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Severnside was built in 1777 as a 'country seat' for apothecary Anthony Poole, son of the rector of Mallwyd. At the time this side of the river was open countryside with no development and he bought fields bounded by the river, what is now Frankwell Street (then the Tregynon Road), Canal Road (then Llanllwchaiarn Road) and Fridd Brook (not currently named on maps). The land was previously part of the Newtown Hall Estate, the Pryce family needed the money.
The house, originally called Poole Hall, was built of brick - a marker of wealth at the time - and was surrounded by a partly walled garden, an orchard and grassland.
Anthony Poole and his wife lived there until his death in 1791. It was then auctioned at the Bear's Head Inn (now Bear Lanes shopping precinct in Broad Street). The advertisement described it as 'suitable for a small genteel family' and having 'spacious cellaring'. The house was bought and renamed Severnside by the Rev George Baxter.
In 1804 it was sold to William Tilsey who advertised it to let. Tilsey was a Montgomeryshire man who had made his money from a wholesale drapery business in London and was instrumental in developing the woollen industry in Newtown. The house remained in the Tilsey family for several years and was occupied at various times by some of them but in 1831 William Tinsley was declared bankrupt. It is not clear who owned it next but it was let to various people.
Towards the end of the century it was bought by F J Nash who established an aerated water works in the grounds. Following the disastrous fire in 1912 which destroyed the Cambrian Mills a little further downriver, Nash moved his business there and Severnside became the home of local solicitor Sidney Jarvis.
In 1920 the property was bought by haulage contractor J Peter Jones who had moved to Newtown from Esgairhir near Machynlleth. He laid out a yard for his lorries and steam rollers behind the house and used part of it for a sawmill. Upon his death the business passed to his son John Jones.
In 1952 the house and yard was sold to the Lloyd family who continued to trade as J. P. Jones. In 1961 they sold both yard and house, but not the business, to Bernard Corfield of Abermule, who owned a haulage company.
When Corfield retired he sold Severnside to Geoff Varley of the Elephant and Castle and built a new house for himself on the site of the former Fire engine building, next to Fridd Brook; he rented the yard to Boys & Boden for their builders' merchant business.
The house was sold again in 2002 and the buyer obtained planning consent to redevelop the site. The plans were never implemented and the empty house caught fire in October 2009 and, despite the best efforts of the fire brigade, substantial damage was done and the roof was destroyed. The ruins of the house stood for the next five years.
On the morning of 1 November 2014 the residents of Penygloddfa heard a loud bang. A huge caterpillar-tracked JCB was making its way down Chapel Street on a bed of lorry tyres to protect the road surface and one of the tyres had burst. The JCB continued down the drive to Severnside and set about demolishing the house. Unfortunately it had not taken account of the 'spacious cellaring' and, soon after 10am, the floor collapsed into them leaving the JCB almost on its side see photo Link . Another similar machine had to be brought in to rescue it. The two JCBs had finished the demolition job by lunch time.

I am indebted to David Pugh of the Newtown local history group for much of this information (with corrections from Gordon Lloyd, former resident of Severnside) which is condensed from an article he wrote for The Newtownian, the journal produced by the group.

Created: Fri, 30 Nov 2018, Updated: Wed, 29 Jun 2022