page_title: Architecture of Wales
section_title: Terracotta revival architecture in Wales
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Wales / Gothic Revivalism and Historicism of the 18th and 19th Centuries. / Terracotta revival architecture in Wales
caption_attribution_description: English: Garthmyl Hall is a Grade II listed house in Berriew, in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys. Pediment with armorial.
context_page_description: Architecture of Wales is an overview of architecture in Wales from the Medieval period to the present day, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
context_section_description: For a short period at the start of the 16th century, Italian craftsmen introduced the art of highly fired Terracotta moulded brickwork and ornamental plaques into Tudor England. The use of terracotta was largely limited to Great Houses in Eastern England. Then in the 1830s and 1840s a number of architects started sourcing terracotta from the brickyards that were associated with coal mines in the West Midlands.
   One of the earliest architects to make use of this source was the Welsh architect Thomas Penson, who worked from offices in Oswestry. There appears to be good evidence that he sourced his terracotta from the brickyards which were associated with the Oswestry coalfield at Morda and Trefonen on the Welsh border. Penson used terracotta moulding for church architecture, most notably St Davids, Newtown and Christ Church, Welshpool. As yet no examples the use of the terracotta from these brickyards for domestic buildings is known, although the Trefonen brickyard, which was described as a terracotta works,   was later owned by the railway engineer Thomas Savin and may have been used for some of his projects. James Kellaway Colling used extensive terracotta decoration for Garthmyl Hall, Berriew in Berriew in Montgomeryshire. This was almost certainly sourced from J M Blashfield's terracotta works at Stamford. 
  From about this time terracotta production with matching bricks started to be produced on a large scale in the Wrexham area in association with mines of the north Wales Coalfield. This was centred on Ruabon and many companies sprang up. The last of these to go out of business was J. C Dennis in 2010. However the most important and best known of these companies was J C Edwards, who about 1867 opened up the Pen-y-bont brickyard. This brickyard produced a distinctive rich red brick and terracotta ornamentation that can be readily recognised. This was recognised and used by some of the leading architects of the period, most notably Alfred Waterhouse who used it for the Prudential Insurance Offices in both London and Birmingham. Examples of Ruabon terracotta can be seen on buildings, particularly banks and public institutions throughout England, but as might be expected, terracotta was particularly popular in Wales.  Most towns having several examples often including banks,  shops and sometimes houses.
  One of the most iconic Terracotta buildings in Wales is the Pierhead building at Cardiff Docks, adjacent to the Welsh Assembly building. The Grade One listed building was built in 1897 and designed by the English architect William Frame.  It was a replacement for the headquarters of the Bute Dock Company which burnt down in 1892.  Frame's mentor was William Burges, with whom Frame worked on the rebuilding of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch until Burges's death in 1881.
  A coat of arms on the building's façade bears the company's motto "wrth ddŵr a thân" (by fire and water) encapsulating the elements creating the steam power which transformed Wales.
  A further impressive building using and orangey terracotta with red bricks, probably from J. C Edwards at Ruabon are the former offices of John Summers and Co at Shotton on Deeside in Flintshire These were to become the offices of the Strip Division of the British Steel Corporation. In 1986 Edward Hubbard described them as unconventional and pompous, but taste to-day might be more appreciative and they can be seen as late and almost playful take on castellated Gothic revival architecture with some Art Nouveau detailing. A building dominating the market place in Newtown in Montgomeryshire is Barclays Bank of 1898 by Wood and Kendrick of Birmingham for Sarah Brisco of Newtown Hall. Built as an office block with the corner clock tower commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
  In small country towns such as Rhayader in Radnorshire the local architect, Richard Wellings Thomas built both the Kington and Radnor Bank of 1904 and the town's Post Office of 1903 using Ruabon Terracotta. The Bank has heavy classical mouldings while the Post Office for the upper storeys uses the local s
caption: Garthmyl Hall with the Gold/Naylor Coat of Arms in terracotta set in the pediment
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