6715

 

II*  

Designated  

23/03/1962  

14/11/2000  

Llannerch-y-Cawr  

 

Powys  

Llanwrthwl  

 

Elan Valley  

290207  

261451  

 

To the SW of Dolymynach reservoir and reached by farm road S of the unclassified road to the Claerwen reservoir.  

Domestic  

 

Probably built in the second half of the C15, possibly by Ieuan Gwrgan, whose descendant Howell Hir ap David ap Llewelyn ap Ieuan Gwrgan sold it in 1548. The original house was a stone-built, cruck-framed hall house open to the roof, comprising a 2-bay hall with passage and lower house, 2 small inner rooms over which was a small sleeping chamber reached from the dais end of the hall, probably by ladder. The central open truss has survived and is lightly chamfered but is not ornamented with cusps like the 2-bay gentry hall houses further N in Radnorshire. In the first half of the C17 the house was converted to a storeyed longhouse in 2 phases. First a large fireplace with integral stone winding stair was inserted in the hall, behind which was a small room instead of a cross passage. The lower end was rebuilt slightly later as a cow house, re-using former cruck trusses as arched-brace principals. The house has been little altered since, apart from alteration of window openings. From 1548 to the early C19 it was owned by the Lewis family, styled 'gentlemen' in the C18, and was subsequently acquired by the Lewis Lloyd family of Nantgwyllt who sold it to the Corporation of Birmingham in the late C19 as part of the Elan Valley reservoir scheme. The house was uninhabited from the mid 1950s when a new farmhouse replaced it, but was restored in the late 1990s, at which time the windows and doors were renewed.  

A one-and-a-half storey longhouse built into a slope with the house at the upper end. Of limewashed rubble-stone walls with boulder footings, and a stone tile roof with square stone ridge stack. The main doorway is immediately R of the stack and has a replaced boarded door. To its L are a large renewed horned sash window lighting the hall, and a smaller renewed sash at the end lighting the parlour. Gabled roof dormers with 2-light casements are above the doorway and to the L. To the R of the main doorway, the original cow house has a doorway with renewed door (that opened to an outshut now removed) and a small ventilation strip further R. In the L gable end, the upper part of which is weatherboarded, is an added attic doorway. To the rear the house has a horned sash window to the R lighting the former dairy, and a small stair light in line with the stack. To its L is a small 2-light window lighting the outer room. The cow house has a full-height opening with replaced door and is flanked by small openings. Above and to the R of the doorway is a roof dormer with 2-light casement. Set back at the L end is a stable door under a wooden lintel, and a loft doors above.  

The main door opens to a small lobby with cobbled floor. To the L, the hall retains 2 pairs of cruck trusses and later cross beams with stepped stops. The fireplace has a timber lintel and inserted late C19 range, to the L of which is a stone winding stair. A simple late C15 full-height post-and-panel screen has doorways with segmental heads opening to the parlour and dairy, which are set at a higher level than the hall. The ground-floor rooms all have flagged floors. The stair gives access to the attic over the house and to an additional room over the cow house. Above the main part of the house are 2 attic rooms separated by the original hall screen. A timber-framed partition encloses a small outer room with a fireplace backing on to the hall fireplace. This has a wooden lintel with a segmental head cut in. The cow house retains an axially aligned cobbled floor. Added stairs lead into the loft.  

Listed grade II* for its exceptional interest as a well-preserved vernacular building that clearly illustrates the process of converting a late medieval hall house to a sub-medieval storeyed longhouse.