80771

21  

II  

Designated  

01/06/1989  

19/12/2002  

NO 21 Gelli-deg,,,,,,  

21 Gelli-deg  

Merthyr Tydfil  

Cyfarthfa  

 

Gelli-deg  

303438  

206736  

 

Situated to the N of Swansea Road some 200m NW of its roundabout junction with the A470. The site is some 400m W of the site of the Cyfarthfa blast furnaces.  

 

 

Cottage in one of 2 rows of early industrial workers'' housing complete by 1797, and thus, although altered since, among the earliest surviving in the region. The site is some 400m W of the site of the Cyfarthfa blast furnaces, built 1765. Ty Issa farmhouse is mentioned in a lease of 1794 to Anthony Bacon of the ironworks and it was to this house that the cottages were added. Thomas James was paid £298/9/6d (£298.48) for new houses in Gelli-deg in 1797 but this may refer to the second row Nos 23-28 and Nos 15-21 could be earlier. It is suggested that No 15 is the pre-industrial farmhouse, perhaps mid C18 and that 6 industrial cottages were added in 2 stages. No 15 itself may be a composite of a single room cottage to right to which a larger house 2-storey 3-bay farmhouse was added (but the continuous rear stonework does not support this). The farmhouse was later subdivided into 2, the one-bay upper end with entry from the back becoming one cottage (now part of No 16). To this were added 3 one-room 2-storey cottages, now Nos 16 and 17 (No 17 now including No 18), internally of a single-room each floor, perhaps with a partitioned pantry to the rear, marked by small rear opening. Then a further 3 were added, now Nos 19 and 21, as 21 includes No 20, these had 2 small partitioned spaces at the back and thus 2 small rear windows. None of these houses had the typical catslide roofs over outshuts noted in Welsh industrial workers'' housing of the early C19, though the altered row Nos 23-28 did. In 1930 it was said that No 15 had once been a public house.  

The upper row of 3 cottages are painted rendered with imitation slates and same eaves but higher ridge line than row to right. Nos 19 & 20 (the latter now part of No 21) were a mirrored pair with end stacks and a cottage on the end, No 21, slightly larger, with stack shared with No 20. The chimney between 20 and 21 has gone. The mirrored pair 19-20 had doors to inner bays and window each floor to outer bay, but door to No 20 has gone. Widened openings to first floor of No 20. Left end cottage (the original No 21) has C20 windows to right and C20 door to left, both window openings widened. Rear has C20 wide window to upper floor left of original No 20 and 3 ground floor windows, one C20 broad opening to No 20 and 2 small ones to right, possibly original openings, all plastic.  

Interior not available for inspection. The original Nos 20-21 were surveyed in 1988 and they contained oak trusses with collars raised when upper rooms had been ceiled. The trusses were on seating blocks and the roof was thought to have been stone-tiled. Each house had a ground floor plan of kitchen, sleeping-room and pantry and single upper room. There were quarter-turn timber stairs with cupboard beneath and handrail at top in the front corners. The floor joists were cross-axial and the ground floors had flagstones.  

Listed as part of the oldest industrial workers'' housing surviving in the Merthyr area, which includes a range that predates the nearby Cyfarthfa ironworks.