Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Camden Court
Brecon, Powys, Wales
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade II
- Broad class
- Education
- Date of designation
- 16 December 1976
- Town
- Brecon
- Community
- Brecon
- Unitary authority
- Powys
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 51.94311, -3.37606
- Cadw reference
- 6844
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 LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1608 "(13) Cambriae Typus." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Cadw's description
Location
Prominently sited above road near junction with Cwrt-y-Camden.
History
Originally built as the Congregational Memorial College and opened in 1869. After the Act of Uniformity following the Restoration (1660), Nonconformists were barred from Oxford and Cambridge universities ("The Great Ejectment"), and had to make arrangements for their own education. The Congregationalists set up an academy at Abergavenny in 1757, and came to Brecon in 1839. The present building was built in 1869 as a memorial to the early Nonconformist martyrs; architect Rev Thomas Thomas. The College left Brecon in 1959, and the building was subsequently converted to flats.
Exterior
Former college. "Tudorbethan" style. Brown stone with bathstone dressings. Symmetrical front massed round tall central tower. Stone mullion and transom windows. The central tower of 5 storeys, has pyramidal roof with weather vane, and buttresses; entrance with Tudor-headed doorway. Tower flanked to each side by a recessed 2-window block of 2 storeys and attics; gabled dormers. To each side, beyond these, an advanced gabled block with two-storey splayed bay window with panelled parapet, above which is a four-light window to second floor and round window to attic. Beyond gabled blocks, a lower single window block of 2 storeys and attic with gabled dormer. At ends, a gabled block with pointed attic window.
Reason for designation
Strongly designed college building with added historic interest in the history of Nonconformist education in Wales.
Nearby in the register
- Sunny BarnDomesticunder 1 mi
- Barn at Sunny BarnAgriculture and Subsistenceunder 1 mi
- Bank of Lime Kilns on S side of canal near Lime Kiln CottageIndustrialunder 1 mi
- Toll Gate CottageDomesticunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.