History

Built between 1847 and 1849 as a pair of cottages for labourers at Leighton Farm and probably designed by the Liverpool architect W.H. Gee for John Naylor. Naylor acquired the Leighton Estate in 1846-47 and embarked on an ambitious programme of building, principally Leighton Hall, church and Farm, all largely completed by the mid 1850s. He continued to extend and improve the Estate until his death in 1889. His grandson, Captain J.M. Naylor, sold the Estate in 1931, when Leighton Farm was bought by Montgomeryshire County Council and Maes-y-gro was converted to a single dwelling by Herbert Carr, County Surveyor.

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. Apart from the rationalisation of farm design, its principal aims were to provide better shelter for livestock and fodder, the recycling of manure as fertiliser, and mechanisation, principally in the form of turbines and hydraulic rams.

The main farm complex is roughly square in plan and enclosed by perimeter roads (although important buildings were added beyond it). The farm was a piecemeal development but it is structured either side of a central E-W axis in which a threshing barn was built with hay and fodder storage buildings either side of it, all of which were linked by a broad gauge railway. On the N and S sides of this axis stockyards were built, served by 2 N-S service roads in addition to the perimeter roads. By 1849 4 small yards (Stockyard IV) had been built S of the Threshing Barn with a Stable fronting the road, these 3 elements forming the central block of buildings. On the E and W sides, fronting the road to the S, houses were built (on the W side with an office and further livestock sheds behind). After 1849 3 stockyards (Stockyards I, II, III) were built on the N side of the main axis. By 1855 there had been additions beyond the perimeter road, with the building of a Mill and Pig and Sheep houses (which enclose 2 further stockyards) on the N side and a further stock shed with yard on the W side. In the late 1850s a Sheep-Drying Shed and a further Fodder Storage Building in line with the main E-W axis had been added, followed by a Root Shed at the south-east corner of the complex in the 1860s.

The buildings were carefully designed to achieve a strong visual impact when approached from the roads to the N or W. The landscape was carefully controlled so that Leighton Farm could not be seen from the main Buttington to Forden road to W, alongside which was a mixed woodland plantation. The main entrance to the farm was intended to be from the N side where there is an imposing gateway and lodge beside the church. The pig and sheep houses in particular create a grand facade when approached from the N, but Stockyards I and II, the Fodder Storage Buildings, Stable and Poolton at the south-west corner, are all designed to impress when viewed from the outside.

Exterior

Pair of one-and-a-half storey houses with lower wings at each end. Simple Tudor style. Brick with slate roof, and with coped stone gables and dormers on moulded kneelers. Central square brick stack. Two-window front with half dormers which have 2-light mullioned windows incorporating small-pane casements in dressed stone surrounds. In the lower storey are similar but larger 2-light mullioned windows with hood moulds. The wings both have doorways in stone surrounds and with hood moulds (boarded door to L, replaced to R). The wings have small-pane casements in each gable. The rear elevation has half-dormers with sash windows and casement windows in the lower storey.

Interior

Not inspected (November 1996) but now converted to a single dwelling.

Reasons for Listing

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. Maes-y-gro is an important element of this whole ensemble at Leighton and especially important to the architectural setting and social context of Leighton Farm, a Victorian model farm of national importance. It is a well-detailed mid C19 pair of houses retaining its original character and expressing architectural unity with the adjacent farm buildings while contrasting with the plainer brick labourers' cottages in less prominent sites on the Estate.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29487551

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.

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