THE HERITAGE IMAGE REGISTER»Pensychnant Conservation Centre & Nature Reserve

The Pensychnant Conservation Centre and Nature Reserve is situated on the outskirts of Conwy in North Wales. (Click here to see Pensychnant's website and how to visit) http://www.pensychnant.co.uk/
There was a house on the site from about 1690 much of which remains to the right of the main house. Curiously, it was started in 1877 and was built in the Arts and Crafts style in Victorian times. Yet, although, avant garde for the time it never acquired the Victorian flourishes of the Arts and Crafts movement. The nearby farm and associated building are in same style. The house had central heating from new, and in 1923 it received its own electricity supply from a diesel generator housed in ‘the Stott Folly’ at the bottom of the farmyard. (See photo)
It was built as a country home for affluent mill architect Abraham Henthorn Stott.
The Stott family from the Oldham area of Lancashire became rich on the back of the industrial revolution with numerous businesses and patented designs for fireproof brick-arch ceilings and floors in cotton spinning mills. Cotton mills were particularly prone to fire because of cotton dust and oiley wooden floors. Stott & Sons also built about a fifth of the cotton mills in Oldham at the peak of the industry there, as well elsewhere.
The woodland on the estate was mostly planted in the 1870s and today, along with surrounding land offers a unique opportunity to view wildlife in a spectacular landscape close to the famous Sychant Pass.