20892

 

II  

Designated  

19/11/1998  

19/11/1998  

Penygilfach  

 

Powys  

The Vale of Grwyney  

 

Penygilfach  

324633  

218993  

 

Approximately 1km NE of Llangenny church and reached by a farm road.  

Domestic  

 

Early C17 house consisting of a hall and 2 inner rooms, and probably an outside cross passage with byre, which probably had sleeping rooms above and in the attic. The byre was converted as part of the dwelling probably C18 when a fireplace was inserted into the side wall. The farm belonged to the Pendarren Estate by the 1870s and was improved with a new front and porch facing away from the farm yard, work completed by 1887. At the same time new casement windows were inserted into earlier openings and a bay window was added facing the yard. The house is said to have been occupied by the manager of the farms on the Pendarren Estate.  

Consisting of an uphill end of one-and-a-half storeys and downhill end of two-and-a-half storeys. Random rubble walls painted white and with a pronounced batter, concrete pantile roof. A central stone ridge stack is a C19 rebuild. At the uphill end facing the yard the house has C19 openings offset to L under stone lintels: 2-light casements flanking a boarded door. To the R is a small stair light. The downhill end has a wide boarded door to L (to the cross passage) and a C19 bay window to R on a stone plinth, all beneath a C17 pentice with corrugated iron roof. In the upper storey are 2 small 2-light casements beneath the wall plate, and a small stair light to R. A C19 roof dormer to L has a 2-light casement. The L gable end of the house has an attic window with original wood frame for diamond mullions (now with inserted glazing). The R gable end has outbuildings attached, is cement rendered and has an inserted attic window. The rear of the house became a new front late C19. In the centre is a C19 gabled porch with attached lean-to of snecked stone, with a Tudor-headed doorway and boarded door, and a 2-light casement to the R. L of porch the downhill end has a C18 external stack rebuilt C19 above the eaves. Flanking the stack are casements in earlier openings to the first floor, and a casement under a C19 lintel lower L. At the uphill end is a C19 half-dormer to the centre with renewed casement under a stone lintel, a C19 2-light casement below, with a similar casement to R lighting the original parlour, and under a drip stone.  

At the upper end of the house are cross beams with stepped stops in the hall. The hall fireplace is boarded up, to R of which is a stone stair. Other interior features at the uphill end of the house are those introduced by Pendarren Estate. The downhill end, including the crosspassage, was not inspected, but said to retain a Tudor-headed doorway to the hall from the cross passage.  

A good example of a sub-medieval regional house retaining early plan form and detail, including a pentice, a feature once common in the district.