Coach Chambers

Cadw's description

Location

Prominently sited at the cross roads in the centre of the town, in front of the Royal Oak Hotel.

History

A date-stone set into the axial chimney to the rear of the building is inscribed with the initials I over G A (Gilbert and Ann Jones) and dated 1692. Although the siting and size of the rear wall stack may indicate these earlier origins, the building was extensively remodelled c1830. A plaque on the gable records that the building (or its predecessor on the site) became an inn (The Coach and Horses) in 1765, until 1906, and that it was the home of Robert Owen (father of the social reformer) for a time. In 1906 it became estate agents' offices, and is now used by the Royal Oak Hotel.

Robert Owen (1771-1858) was an instigator of the co-operative movement, a founder of British socialism and a campaigner for education and improved conditions for working people and the reduction of child labour. He said in 1817 his aim was to benefit “my fellow men of every rank and description, of every country and colour”. Born in Newtown, Owen became a manager of cotton mills including New Lanark in Scotland, which became well-known as a model industrial community after Owen established free schools and an Institute for the Formation of Character there. Owen’s mills relied on slave labour in Britain’s colonies and the United States for their raw material. In principle Owen disapproved of slavery which he said would “die a natural death” within a generation if his plans to transform society and the economy were put into practice, and he praised the Republic of Mexico for abolishing slavery. He argued against immediate abolition in the British Empire though and suggested that British slaves would be worse off if they were emancipated from their “humane masters” and “urged forward beyond the present happy ignorant state in which they are”. In A New View of Society and later books Owen argued that people’s character was shaped by their environment and advocated for planned co-operative villages of workers without money or private property. In 1825 he left New Lanark and attempted to put his ideas into practice, purchasing the town of New Harmony, Indiana in the USA. Owen then moved to London where he continued to argue for social change and fairer rewards for the working class, returning to Wales near the end of his life.

Exterior

Lined-out renderwith painted angle quoins and dressings over brick; slate roof with gable end and rear wall stacks. 3 storeys, 3-window range to Church Street, with entrance to left of centre. Deep moulded 6-panelled door with leaded canopy hood carried on brackets. Ground and first floor windows are 12-pane sashes, with painted flat arched heads. Similar windows in right hand gable return, and in rear elevation, which also has a first floor doorway to the left of the chimney stack.

Reason for designation

A well-detailed, simple early C19 commercial building which forms an important element in a group of buildings at the centre of the town. Historical association with Robert Owen, celebrated as a socialist, educationalist and workplace reformer.