History

1902 by Frank Hearn Shayler of Shrewsbury. Financed partly by public subscription and partly by the Co-operative Union as a memorial to Robert Owen, and originally used as a free library. The site, which had previously been occupied by a hardware shop, was donated by Mrs Arbuthnot of Newtown Hall. Disagreements between the two groups of clients allegedly led to differing elevations, though they are remarkably harmonious. The museum opened in 1983.

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

An elegant and accomplished composition in an arts and crafts idiom that combines free renaissance and vernacular revival elements with gestures towards art nouveau. Mainly 2 storeys and attics, in a mix of brick, stone, timber-framing and tile-hanging. Steeply pitched tile roofs presenting an array of gables. Deep eaves and verges, plain bargeboards. The building pivots around a corner entrance block, which has doorway across angle in stone shell-hooded canopy carried on console brackets carried on half columns, and paired panel doors. Above the entrance is a two storey canted oriel with balcony at first floor, and continuous band of leaded windows beneath the overhanging eaves. This is clasped by gables on both sides: On the Broad Street elevation by an asymmetrical gabled bay, brick banded with stone to ground floor with triple-transomed window with carved head and scrolled architrave; long uprights in timber framing above, with a shallow oriel window to first floor, and a small window beneath the gable apex. To the right, facing Severn Street, a similar gable with flared decoration added to framing, is itself clasped by a tall banded chimney stack corbelled out above the ground floor, which has two similarly enriched transomed windows, with a commemorative plaque flanked by putti between them. Beyond them, the entrance block blends into a further range with a plain brick façade, a further doorway with simple timber hood, and leaded windows to ground floor. Windows in low bands in mezzanine above, immediately below the projecting tile-hanging of the upper floor, which is pierced by mullioned windows. Paired asymmetrical projecting timber-framed gables to attic storey.

Left hand elevation facing Broad Street is ashlar to ground floor, white-washed plaster to first floor, and has dark, tile-hung advanced gable carried on brackets above. 1st floor has tall canted oriel window, mullioned and transomed, with leaded lights. Narrow 1 light transomed windows in recesses flanking this to flanking recesses. Paired triple transomed windows with carved heads and leaded lights to ground floor, beneath a continuous hood mould. Putti flank commemorative plaque to centre.

Interior

Contemporary interiors.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as an exceptionally fine early C20 building in an accomplished arts and crafts idiom, expressively composed and exquisitely detailed. Historical association with Robert Owen, celebrated as a socialist, educationalist and workplace reformer.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q85436120

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)