21745

 

II  

Designated  

19/05/1999  

19/05/1999  

Capel Dewi Uchaf Farmhouse  

 

Carmarthenshire  

Llanarthney  

Carmarthen  

Capel Dewi  

248455  

220278  

N  

1km east of the village of Capel Dewi to the north of the B4300, reached by a private lane with monolithic gate-piers. There is an extensive set of C18/C19 buildings for mixed farming in an informal group west of the house.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

A large C17 farmhouse on the Capel Dewi estate, with detailing suggestive of gentry rather than tenant-farmer status. The earliest recorded landowner of the estate as a whole was Owen Rees, notary public, who died in 1698. In the late C18 Capel Dewi Uchaf was acquired by John Jones separately; his survey in 1795 refers to it as demesne. The farmstead was then described as houses and gardens. It was recorded in the Tithe Survey in 1847 as Berllan homestead, owned by John Lavelin Puxley and tenanted by David Evans. At the left of the house is a modern domestic extension, on the site of an earlier unit demolished apart from its chimney and traces of a connecting staircase.  

Farmhouse of two storeys with an attic entirely in the roof space. Stonework rendered and whitened at front and on the left end-elevation, but with exposed rubble masonry at the rear and on the right elevation. Steep-pitch slate roof with tile ridge. Rendered end chimneys with dripstones and one mid-chimney. The left end-chimney is very large, including the flues of two sizeable hearths. The second and third units from the left are symmetrically designed about the entrance and stairs. Three-window front elevation with 12-pane sash windows above and below, all restored. An additional small window above the porch. Large slate-roofed porch recently added at front, with timber framing on plinth walls. The right end elevation is plain with a small chimney projection and a restored attic window. The left end elevation has a small attic window and a small window to the upper storey. The rear elevation is much restored, with the first and last upper windows and the stairs window probably in original openings. These and three others are 12-pane sash windows, all restored. Five skylights. Large low modern extension in tandem at left, rendered and whitened, with slate roof and three large dormer windows at front.  

The plan of Capel Dewi Uchaf is post-mediaeval, with its main entrance between the centre and right units leading to dogleg stairs between these units; these features are clearly original as they are related to a wide bay in the roof structure. At the main entrance the original kitchen is to the left and the parlour to the right. A third unit, to the left, may be a little later in date as its roof carpentry is dissimilar. In the main part the roof trusses are of A type, with the collar-beams lap-dovetailed to the principals with well-formed joints. In the left unit the collars have mortice and tenon joints. The purlins are replaced. Of a further early unit to the left (now the site of a modern extension) little remains apart from a large open fireplace; but there remains a trace of an early staircase from beside the fireplace rising to the upper storey of the original house. The fireplace of this lost early unit is back-to-back with that of the kitchen in the main body of the house. Good C17 staircase, much restored, with broad newels and heavily moulded handrails and strings. Broad turned balusters; original carved newel pendant survives in cellar, and original newel finial on attic landing. Renewed handrails and balusters to upper flights. At left, in a corridor formed from the original kitchen, and in the hallway, are panels of ceiling plasterwork with simple triple perimeter moulding. There is similar plasterwork on the soffit of the staircase. The door to the cellar stairs is of three panels. It has been severely reduced in height, perhaps in the C17, for secondary re-use here. It has a lozenge design to the upper panel and mitred moulding-joints. A cross in carved on the centre-field of the lozenge panel. The parlour doorway, to the right unit, retains a heavily moulded architrave, with a decorative frieze and cornice including three paired brackets. The door to the bedroom above the parlour has a heavily moulded architrave and a dentilled cornice. The attic door in the same position has full-width panels and a doubled lock-rail. In the parlour the fireplace is of the C18, the surround having been recently found elsewhere and re-installed. There is a large hearth in the original kitchen with bread-oven. Wide fireplace also in the left unit, its bressummer centre section notched back. The three first-floor fireplaces all have adzed oak bressummers. That in the left unit has a chamfer and lamb's-tongue stop. There are two cellars with pitched small-stone flooring including surface drains leading to exterior soakaways.  

Listed as a fine C17 farmhouse with features of gentry status, including good staircase and interior plasterwork.