Honeywell Power Tools Testing Division

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from Main Avenue with an access road on the SE side opposite the telephone exchange.

History

The South Wales and Monmouthshire Trading Estate at Treforest was established in 1936, the first such estate in Wales, and by 1939 sixty-six firms employed 2500 people. Its honorary architect from 1936-70 was Sir Percy Thomas. The present building was built in the early 1950s on the site of an earlier railway.

Exterior

A small factory comprising a fashionably modern 2-storey L-shaped entrance block with a range behind of 3 gabled bays. The walls are a mixed use of brick and render, with concrete detailing. Metal-framed windows incorporate lying panes. The entrance is within a higher and rounded corner bay which has a continuous window wrapped around in the lower storey, on the L side of which are double panelled doors with raised fields. A curved concrete canopy is above the entrance and lower storey, while the upper storey has full-height glazing with panels of frosted small-pane glazing above and below plate glass windows. Above it the parapet has a projecting concrete coping. A projecting higher brick stair tower is on the L side of the entrance. It has a porthole window in the lower storey and tall narrow stair light above. On the L side is a rendered 2-storey wing, set back from the stair tower, with 2 bands of windows in each storey. On the R side of the corner bay is a projecting painted-brick 2-storey wing with similar bands of windows. The range behind has a corrugated asbestos-cement roof and the rear bay is hipped to the front.

Reason for designation

Listed for its architectural interest as an accomplished, well-detailed and well-preserved industrial building in the mid-C20 manner of Sir Percy Thomas and partners.