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The house that Powel left was thought to be an old tollhouse and was given a Grade III listing as such. The main reason for this view was probably its location near the old Abingdon turnpike at what we term Redbridge today.
Rob Kinchin-Smith of the Archæological Unit described how, when the building had to be demolished in the late 1990's because it was in such disrepair, it was discovered that it was something quite different from what had been imagined.
Whether the structure was that described by the Great Western Railway engineers when explaining the reason for the poor quality of the nearby bridge is uncertain but its position was close and the earliest part certainly matched the description of a small building quickly constructed, with aim of getting money from the railway company for "loss of value of the property" because of the nearby line.
What was significant was that, although the building had been enlarged in some eight stages, most of the early phases had used paper and cardboard as building materials, not only for the roof, but also for the walls. Because of an interest generally at the time for providing cheap housing for the poor and for use in tropical climes there was already an interest in such building materials. Naturally Powel, with his radical ideas and interest in helping the poor saw a chance to experiment. This experimentation was carried on in some house he had built near the mill he owned in Weirs Lane that also had some paper in their construction of the roofs.
The fact that the house was occupied until 1989 and those in Weirs Lane were only pulled down in the 1930's bears testimony to the quality of the work and the radical thinking and will to experiment of a man who was, at best an energetic innovator, at worst a bit of a rogue.
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