16270

 

II  

Designated  

25/07/1995  

04/11/1999  

No 1 Gorphwysfa  

 

Gwynedd  

Mawddwy  

Machynlleth  

Mallwyd  

286295  

312393  

 

The two Gorphwysfa cottages stand immediately E of and facing the churchyard, crosswise to the main street.  

Domestic  

 

Nos 1 and 2 Gorphwysfa were originally one property, probably built in the C17, and said to have formerly been an inn. They were subdivided in the C18 to 3 cottages, and are now remodelled as two.  

No 1 Gorphwysfa occupies the W end of the block. Built of stone, whitewashed, with boulder foundations; old slate roof with blue ridge tiles. Two storeys, 2 window bays, the entrance opening to the larger room on the right, and an internal door leading to the heated inner room at the W end of the block. Boarded front door, and two windows on the first floor and one on the ground floor to the left of the door, all replaced in the original openings with single sheet glass windows. Stack on W gable end with weather drip courses. Outshut to the rear with a small gabled stack, and a small gabled dormer window. The inn had a cellar.  

The outer room has a chamfered spine beam and exposed joists. The wall between Nos 1 and 2 is a post and wattle and daub partition, and has a blocked doorway. One panel of this partition has remains of a wallpainting; a simple floral vertical meander pattern in dark grey/green with red ochre flowers; the painting extending over the timbers. Before damage in early 1999, there were three similarly painted panels. Evidence of former timber partition parallel to front elevation. A large inglenook fireplace to gable end has a chamfered lintel and a smaller recess to the right, perhaps a curing cupboard. C19 stairs. Upper floor has a woven hazel partition, originally plastered with daub. Roof truss only partially visible, but has heavy principal rafters, and the tie beam has been cut. The wall-paintings were seriously damaged by fire in early 1999.  

Included as part of a C17 house or inn, with stone exterior walls and timber and wattle internal walls, and of particular interest as retaining fragments of an important decorative secular wall paintings of the period, and as such a rare survival in a small domestic building.