glass windows, were described in 1892. Inlaid marble floor and dado, the latter with brass vents for a heating system operated from a boiler room in the basement.
Reason for designation
A late C19 mausoleum with unusually sumptuous interior.
Group value with other listed items at Bodnant.
Nearby in the register
- Old BodnodDomesticunder 1 mi
- Furnace MillIndustrialunder 1 mi
- The Pin MillIndustrialunder 1 mi
- Barn E of Old BodnodAgriculture and Subsistenceunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.