8512

 

II  

Designated  

05/04/1993  

05/04/1993  

Cowhouse Range to S. of Rhandregynwen  

 

Powys  

Llandysilio  

 

 

326891  

319735  

 

Runs back from road to the south of the modern farmhouse.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

 

Late C15 former hall house, now cowhouse, with the external walls entirely rebuilt in brick and weatherboarding, tin roof.  

Cruck framed, three-unit plan with two-bay hall. Four trusses survive, the lower end-truss had gone, the wall plates survive in the main and exposed mortices on the undersides show the positions of the studs in the former timber-framed walls. All the cruck trusses have one piece, full height blades, morticed and tenoned together, the purlins are diagonally set, the ridge is diagonally set into a notch cut into the apex, windbraces were morticed into the hall and upper-room purlins. There is smoke blackening throughout. The upper room end truss has been cut off above the collar; about lm in front is a louvre truss set on the upper purlins. The upper room, or dais end, partition is box-framed with two diagonal braces above tie beam. The central hall truss has chamfered blades and arch-braces; one of two diagonal braces survives above the collar and a small yoke is set below the apex. A tie beam has been inserted into this truss at a later date and subsequently removed. The passage partition truss retains its upper collar and mortices for two lower ties and for panel infill are visible.  

This farm building is a rare survival of a late medieval cruck-framed hall house which, although encased in later walling, has never been radically altered. It has not been subject to any of the normal domestic improvements over the centuries such as ceilings for upper chambers and fireplaces were never inserted, nor has it been plastered or limewashed internally.