Former Powysland Museum & Library

Former Powysland Museum & Library

The Powysland Club was founded in 1867 to collect and print historical, ecclesiastical, genealogical, topographical and literary records relating to Montgomeryshire for its members. The Club acquired this site in 1873, and the museum opened in 1874, designed by David Walker of Liverpool. It was extended in accordance with the original design in 1880. The museum was one of only a very small number of similar establishments in Wales at the time, and briefly aspired to become a general, central museum of Welsh antiquities. From its inception, the institution was intended to house not only a public library and museum, but also a school of science and art, in association with the science and art department of the Committee on Education at South Kensington. A School of Art opened in 1883 in premises to the rear of the museum. The public library and reading room on Red Bank were added when the museum was handed over to the Corporation of Welshpool in 1887. Powys County Council took over the buildings in 1974, and the collection was moved to other premises in 1990.

The main museum block is constructed of yellow brick with stone dressings and a slate hipped gambrel roof. A simpler hipped roof covers the right-hand wing, added in 1880. A single-storey corridor links the museum to No 1 Salop Road, which houses the entrance: a plank doorway with strap hinges set within a steep arch. The main block features three bays of blind arcading with a continuous hood mould; a stone shield of arms, lettered 'Powysland Museum and Library', occupies the central panel and was carved by Norbury of Liverpool. A deep moulded eaves band runs beneath. A slightly advanced lower wing to the right has a narrow arched doorway in the re-entrant angle and an arched three-light window with transoms in an advanced gable facing the street, also with a deep moulded eaves band.

The library and reading room of 1887, situated to the rear of No 1 Salop Road and fronting onto Red Bank, are constructed of red brick with a slate roof. It may incorporate the former School of Art. Two parallel gables face the street, with an entrance lobby to the right featuring an arched entrance with a plank door and overlight. The Corporation arms and the date 1887 are displayed in a steep pediment above the doorway. The right-hand gable contains four stepped lancet windows with heavy stone transoms, and is topped by a stepped eaves cornice. The parallel left-hand range has triple blind lancet panels and a stepped eaves cornice. A doorway to the right of the gable, set within a brick pointed arch, provides additional access.

The museum interior is a simple rectangular top-lit space spanned by two arched braced trusses. The lower wing employs scissor-braced roofing. From the main entrance, a corridor with steps connects the museum to the two library buildings at the rear of the site via a gallery positioned at the rear of the lower range.

When established, the museum was one of only four or five similar institutions in Wales and was considered possibly the most valuable in the principality. The buildings provide remarkable testimony to the importance of the Powysland Club and represent an excellent example of small-scale, highly specialised building design.