CPAT Regional Sites & Monuments Record

PRN 30641 - Welshpool, Church Bank `Grace Evans's Cottage'
Listed Building 7775 (II )

Late grid timber frame, perhaps c1700. 1 1/2 storeys. Brick and rendered infill. 2 old metal windows with small panes and 2 similar dormers. Brick gable stacks. Central modern door in trellised wooden porch with cornice. Said to have been thatched. Of interest partly for conspicuous site next to church and partly as home of Grace Evans, Maid of Lady Nithsdale, who assisted in rescue of Lord Nithsdale from the Tower in 1715.

(Former listing description)

The following is from Cadw's Listed Buildings database

On the W corner with Red Bank, alongside the E entrance to the churchyard.

The house is named after a maid of Lady Nithsdale (a daughter of the First Marquis of Powis), who is said to have helped to rescue Lord Nithsdale from imprisonment in the tower of London in 1716. The cottage is variously described as her birthplace, or as a gift to her on her return to Welshpool in 1735. The building itself appears to be a late example of timber-framed construction - perhaps early C18 - with C19 enlargements and alterations to the rear. It was extensively restored in the late C19 (some time after 1873), when a thatched roof was replaced and the timberwork exposed and painted.

Front wall is timber framed: box framing in large square panels with thin timbers (which had been exposed and enriched with painted quatrefoil decoration in the late C19 restoration); painted brick panel infil. Painted rubble gable end walls. Brick to rear. Slate roof with brick gable-end stacks. One and a half storeys, 2-unit plan, with doorway to left of centre in trellis-work porch, flanked by iron small-paned casement windows projecting slightly. Similar windows in gabled dormers above.

An unusual survival of a small vernacular cottage in an urban context which forms an important element in a group of structures around the church; the building is also of historical interest for its association with Grace Evans.

Anon, 'Herbertiana', Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol.5, 1872, pp.368-378; Anon, 'Welshpool: Materials for the History of the Parish and Borough', Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol.14, 1881, p.218; Eva Bredsdorff, Welshpool in Old Photographs, 1993, pp.31, 40; Ion Trant, The Changing Face of Welshpool, 1986, p.122;

Sources:-
Brown, R L , 1996 , Eisteddfod, Church and Community , Sayce Papers 2 .
CPAT archive , 1994 , ,
Cadw , 1981 , Powys: List No. 16 (Welshpool) , 18
Cadw , 1987 , ,
Cadw Listing database , 2000 , ,
Jones, N W, Silvester, R J & Britnell, W J , 2003 , Montgomery Canal Conservation Management Strategy. Landscape Archaeology Assessment , CPAT Report 550 .
NMR , , ,
Silvester, R J , 1994 , Radnorshire Historic Settlements , CPAT report 92 March 1994 .
Additional sources:-
Anon, 'Herbertiana', Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol.5, 1872, pp.368-378;
Anon, 'Welshpool: Materials for the History of the Parish and Borough', Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol.14, 1881, p.218;
Eva Bredsdorff, Welshpool in Old Photographs, 1993, pp.31, 40;
Ion Trant, The Changing Face of Welshpool, 1986, p.122;

Events:-
Visit CPAT / 1994(20/01/94) -
Assessment CPAT / 2003(31/08/03) -
Desktop study CPAT / 2003(31/08/03) -
HLC CPAT / 2003(31/08/03) -

record created 31/12/89 CM89 - copyright CPAT , last updated 10/05/04
The above data are supplied by CPAT in partnership with its Local Authorities and the partners of END, © CPAT SMR partnership, 2004 (and in part © Crown, 2004 - as indicated)

CM - 10/05/04 ( 12:01:49 ) - HTML file produced from CPAT's Regional SMR
Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, Curatorial Section, 7a Church Street, Welshpool, Powys SY21 7DL.
tel (01938) 553670 , fax (01938) 552179, email trust@cpat.org.uk , website www.cpat.org.uk