Thomas Penson


Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was the son of Thomas Penson the older,, who had been the county surveyor for Flintshire from 1810 to 1814, but had been dismissed when the bridge at Overton-on-Dee collapsed. Thomas Penson the younger, completed its replacement. Thomas Penson the younger had two sons: Thomas Mainwaring Penson and Richard Kyrke Penson, both of whom were architects and both practised in Chester

Training and career

Thomas Penson the younger, was a pupil of the architect and bridge designer Thomas Harrison of Chester. He became a fellow of the RIBA in 1848 and an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1839. He was appointed Montgomeryshire County Surveyor in 1817, a post in which he continued until 1859.
He was also the surveyor for the Montgomeryshire Turnpike Trusts and was responsible for the design of many new roads in the county. He became county surveyor for Denbighshire around 1820. He had married Frances Kirk, daughter of the Wrexham iron master Richard Kirk in 1814, and initially lived at Overton-on-Dee, but by 1823 he had moved to Oswestry, where he set up his office, known as "Penson's Chambers" at 35 Willow Street; while he lived at 19 Willow Street. In 1839 his wife inherited from her father Gwersyllt Hall or Hill near Wrexham, which Penson re-modeled in Neo-Jacobean style, which they then used as their main residence. Among Penson's pupils was J W Poundley, who was to become the Montgomeryshire County Surveyor 1861: and the Welsh poet John Jones. Penson was Mayor of Oswestry in 1840 and was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Denbighshire in 1852. Thomas Penson died at Gwersyllt on 20 May 1859.

Bridges

Penson's work as a bridge builder in Montgomeryshire has been surveyed in detail by C R Anthony Anthony lists 62 bridges built to Penson's designs in Montgomeryshire.
He relied on contractors to build his bridges, such as David Davies, who built the approach roads to Llandinam Bridge in 1846.
In February 1852, the Severn flooded, damaging a number of bridges for which Penson went on to design replacements.
Penson designed a two-span cast iron arch bridge at Caerhowel in 1858 to replace a timber structure destroyed by floods. Against his advice, a suspension bridge designed by James Dredge had been built in 1854, only to collapse four years later under the weight of three lime wagons, killing one man.
Other bridges credited to Thomas Penson include:
Although a pupil of Thomas Harrison, noted for his use of the Classical and particularly "Grecian" architectural style, this is rarely adopted by Penson. An exception is the once impressive Flannel Market of 1832 at Newtown. For Country Houses he favoured a Neo-Jacobean style; as at Vaynor, Llanrhaidr Hall and Hill House, Gwersysllt,. He also used this style for the Butcher's Market at Wrexham. For churches he adopted an assertive and non-archaeological version of French Romanesque, although St Davids, Newtown, built in brick and terracotta, is also influenced by the North German Brick Gothic. More particularly he seems to be copying Saint Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges, with buff bricks and has pyramid capping on the pinnacles. Saint Salvator's tower had been remodelled by Robert Dennis Chantrell following a fire in 1838, and this may provide a connection with Penson The design is probably also influenced by Pugin's Roman Catholic St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, which is a slightly earlier example of Brick Gothic revival. It is Penson's innovative use of terracotta at Christ Church, Welshpool that is of particular interest. Christ Church was commissioned by the Earl of Powis and is possibly the earliest example of the terracotta revival in Britain. In this church moulded brownish yellow bricks and terracotta were used for the Romanesque arches of the nave and for the apsidal vaulting of the chancel ceiling
Penson was an early and leading exponent of Romanesque Revival architecture and he developed a distinctive style based on the French Romanesque and the earlier Romanesque of the German and Flemish Brick Gothic. Penson built at least six churches in this style. Romanesque Revival architecture had been introduced in Wales by Thomas Hopper’s ‘‘Neo-Norman’’ or ‘’Norman revival’’ designs for Penrhyn Castle, which were executed between 1822-37., The style of Romanesque adopted by Penson contrasts with the Italianate Romanesque of other architects such as Thomas Henry Wyatt, who designed Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas Church, Wilton in this style at Wilton which was built between 1841 and 1844 for the Dowager Countess of Pembroke and her son, Lord Herbert of Lea.
The source for Penson’s terracotta appears to have been the brickworks associated with the Oswestry coalfield between Trefonen and Morda which were to come into the ownership of the railway engineer Thomas Savin. Terracotta was being promoted as cheaper alternative to costly carved stonework for decorative work on churches. The terracotta was produced by casting, which was then fired. Similar designs on the columns and arches can be seen on the porch of the Llangedwyn church and Llanymynech, and these are presumably designs prepared by Penson.

Penson's Churches and Terracotta Detailing

Churches

Schools

Houses

In the late 1830s, at the same time as Penson was working on remodelling Vaynor Park in Berriew for John Winder Lion-Winder, he was also remodelling and building houses in Berriew for the Vaynor estate. As a result of his work Berriew developed as a village with many attractive Cottage Ornée houses. Some of these were rebuilt from earlier timber framed buildings, while others were built in a Tudor Revival style and are some of the earliest examples of Black-and-white Revival architecture. Penson’s work can be recognised by the massive brick chimney stacks which have been added to the houses, the ornamental bargeboards to the gables and in some cases the black and white painting on the brick work to give the impression of timber framing.
Penson appears to be an important innovator in developing rural Tudor picturesque architecture and his son Thomas Mainwaring Penson further developed Black-and-white Revival architecture from 1852 onwards in Chester. A pupil of his John Wilkes Poundley, also built estate housing in the Cottage Ornée style for Naylor Estates at Leighton Hall and Kerry in Montgomeryshire.

Cottage Ornée">Cottage orné">Cottage Ornée village at Berriew

Literature