Hirddol

Cadw's description

Location

Situated immediately E of Leighton Farm on N side of a minor road between Leighton Farm and Moel y Mab.

History

Built between 1849 and 1855 as a pair of cottages for labourers at Leighton Farm and probably designed by the Liverpool architect W.H. Gee for John Naylor. Naylor acquired the Leighton Estate in 1846-47 and embarked on an ambitious programme of building, principally Leighton Hall, church and Farm, all 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. Hirddol was converted to a single dwelling mid C20.

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. Hirddol is one of 3 pairs of labourers cottages built at Leighton Farm in the mid C19 (the others are Rolan immediately E of Hirddol and Maes y Gro at S end of farm buildings), all of which were designed to express architectural unity with the other buildings at Leighton Farm.

Exterior

Retains the external appearance of a pair of 2-storey cottages, of brick with stone dressings. Hipped slate roof with central ridge stack. Two-window front with sash windows (12-pane in upper storey, 16-pane in lower storey) and doorways at the ends (modern to L, planked to R). A mid C20 casement window is added above door to R. The side walls have similar sash windows. In the rear elevation are similar 9-pane sashes under wedge lintels with planked doors to L and R. Retains original rainwater goods. Attached to rear are brick walls of a small yard.

Interior

Not inspected.

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. Hirddol is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton and especially important to the architectural setting and social context of Leighton Farm, a Victorian model farm of national importance. It is a well-detailed mid C19 pair of cottages retaining its original character and expressing architectural unity with the adjacent farm buildings while contrasting with the plainer brick labourers' cottages in less prominent sites on the Estate.