Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Clock Tower
Machynlleth, Powys, Wales
A Grade II listed building in Machynlleth, Powys, designated on 19 November 1990.
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade II
- Broad class
- Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces
- Date of designation
- 19 November 1990
- Community
- Machynlleth
- Unitary authority
- Powys
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 52.59057, -3.85337
- Cadw reference
- 8462
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 LibrariesLlyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1795 map "To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most humbly inscribed by his obedient humble servant" (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1795 · To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most… (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales)
- 1883 · Watershed map England, Wales 3. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1896 · Sheet 7. Ordnance Survey of England and Wales. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1899 · 149 Barmouth (Hills) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1901 · Sheet 9 and 10. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
Cadw's description
Location
Freestanding at the road junction of the A487 and A489 in the centre of the town.
History
Dated l873 and "erected by the inhabitants of the town and district of Machynlleth to commemorate the coming of age on the l5th July l873 of Viscount Castelreagh of Plas Machynlleth, Son of the 5th Marquess of Londonderry". Designed by Henry Kennedy, an Irish born architect at this time working as Bangor Diocesan architect. Erected on the site of the old Town Hall.
Exterior
High Victorian Gothic 3-stage square tower with spire; open to ground floor. Snecked grey rubble with cream coloured freestone dressings facing the greater part of the top and bottom stages. Freestone quoins to the middle stage which also has diagonal bands of Mansfield Red stone. The crowning octagonal crocketed spire with stone finial and ironwork weathervane rises from the square bellstage with corner tourelles each with their own iron finials; foliated cornice and implied machicolations below the clock faces. Narrow, stepped, Gothic lights to staircase below. At each corner at the base are griffins seated on tiny marble colonnettes, The lower stage is splayed out with fishscale and crenellated cornice. Each side has a tall gable with heavily foliated finials and roundels with heraldic emblems. Hoodmoulds and rosettes to arches with impost bands and unpolished marble colonnettes and inner cusping; diagonal buttresses with gables and miniature tower like pinnacles. Stepped platform. Quadrapartite ribbed vault to open ground floor.
Reason for designation
Group value.
Nearby in the register
- The Principality, Maldwyn HouseCommercialunder 1 mi
- 1 Heol PenralltCommercialunder 1 mi
- T.A. & M. Hughes, NewsagentCommercialunder 1 mi
- Barclays BankCommercialunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.