Leaman House Powys House

A terrace of three houses, now two dwellings, located in Ruyton-xi-Towns. The building incorporates substantial elements of a 17th-century structure, with later additions and alterations dating to the late 18th century. The facade is primarily red brick with timber framing and red brick infill at the rear. Rendered gable ends are present, with the left-hand gable likely concealing timber framing. The roof is slate-covered.

The original house comprised at least three framed bays, remodelled in the late 18th century. It is three stories high and features a dentilled eaves cornice. There are six windows, unevenly spaced, with 16-paned glazing bar sashes and painted stone wedge lintels. The second-floor windows are smaller than those on the lower floors. The ground floor has five windows; the third and fourth from the left flank a late 20th-century six-panel door with an open-pedimented hood, replacing an earlier shop front. A double six-panel door (with the top panels now glazed), set between the left-hand windows, has a 19th-century bracketed doorcase with a 20th-century pedimented hood. A recessed six-panel door, in the fifth bay from the left, features a semi-circular fanlight, panelled reveals, and an open-pedimented, fluted doorcase. A prominent red brick ridge stack sits between the two left-hand windows, and a rendered integral end stack is located to the right. An unnumbered Salop Fire Insurance Plate is positioned between the second and third windows from the left on the first floor. The exposed double-purlin ends to the left and visible timber frame to the rear, above and below the original wall-plate, are noteworthy. Lower, apparently 18th-century gabled brick ranges are set at right angles to the rear on the left side.

Inside Powys House, a timber frame (consisting of square panels with long, straight tension braces) is exposed on the wall separating it from Leaman House (to the right of the second window from the left) and on the shared wall with Powis Cottage. Boxed-in ceiling beams are found in the left-hand ground-floor room, and a possibly reused chamfered spine beam is in the right-hand room. A large central stack forming a baffle entry has stone inglenook fireplaces on both sides, with chamfered jambs and chamfered wooden lintels (the left-hand lintel being mutilated). An 18th-century wall cupboard is inset to the right of the fireplace in the right room. A staircase is located to the right. The interior features six-panel doors throughout, and wide boarded oak floor boards are on the first floor. Fragmentarily exposed timber framing is present throughout the first and second floors, as well as in the rear ranges. The front of the house has been moved forward, and a tie beam and principal rafter of the 17th-century structure are visible in a cupboard on the second floor. The eaves have been raised to the rear, but the back wall remains in its original position, creating different roof pitches at the front and rear. A late 18th-century king-post roof, visible in the roof space, incorporates several reused timbers, likely taken from the original front wall when it was rebuilt in brick. Leaman House was not inspected but is reported to contain several timber-framed cross walls (with square panels and straight braces) and a late 18th-century staircase in the hall.