Stockyard II, Leighton Farm

Cadw's description

Location

On the W side of Leighton Farm with Stockyard III to W, Hay Storage Building to S. The upper level of the E range is the Granary attached to the Threshing Barn and Mill. The E range is also the partition between Stockyard I and Stockyard II.

History

Early 1850s and probably designed by the Liverpool architect W.H. Gee for John Naylor's Leighton Farm, the model farm of the Leighton Estate. It was built contemporary with Stockyards I and III on the N side of the main E-W axis. 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. Naylor 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 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 a 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.

Exterior

Consisting of a yard bounded by a brick wall with gateway on S side and with ranges to house stock on the W, N and E sides; of brick with slate roof. The N range is double-pitched and open to the yard on timber posts (with the walls of modern sheds added). The E range has 5 doorways (of which 2 have modern lintels and the remainder are round-headed) and skylights in the roof. To the W are cow houses consisting of 2 parallel ranges with their gable ends facing the farm road to N. These have coped gables on moulded kneelers. The W range has a vent ridge with a round-headed louvred opening in the gable above a wide round-headed doorway with stone imposts and wooden gate. The E range has an infilled bullseye window above a round-headed blind arch with stone imposts, within which is a round-headed window. The vent ridge of the W range has some louvred panels but is otherwise glazed. The W wall of the W range has segmental-headed windows with louvres; the N wall of the N range facing the farm road has similar openings. (The W range culminates at the S end in a barn.) The stockyard is laid with concrete but is said to have a sump beneath the surface into which manure was swept, from where it entered a system of conduits to be pumped up to the top of Moel y Mab for redistribution as fertiliser.

Interior

The W range has queen-post roofs with raking struts. The N range has king-post roofs with raking struts.

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. 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*, Stockyard II is an integral part of the farm complex and has well-detailed buildings retaining their original character.