Poultry House

Cadw's description

Location

Approximately 0.9m SE of Leighton Hall and reached from a minor road E of B4388 from which a short private road leads through a forestry plantation to the cottage and Poultry House.

History

Erected on the site of an earlier farmstead in 1861 by John Naylor for his daughter, and probably designed by W.H. Gee. The Poultry House was an integral part of the Leighton Estate, acquired by the Liverpool banker John Naylor in 1846-47. Naylor embarked on an ambitious programme of building, principally Leighton Hall, church and Farm, all largely completed to Gee's designs by the mid 1850s. Leighton Farm was a model farm where rational farming methods were employed using techniques derived from science and industry. It was characteristic of its period but especially notable for its scale. One of the aims of the Poultry House was to provide better shelter for the poultry and continued in the tradition of country-house aviaries where women were responsible for keeping hens and developing better strains. The Poultry House was restored 1988-89 by the Landmark Trust.

Exterior

Highly picturesque Tudor-Gothic style, consisting of the poultry house with scratching yard, storm shed, duck pond and surrounded by a boundary fence. The poultry house has a gabled central range of two storeys plus attic, flanked by single-storey inner wings and lower outer wings. Timber-framed with white-brick nogging on a stone plinth; steeply pitched slate roofs, half-hipped in the outer wings. The gables have fretted barge boards with pendant finials. The upper storey of the main range is jettied on moulded brackets and has diagonal braces. Above the bressumer is a stone tablet with Naylor’s monogram (ICN) and the date 1861 in relief. Above this is a 5-light window and in the attic a 2-light window glazed below a transom and with pigeon holes above. In the lower storey is a boarded door with ornate fake strap hinges and an overlight, flanked by 2-light windows. In the inner and outer wings are projecting gabled doorways with boarded doors and overlights. The outer wings also have doorways in the end walls which are similar to those of the main range and have overlights, above which are louvred panels. The rear elevation, facing the pond, is similar to the front.

Across the scratching yard is the storm shed, which is of brick faced in coursed, rock-faced Cefn stone and with steeply pitched slate roof. It is open to the yard on timber posts. In each gable end is a small-pane sash window in a rusticated surround. To the rear of the Poultry House, at a lower level, is the duck pond, which was relined late C20. The boundary fence ranges around N, S and W sides and consists of square piers of rock-faced Cefn stone with pyramidal copings, and wood palings on a stone plinth. On the N side only the stumps of the piers (some of which are blue brick) remain. (On the W side, beyond the duck pond, is a plain metal fence added late C20. A hand pump in the scratching yard was also added late C20.)

Interior

The main range has a straight stair with hand rails and plain balusters to the first floor. A second stair to the attic is straight with winders at the bottom. The front and rear windows of the main range have coloured glass in abstract patterns. The inner wings have nesting boxes (only the doors survive to L) and lofts above. Tiled floor and ledged and battened doors throughout.

Reason for designation

The Leighton Estate is an exceptional example of high-Victorian estate development. It is remarkable for the scale and ambition of its conception and planning, the consistency of its design, the extent of its survival, and is the most complete example of its type in Wales. Listed Grade II*, the Poultry House is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton. An extraordinarily specialised building type, it is also remarkable for its quality and completeness, and is a highly polished exercise in a rustic picturesque idiom.