Richard Kyrke Penson Explained

Nationality:Welsh
Birth Date:19 June 1815
Birth Place:Overton-on-Dee, Flintshire, Wales
Death Place:Plas Dinam, Ludlow, Shropshire, England
Alma Mater:Oswestry School, Shropshire, England
Practice:Penson & Son; R. K. Penson and A. Ritchie
Significant Buildings:Provincial Welsh Insurance Company Office, Wrexham
Significant Projects:Cilyrychen lime kilns, Llandybie
Father:Thomas Penson II

Richard Kyrke Penson or R. K. Penson (19 June 1815 – 22 May 1885) was a Welsh architect and artist.

Richard Kyrke Penson was a leading Gothic Revival architect. His work, covered the counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Cardigan, Denbighshire, Montgomeryshire in Wales and Shropshire and Cheshire in England. His work consisted mainly of Anglican churches, church schools and church restorations, of which over 35 were in south-west Wales[1] However he was not restricted to church architecture and he was responsible for the remarkable group of kilns for lime burning at Llandybie and also commercial buildings such as the Provincial Welsh Insurance Company Office in the High Street in Wrexham.[2] He was also a notable exponent of Italianate style of villa and Palazzo architecture in Wales.

Life and career

He was born at Overton-on-Dee, Flintshire, Wales, in 1815, the eldest son of Thomas Penson II, an architect and surveyor of Gwersyllt Hall near Wrexham, who had offices in Willow Street, Oswestry, and his wife Frances (nee Kirk).[3] He was the brother of Thomas Mainwaring Penson, an architect noted for his railway stations and Tudor Revival architecture. R. K. Penson was educated at Oswestry School and then trained as an artist in London. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836 and 1839, but by 1841 had returned to Oswestry. He joined his father's architectural firm and entered into partnership with his father in 1844. However, he left the partnership shortly afterwards to set up his own practice. He was working from Oswestry in 1854.[4] He expanded his practice in the 1850s setting up at Ferryside in Carmarthenshire and forming a partnership with A. Ritchie at Swansea. He built house for himself close to his limeworks at Llandybie in Carmarthenshire. Around 1860 he set up an office at 27 Newgate Street Chester. He became an associate of the RIBA in 1849 and a fellow in 1861.[4]

Penson was appointed county surveyor for Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire in 1850. He followed his father as county surveyor of Montgomeryshire from 1859 to 1861 and of Denbighshire in 1861. He was to retire from his practice in 1864, although he completed unfinished projects started by his brother, T. M. Penson, who had pre-deceased him.[1] He also became the diocesan architect for St Davids around 1850. In 1871 he was living at Cilyrychen, Llandybie, Carmarthenshire, in Wales.[3] Penson continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy between 1856 and 1859. He was a leading early member of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1853.[1] Sometime after his retirement, possibly after 1871, he had moved to Plas Dinam House in Ludlow, Shropshire, where he died, aged 69, on 22 May 1885.[3]

Penson's Italianate style architecture

Prompted by Queen Victoria's Osborne House which was completed in 1851, the Italianate style of architecture became popular in the second half of the 19th century. Features of this style include belvedere towers and roofs with a shallow slope and wide eaves. Examples of Penson's use of the Italianate style include Llandovery Town Hall and the gate lodge to Nanteos. The style was popular for country houses in Carmarthenshire and include the now-demolished Pant Glas at Llanfynydd and Gellideg at Llandyfaelog.[5] A further example of Penson's Italianate style is the Alliance Assurance Company, in the High Street, Wrexham. Designed by Richard Kyrke Penson, in the baroque palazzo style and built in 1860–61.[2]

Works include

Houses

Public buildings

Churches

Carmarthenshire

Glamorgan

Montgomeryshire

Works as county surveyor

Lime kilns

Literature

See also

Notes and References

  1. "Jenkins", pg.17
  2. http://buildingsofwrexham.co.uk/high-street-south-side/ Buildings of Wrexham
  3. https://biography.wales/article/s/PENS-KYR-1815
  4. "Brodie", Vol. 2, pg 351
  5. "Lloyd" (1989), 269
  6. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/wa-11098-plas-dinefwr-including-sw-screen-wall-dyn British Listed Buildings
  7. "Lloyd" (2006), 191
  8. "Thomas", (1908), 504.
  9. "Scourfield", (2013), 240.
  10. Thomas, (1997) pp. 99–119

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