87609

 

II  

Designated  

16/08/2010  

16/08/2010  

Bryn Awel and Fondella Building  

High Street  

Denbighshire  

Rhuddlan  

 

 

302392  

378156  

 

On the south side of High Street, close to the junction with Parliament Street  

 

 

Bryn Awel is one of the very few surviving buildings in the town with early origins. Its plan form and some of the constructional detail suggest that at its core is a building of sixteenth century date, partially rebuilt or extended in the eighteenth century, and altered again in the late nineteenth century. It comprises two buildings: a two-unit range parallel to the main road, with a gable fronted building to the left. The layout of both buildings suggests a hall and cross-wing plan, and it is possible that this was at one time a single house. The cross-range is the earliest part of the building, and is probably C16; it comprises a long range of 5 structural bays, extended by a single bay to the front, perhaps in the C19. Circa 1900, it was further extended to the left, with a matching gable creating a near-symmetrical composition. The right hand range, parallel to the street retains exposed brick-work to the rear which is eighteenth century in character; internally the roof structure also suggests an eighteenth century date, but façade detail is largely of the late nineteenth century.  

Shops with accommodation above. Earliest sections are 2-storeyed and comprise gabled cross wing to left, with 2-unit range parallel to street to right. The gabled cross wing was later extended to create a near-symmetrical 3-bay building. Rendered brickwork with decorative quoins to main elevations, with exposed brick to rear; slate roofs, with coped gable to right-hand end (concrete tiled roof to rear of main range). Prominent end wall stacks, that to the right rendered and reduced in height. Right hand section has glazed inserted shop front to left, with tripartite sash window above; to the right, a projecting shop front of probably late C19 date, with broad tripartite sash above. Rear elevation has broad C19 gabled wing to left, and good C18 brickwork detail in 2-bay main range, with nogged string course and eaves; C20 inserted windows to ground floor and first floor right; C19 cross-window to first floor left. The left hand unit reads as a cross-wing attached to and advanced from the right hand of this range. With its later extensions, it is of 3 bays, the outer two gabled. Modern shop units to the ground floor, sash windows above, that to the left with drop-ended hood-mould and to the right a UPVC replacement and enlarged. The right-hand gable represents a forward extension of the original building, which extends for some distance to the rear, with steeply pitched roof with axial stack of C19 character, and coped end gable, beyond which are lower extensions of possible C18 date.  

The original cross-wing range is largely altered on the ground floor, but retains its historical roof structure. 2 arch-braced collar trusses (together with another of more recent date relating to the forward extension of the building); the high quality carpentry suggests that this range was once open to the roof, and the tie-beams are probably secondary, relating to an inserted upper floor (perhaps contemporary with the insertion of a chimney stack). Beyond this section are 5 further bays with simple A-frame trusses with broad trenched purlins. The right hand range is also heavily altered at ground and first floor, and retains no evidence for its historical plan-form. However, the roof structure survives intact as a series of substantial A-frame trusses, probably of C18 date.  

Listed notwithstanding later alterations and extensions as a building of special architectural interest with probable C16 origins retaining significant internal fabric from this period, and significant for being one of the few identifiably early buildings in Rhuddlan. Some good quality detail also survives from a C18 phase, both in exterior brick-work, and interior carpentry.