Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
15472
Building Number
1
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
31/01/1995
Date of Amendment
31/01/1995
Name of Property
Pen-y-Gribin & Bwth-yn--Bryn) with rear attached outbuildg & Stone Steps adjoining to
SW
Address
1 Rock Terrace
Location
Unitary Authority
Gwynedd
Community
Barmouth
Town
Locality
Easting
261568
Northing
315664
Street Side
Location
Located towards the top of the old town on a raised terrace and behind small dwarf-walls; partly built against the rock of the hill.
Description
Broad Class
Domestic
Period
History
The terrace forms two of the formerly 13 St. George's GuildCottages which formerly served a community founded by John Ruskin.From 1871 Ruskin published his socialist theories in a series of letters- the Fors Clavigera- which were addressed to `the working men of England.' In that year he founded the Guild of St. George, `a society established to carry out certain charitable acts,' and the community at Barmouth was his first social experiment. It was made possible by the donation in 1874 of the land and cottages by MrsTalbot of Tyn-y-Fynnon, a friend of Ruskin's and a sympathiser with his beliefs. No 2, the right-hand unit was inhabited, during the period of the guild by M Auguste Guyard (d. 1882). A reformer and philanthropist, Guyard numbered Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo and the Emperor Napoleon III amongst his friends. He came over to England as an exile following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 and befriended Ruskin whose views he shared. Known locally as `the Frenchman,' Guyard was a much respected and beloved inhabitant of Barmouth; he is buried upon the top of the hill.
Exterior
An early C19 terrace of two 3-window houses, now much altered. 2 storey plus attic; of rubble with modern slate roof. 3 squat chimneys with weather coursing and 4 modern wooden gabled dormers. The houses are expressed symmetrically as reflected units. Central part-glazed modern doors; modern 2-part windows, horizontally divided. To the rear, a shared outbuilding, attached in the form of a small wing; construction as before with recessed boarded doors to both sides and single, boarded-up windows. Stone steps climb hillside immediately to SW.
Interior
Modernised interiors, though No.2 has a plain, full-height early C19 well stair with swept mahogany rail.
Reason for designation
Included despite modernisation as having belonged to Ruskin's guildand as the residence of Auguste Guyard.
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