Heritage group backs bid to save Croesawdy in Newtown

Croesawdy, a 140-year-old former mill owner's house in New Road, has been part of a campaign which has caught the attention of SAVE Britain’s Heritage which has written to Cadw to strongly support listing.

The building currently has interim protection from Cadw while a consultation takes place whether to give the property Grade II listing. The consultation is scheduled to end on Wednesday, October 5, and if the decision is made to list, details will be published on the Cadw website.

A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: "Timing of the decision will depend on any representations made as part of the consultation."

In a letter to Cadw, SAVE Britain's Heritage said: “The building is of high significance not only in its own right but in relation to its historic relationship with the town and Severn Valley Mills – the third and final great 19th-century steam mill in Newtown.

“As Cadw points out, the building was designed to be fashionable, with clear influences from the Arts and Crafts movement in its traditional stylistic references and high-quality finishes and fittings. The special historic interest both internally and externally is demonstrated in the grand central entrance hall with moulded archways and original fixtures and fittings, and plan form throughout.

“SAVE fully supports its recommendation for listing, which will in turn preserve it for future generations.”

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Cadw said the building deserved to be listed “for its special architectural interest as a well-preserved example of a late C19th industrialist’s house displaying good use of design and materials, reflecting contemporary and regional architectural styles, and designed by the major architectural practice of the period in Newtown”.

The notice added: “It has special historic interest as a visible and prominent part of the late 19th- century development of the mid-Wales textile industry, a building that through its architectural character reflects the relative prosperity of the period.”

Campaigners outside Croesawdy in Newtown (Image: Anwen Parry/County Times.)

Newtown was also the birthplace of Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones, an entrepreneur who capitalised on the Penny Post and the arrival of the railways in his home town to create the world’s first mail order catalogue in 1861. Before long he was selling woollen goods to more than 100,000 customers as far away as Australia and America – as well as Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale – and was knighted for his success.

Carole Ryan-Ridout, a specialist in historic building conservation who has researched Newtown's development, described the building as “absolutely magnificent” and in a good state of repair.

“It represents the very zenith of Victorian craftsmanship, the ilk of which we will never get again,” she said.

“The date 1881 appears in the stained glass panel on the flank elevation. It occupies a prominent position in the street scene and its front apron, now tarmac, is probably a former garden as New Road was once considerably greener than it is today.”

Plans submitted earlier this year by applicant Harry Bowen, of Mid Wales Property Ltd, stated that the demolition of Croesawdy was expected to take place over 10 weeks from Monday, October 10.