Pound Fields Cottage

Cadw's description

Location

Southwest of Forden on the north side of the road between Farchwel Nywdd and Church Farm, reached via a path through the trees.

History

Small timber framed vernacular cottage of circa 1800, which may have begun as a single room later lengthened to a 2-unit plan, and raised to one and a half storey height.

The border county of Montgomeryshire in modern north Powys was the most heavily forested part of Wales in the early modern period, and timber framing dominated the regional vernacular. Brick and stone later became the fashionable high-status materials but timber framing persisted here for poorer buildings as late as the first half of the nineteenth century. This was despite rising costs of timber driven by enclosure of woodlands and demand from shipbuilding throughout the eighteenth century, resulting in the use of thinner frames and softer wood.

Pound Fields cottage had taken shape by the Tithe Survey of 1843 when it was managed by the Poor Law Overseers of Forden Parish, suggesting it was used as a parish alms-house under provisions of the old Poor Law. Most parishes in the area had already abandoned such small-scale housing and relied on the local Poor Law Union’s pioneering Workhouse built nearby in Forden in 1794 (see record 16183), which could incarcerate up to a thousand of the poor in a harsh and brutal regime, manufacturing flannel amidst smallpox outbreaks.

A brick lined well just in front of the house is recorded on late nineteenth century maps. In 1897 Richard Jones of Poundfield came 3rd in a cottage gardens competition organised by the Montgomery and District Horticultural Society and won a small cash prize. Some refurbishment including the addition of a rear extension was carried out circa 1975.

Exterior

Small one and a half story vernacular cottage, two-unit plan with central entrance. Front and rear walls are substantially timber framed with brick infill; brick and stone sections in right-hand bay; stone and brick gable ends. Slate roof with gabled dormers and brick gable-end chimney stacks with lead flashings; modern extension to rear. Front wall is substantially box framed in irregular square panels with brick infills laid as “shiners” on their long narrow sides to accommodate the thinness of the timber frame. Right hand unit faced in brick with possible traces of paintwork imitating timber framing. Clear evidence that the house has been raised in height with the addition of another band of square panelled framing to front and rear, the timbers of varying thickness. Right gable wall is rendered rubble stone up to first floor height continuing around to part of the rear wall, the upper part of this gable is corrugated-iron. Left gable wall is common bond brickwork up to the first floor with the upper part concealed by tarpaulin at inspection. Single storey lean-to extension to rear of house with small brick bathroom out-shut on left side. Paired gabled dormers to front and back with six-paned windows and timber weatherboarding to sides, those to front aligned with ground floor windows. Left side - 2-light small-paned casement fills one panel in the timber frame, right - side 2-light casement with larger panes. Timber lean-to porch with slate roof over front door is likely twentieth century.

Interior

The original building is two-up two-down with an additional bathroom, kitchen and storeroom in the rear extension. Entry into main room with boxed in dog-leg staircase starting against rear wall before aligning with the partition, also in this room the rear door into the extension. Timber panelling with lath and plaster infills preserved in the rear wall and in the central partition beside the staircase. Low ceilings with the main room and parlour having separate spine beams; the main room’s spine beam is chamfered and rests on a freestanding post below the stair, while the more straight-cut parlour spine beam’s post is incorporated into the partition wall with the end of the beam projecting through into the main room. There is a gap of about a foot in width between the two spine beams where they meet below the landing at the top of the stair. Thin joists in both rooms. Upper-level partition retains timbers from the lower original queen strut roof now with a door cut through it. Timber framing exposed to rear in upper rooms corresponds to the front where the height has been raised. Two large purlins have been retained from the raised roof structure and are the full length of the house, though other timberwork here is late twentieth century replacement. Brick chimney breasts with fireplaces in all four rooms appear to be modern. Rear windows filling panels have been retained in the rear wall, with an early twentieth century crittal between the bathroom and a boiler cupboard in the rear corner of the main room, and a four-panel timber window between the kitchen and the bottom of the stair box.

Reason for designation

Included for special architectural interest as a rare survival of the later timber framing tradition of small Montgomeryshire houses, with a well-preserved interior. Additional social historic interest due to the apparent meanness of materials and association with “old” Poor Law provision in the Parish. 1970s rear extension and modern sheds in the curtilage are not of interest.