Cilthriew is a Grade II listed house and former farm in

Kerry, Powys Kerry ( cy, Ceri) is a village and geographically large community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. The village lies on the A489 road southeast of Newtown and possesses two pubs — the Herbert Arms and the Kerry Lamb — a village hall, a bowl ...

, in the historic county of

Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire, also known as ''Maldwyn'' ( cy, Sir Drefaldwyn meaning "the Shire of Baldwin's town"), is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It is named after its county tow ...

, now

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

. Cilthriew was used by the Papworth Trust which provided a range of high quality services for disabled and disadvantaged people. Cilthriew provided free short breaks for disabled people and their families in a farm surrounding.

History

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Cilthriew was one of the

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in Kerry. The township is also referred to as ''Kilroith'' or ''Kilroyth''. Richard Williams makes the claim that Cilthriew and the neighbouring house of Brynllywarch (which was also a township) were in the ownership of the Pugh (ap Hugh) family from at least 1500. A William Pugh of Kilroith is mentioned in 1632, when he purchased from Ann Foxe, widow of Somerset Foxe lands in Kilroith including ''Maes y Deynant'' William Pugh of ‘‘Kilthrew’’ was the Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1767 and his son William, who was also Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1813, became a very successful attorney and purchased the Caer Howell estate in Montgomery. His son was the notable William Pugh, an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, who did much to develop trade and infrastructure in the Montgomeryshire

Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

valley. He paid for the final extension of the Montgomery Canal from

Berriew Berriew ( cy, Aberriw) is a village and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. It is on the Montgomeryshire Canal and the Afon Rhiw, near the confluence (Welsh: ''aber'') with the River Severn (Welsh: Afon Hafren) at , 79 miles (128 km ...

to Newtown, and for various road building schemes including a road from

Abermule Abermule ( cy, Aber-miwl) is a village lying on the River Severn 6 km (4 miles) northeast of Newtown in Powys, mid Wales. The A483 Swansea to Chester trunk road, the Cambrian Line railway, connecting Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, and the M ...

along the Mule valley. In Newtown he encouraged the growth of the textile industry and was responsible for the Flannel exchange, designed by

Thomas Penson Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...

. In 1828 he sold the Caer Howell estate, using the proceeds to develop Brynllywarch. For this work he may have employed T G Newnham and J W Poundley as his architects and surveyors. His schemes were over ambitious and in June 1835 he fled to

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Leighton Hall Estates to his nephew John Naylor in 1846. The very detailed survey of the estates purchased by Leyland and later John Naylor, drawn up by J W Poundley, is now in the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million boo ...

. John Naylor died on13th July 1889 and the estates continued in the Naylor family ownership until about 1930, when the various farms including Cilthriew were sold.

Architectural description

Originally a ‘‘sub-medieval’’ timber-framed house of Peter Smith’s ‘‘Lobby Entrance Houses’’ dating to the later years of the 16th century. The house is orientated NW-SE on a flat recessed area before a rising hill (as the Welsh name ''Cil-Rhiew'' would appear to suggest). A porch on the NW side suggests that this was a standard ‘‘lobby-entrance’’ house and there is a large rectangular stone chimney stack which is placed directly in front of the entrance, originally forming a lobby. The chimney stack, consisting of three brick chimneys of ''stellar'' form, is a fine example of type that occurs in the last two or three decades of the 16th century in this area. Peter Smith in ''Houses of the Welsh Countryside'' has mapped the occurrence of these chimney stacks (including Cilthriew), which are distributed mainly in North West Wales, along the border with England. The existence of an ''ornate doorhead'' cut into a wall plate at 1st floor level, may represent an early alteration to the house. Major alterations were made in the late 18th century or more probably in the 1840s, when Cilthriew was acquired by the Brynllywarch Estates. The house was transected by two stone wings (at right angles and aligned NE-SW) which override the earlier timber-framed structure. The timber-framed structure survives within the stone wings, but it was then chopped off to the off to the SW. When the house was altered it was re-roofed with very fine massive ''tun'' slates above the eaves and with graduated slates up to the ridge. This is a very rare survival of a technique common in the 18th century, but in this case it may later. At the N E in the angle between the timber framed house and the stone wing is a slightly sunken room, described as a ‘’cellar’’, but almost certainly a dairy, as it would have been ideal for cooling milk. Brick ranges have been added to the SW with a doorway and a dormer with two arched windows above. This has been done in a ‘‘Tudoresque ‘’ or

Jacobethan The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...

style and must be contemporary with the carved

bargeboards Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

on the gables and shaped brackets on either side of an upper chamber window on the timber framed section. These additions give Cilthriew a

Cottage orné Cottage orné () dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Romantic movement, when some sought to discover a more natural way of living as opposed to the formality of the preceding ...

appearance suggesting that it is the work of an estate architecture, working for the Naylors, most probably John Wilkes Poundley, who published "Poundley’s Cottage Architecture" in 1857.J D K Lloyd, John Wilkes Poundley: A Montgomeryshire Architect, ‘‘Montgomeryshire Collections’’ 65, 1977,47–56. Poundley had his offices at the adjacent Blackhall File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 07.JPG, Victorian brick extension with arched dormer windows and arched doorway File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 04.JPG, The older timber-framed house on the NW side File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 05.JPG, Stone wing with “tun” slates and stellar chimney File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 06.JPG, Brick extension with dormer to SW File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 10.jpg, Porch to “Lobby entrance File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 08.jpg, End brick gable of stone wing with Tudoresque window detailing File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 09.JPG, Victorian bargeboard detail File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 11.JPG, Interior timber framing File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 12.JPG, Beam with label stop File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 13.JPG, Beam with label stop File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 15.JPG, Raised floor level File:Cilthriew, Kerry, (Montgomeryshire) 03.JPG, Converted barn

References

{{Reflist, 2 Houses in Powys Grade II listed buildings in Powys Timber-framed houses in Wales Farms in Wales Buildings and structures in Powys Hall houses

History

Architectural description

See also

References