Guilsfield farms sale goes ahead

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A decision to sell former tenant farms that could make Powys County Council £650,000 has been confirmed again this week.

The decision to sell Garth and Heylin near Guilsfield was first taken in June and five months later the decision notice by Council Leader, Cllr Rosemarie Harris, to sell Garth & Heylin has been republished.

A spokesman for Powys County Council said that some changes had been made to the original decision.

He said: “The decision notice relates to a minor variation to the previous decision. The sale hasn’t fallen through and it’s still the same buyers.”

The new notice for the farms just off the A490 roads which runs past Guilsfield from Welshpool to Llanfyllin was published on Tuesday, November 10, and comes into effect tomorrow.

Under council rules there is a five working day period to allow a delegated decision to be called in for scrutiny.

The notice explains that the sale of Garth & Heylin is to two separate buyers and they need to be completed at the same time. Further details are being kept confidential.

The buildings were built around 1850 and were to be a model farm specialising in traditional farming methods for the Mytton family of Garth.

On the PCC website, the farms were described as a “substantial range of Grade II listed buildings, two houses, woodland and paddocks”.

They had been split into three lots, with PCC recommending a sale price of £345,000 for Garth farmhouse along with its associated farm buildings, woodland and paddocks of around 10 acres.

Heylin Farmhouse  and just under two acres of paddocks extending had a guide price of £249,000.

The a walled garden, woodland and paddocks extending to over six acres or had been priced at. £45,000.

The buildings were listed in 1995 because they are of architectural and historic interest due to its association to  J.C Loudon, an important figure in the design of farm buildings in the early Nineteenth century.

He had designed a house, stables and kennels for the family. The house and stables were demolished in the 1940s with the kennels surviving.