| Penoyre House | |
|---|---|
Penoyre House - under renovation in 2006
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| General information | |
| Type | Country house |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| Town or city | Battle, Powys |
| Country | Wales |
| Coordinates | 51°58′08″N 3°25′51″W / 51.9689°N 3.4309°W / 51.9689; -3.4309 |
| Construction started | 1846 |
| Completed | 1848 |
| Client | John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Anthony Salvin |
| Designations | Grade II* listed |
Penoyre House, Battle, Powys, Wales is a nineteenth century country house. Designed by Anthony Salvin for Colonel John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins, it was built between 1846-8. In an Italianate style, it is described by Mark Girouard as "Salvin's most ambitious classical house".[1] The enormous cost of the house almost bankrupted the family and it was sold only 3 years after Colonel Watkins's death. From 1947, the house was in institutional use, and was converted to apartments in the early twenty-first century. The building is Grade II* listed[2] The gardens are listed Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.[3]
John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins (1802–65) was a nineteenth century Welsh Liberal politician who sat Member of Parliament for Brecon.[4] and was High Sheriff of Brecknockshire and Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire.[5] Watkins inherited a late eighteenth century house from his father, the Reverend Thomas Watkins,[6] and engaged Salvin to undertake a complete rebuilding from 1846-8.[6] The cost of the house alone was over £33,000[6] and Allibone records that Watkins was obliged to "close (it) and live cheaply in a local hotel."[7] Only three years after his death in 1865, the house was sold. Privately owned from 1868 to 1947,[8] the house was then used as a school, the clubhouse to a golf club, a nursing home, an hotel and a rehabilitation centre.[9] In the early twenty-first century, the house was converted to apartments.[10]
The house is designed in an Italianate style, echoing Sir Charles Barry's Trentham Park[6] and Thomas Cubitt's Osbourne House.[11] Girouard calls it "Salvin's most ambitious classical house".[1] It has a three-storey main block,[1] a "colossal" entrance tower[6] with a belvedere top,[1] and a balancing conservatory wing which had a glass-domed roof, although this was replaced in 1899.[6]
