27018

 

II  

Designated  

22/10/2002  

22/10/2002  

Gales-fawr Farmhouse and Attached Sheds  

 

Denbighshire  

Llandyrnog  

 

Llangwyfan  

313263  

365156  

 

Reached by a side lane to the south off the minor Groes-fawr to Glyn Arthur road, about 2 km east of Llandyrnog village. The farmstead is stretched out along the contour overlooking a valley to the south.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Probably C16, a sub-mediaeval farmhouse with hall, axial chimney and solar crosswing. Later lower-roofed west extension and set of livestock (calf?) sheds in tandem at the other end of the hall range. A date of 1653, not necessarily reliable, appears on the gable wall of the extension, a part of the building traditionally regarded as having been a chapel. The solar range has also been extended northwards. Another tradition has it that this solar range served at one time as a barn.  

Now a T shaped house with a brick 2-bay main range of 1½ storeys ranging east/west, abutting a 3-bay 2-storey stone range. The westwards lower bakehouse extension of the former and the northwards extension of the latter are also in stone, all with slate roofs and tile ridges. Verges tile-hung. The house has a stone axial main chimney, the shaft continued in brickwork, at the junction, and small stone end-chimneys at west and north. The livestock sheds to the west are in rubble stonework with a sheeted monopitch roof; pen walls at front of the latter with roughly pitched coping. An inaccessible stone structure at the south side of the bakehouse is possibly the oven. At both sides of the main range there are two dormer windows aligned above ground storey windows. Large modern porch to south with additional window at left. The north elevation also has an additional ground storey window to the left but the main door to the house is now in the west face of the crosswing. The bakehouse has a modern door and dormer on the south side and an original door and window on the north side. In the west gable wall is a Gothic ogee window, repaired in render, with the date 1653 and the single letter T scratched in the render in a C20 style of lettering; perhaps this date and initial appear in the stone beneath, and have been copied. The window has a simple Tudor style label mould. The crosswing has a 6-pane sash window above a 2-light casement window to the east, and a 5-light unglazed window with diagonal square oak mullions in the south gable wall (a notable survival) above a 2-light modern casement window. The modern northward extension of the crosswing has modern windows and dormers.  

In the hall part of the house the inner bay has a slate flagstone floor. In the crosswing there are 2 dissimilar trusses; that to the north is of utilitarian type, but that to the south is of arch-braced collar beam type, with chamfered soffit, evidently intended for show.  

A well preserved sub-mediaeval house with solar crosswing, retaining features of interest.