Church House

Cadw's description

Location

Opposite the Church of Saint Mary.

Exterior

History: Inscription plate records that the building was erected by public subscription in memory of Edward James, Third Earl of Powis, in 1893. It was designed by T.E.Price.

Exterior: 3 distinct elements: hall, stage area, and a service/entrance range to the rear. Local green granite, roughly coursed and squared. Graded slate roof over hall and stage area, with slightly swept profile, and stepped coped gable at SW. N elevation to street is symmetrically arranged with 3-light wood mullioned and transomed windows with segmental voussoir heads to either side of the inscription plate; outer doorways have paired doors with glazed upper panels in segmental archways: voussoir heads with etiolated keystones. Secondary entrance to left has battened plank door recessed in shallow archway. Low-relief Powis arms on inscription plate; above it hangs a wrought-iron bracketed lamp. Paired windows in right-hand gable return: 3-tier 2-light red-sandstone mullioned and transomed windows with segmentally pedimented heads, reputed to have come from Powis Castle. Stage area forms a cross-wing, recessed behind an earlier building to the left. Rear elevation has 3x3-light wood mullioned and transomed windows with leaded panes; 2 side wall stacks, breaking through the moulded eaves cornice. Stage area expressed as a recessed gabled cross wing, with tile-hanging in the gable, paired 3-tier wood mullioned and transomed windows with some leaded glazing. Projecting to the right is a flat-roofed single storeyed range with canted angle housing entrance: plank doorway in stepped voussoir arch beneath steep pedimented gable.

Interior: 5-bay hall with stylised hammer-beam trusses. Curved window embrasures alternate with similar arched fireplace recesses in the S wall. These have strongly moulded surrounds in a C18 idiom. Proscenium arch has Neo-classical detail. Dado panelling to platform, and an arched recess to its rear, housing a further C18-style fireplace.

Small forecourt to the front of the building is enclosed by a rusticated rubble wall, stepped in height. Terminal piers at either end, and gate piers towards centre, with ball finials. Paired cast-iron gates, and steps to doorways.

An excellent example of simplified Arts and Crafts design, using local materials, expressive planning and detail.

Reference: Richard Haslam, Powys, Buildings of Wales series, 1979, p.210.