3909

6-6a  

II*  

Designated  

31/03/1983  

03/05/2002  

Days Gone By Antiques  

6-6a Palace Street  

Gwynedd  

Caernarfon  

Caernarfon  

Walled town  

247850  

362780  

W  

In a row of frontages midway along the street.  

Commercial  

 

A late medieval building partly timber-framed but subsequently rebuilt in stone. Its present external appearance is C18 when its front was remodelled in conjunction with an added 2-bay house (6A).Later in the C18 it was acquired by the Assheton-Smith family as part of the Vaynol Estate. It was the Vaynol Arms by 1844. By 1957, when it was sold by the Vaynol Estate, it was a shop.  

The original building is 2-storey with its gable end facing the street. It is adjoined on the L side by a single-bay 3-storey house. Both are of scribed stucco walls and slate roofs concealed behind coped gable to No 6 and parapet to 6A, with a reduced stack to the rear gable end. No 6 has a shop front with panelled door and overlight to the R, 2-light window with central fluted mullion, and bracketed fascia. Above is a 3-light small-pane casement window in an earlier opening. No 6A has a panelled door to the R, to the L of which is a full-height canted bay window incorporating renewed small-pane sashes.  

In the R side wall of No 6 the second of its 4 bays has exposed box-framing of large panels and wattle and daub infill. No 6 retains a 4-bay crown-post roof with cambered tie beams and collars which respects the exposed framing but rests on corbels on the opposite wall, suggesting that the building was only partly timber-framed. In the lower storey most of the original joist-beam ceiling is retained, with simple run-out stops. The upper storey has a fireplace in its rear wall with timber lintel.  

Listed grade II* as one of the few surviving building in the walled town retaining substantial vernacular detail from before the substantial redevelopment of Caernarfon beginning in the late C18, and for its contribution to the historic integrity of the walled town.