Park Cottage

Cadw's description

Location

Located approximately 1.0km SSE of Leighton church on the N side of a minor road E of Leighton Farm and situated at the foot of a woodland plantation.

History

Built 1860s as a summer house and slightly later than the Old Cable House with which it forms a visual group. Park Cottage was 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. The cottage stands close to the funicular railway, at the top of which was a second summer house.

Exterior

One-and-a-half storey house in a style characteristic of the estate, consisting of a main range symmetrically arranged with a centrally-placed cross-gable to the front. Of brick with rock-faced stone quoins and coped gables with fleur-de-lys finials. Banded slate roof with crested ridge and paired axial stacks of brick with stone quoins. The 3-window front has 12-pane sashes under cambered lintels in the main range and in the cross-gable a canted bay with ashlar surround which has similar sash window. Above it is a round-headed sash window, flanked in the outer bays by half-dormers on corbels with sash windows under cambered lintels. (To R of the cross-gable is an added porch.) The side walls have 12-pane sashes in the lower storey. (The R side wall has an added single-storey wing with details similar to the original. To the rear is a late C20 wing.)

Interior

Not inspected (November-December 1996).

Reason for designation

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. Park Cottage is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton. It forms part of a strong visual group with the Old Cable House and retains good original detail characteristic of the Leighton Estate.