24657

 

II  

Designated  

31/01/2001  

31/01/2001  

Ty Uchaf  

 

Gwynedd  

Llandderfel  

Bala  

Llanfor  

288308  

340320  

S  

Located on a sloping site immediately below the road at the eastern end of Llyn Celyn on the SW boundary of the community.  

Domestic  

 

Ambitious storeyed house with gentry pretensions, dated 1682. The original plan is more or less unaltered, with a lobby entry via a fine storeyed porch, with parlour to the R and hall to the L, the latter with service wing leading off. The original stair access survives, incorporated within the porch projection. Two sundials are built in at first floor height, both primary; one is dated 1682 and has a Welsh biblical inscription below. The house was cosmetically altered in the late C19 when it lost its gable parapets etc.. The house was formerly called Ty Uchaf Ciltalgarth and in the C17 had Quaker associations. Its predecessor may have been the house from which the ancestors of American President Abraham Lincoln left for Pennsylvania with other Quakers of the area in 1682, the year the present house was constructed.  

Substantial regional storeyed farmhouse comprising a 3-unit lobby-entry main range with rear wing and a storeyed, gabled porch to the front; gabled lateral chimney to the rear, with further, central stack. Of whitened rubble construction on boulder foundations with some cyclopean quoins; slate roof. The main elevation has an off-centre R full-height porch with flat-arched entrance and 4-pane late C19 window above. Above this is an inset sandstone sundial with incised Welsh biblical inscription, the name Kiltail Garth, and the date 1682. Extruded in the angle L of the porch is an incorporated, contemporary stair projection with catslide roof from the porch roof; small window to the front. To the L of the porch is a 2-pane window with a 4-pane cross-window under the eaves diagonally above, both also late C19. The R gable has single windows on three floors, that to the attic floor blocked; C20 small-pane windows. At first-floor height is a sandstone sundial, as before. The rear elevation is unwhitened and has plain bargeboards to the projecting wing at R, and the lateral chimney gable, at L. Plain windows as before, one (first floor) to the wing, and one to each floor of the main block. Entrance with boarded door to the L return of the advanced wing.  

Lobby-entry plan with hall (L) and parlour (R), both with angled entrances having pegged frames. Plastered main beam and flat ceiling to the parlour, the beam with ogee stopped chamfer similar beam to hall, the ceiling renewed. Bracketed mantel shelf to large parlour fireplace; chamfered bressummer to hall fireplace. The service bay, off the hall, has plain, unchamfered joists. Simple dogleg stair to the first floor, with stopped-chamfered doorcase to the stair head. There is a sealed closet to the first floor.  

Listed for its special interest as a substantial, dated late C17 farmhouse retaining good original character and unusual, locally-occurring plan-form, with lobby-entry and storeyed porch containing stair. Group value with the Agricultural Range at Ty Uchaf.