History

Blaen Baglan is first mentioned in 1566 when it was occupied by William ap Jenkin, but the present house is based upon its rebuilding c1600 by his grandson William Williams. This new house had a sub-medieval plan form comprising a hall with parlour and a porch, and a staircase projection built around the laterally placed hall stack. A rear wing housing a kitchen was built soon after, as was an additional unit at the lower end of the hall. The house remained in the Williams family for most of the C17, followed by a period of uncertain ownership before it was acquired by the Jersey Estate by 1841. During the period of Jersey ownership the fenestration was altered by introducing more fashionable sash windows. The house became a tenant farm, although a local Baptist minister lived there for a period. The house is now unoccupied and derelict.

Exterior

A 2-storey house with a long main range and wing behind, forming an L-shaped plan, with porch at the L end, a lower projection against the L gable end and a single-storey projection set in the angle between the rear of the main range and the rear wing. The walls are roughcast. The roof is slate, although mostly missing from the rear slope of the main range and missing from the rear wing, the roof of which has partially collapsed. The main range has C19 stone end stacks and a ridge stack R of centre, while the rear wing retains a single ridge stack. The front is 4-window with segmental heads and now boarded up although traces of former sashes and brick dressings can still be seen. The windows, inserted in the C19, are grouped in pairs, corresponding to the internal division of hall and parlour. The porch is 2 storeys plus attic. It has a Tudor arched doorway under a hood and is surmounted by a blank frame probably intended for a coat of arms. The upper storey has an inserted segmental-headed window with a brick surround. The attic has a blocked flat-headed Tudor window in a moulded surround with hood mould and was formerly of 2 lights. The R side wall of the porch also has a sash window at ground-floor level.

In the R gable end of the main range is a blocked 2-light mullioned first-floor window with 4-centred heads and a hood mould, but set at a lower level than the other openings and probably belonging to William ap Jenkin's mid C16 house. The gable line of this original house can be seen below the present gable which was heightened c1600. On the R side of this later gable is a small blocked C19 attic window. Behind the main range is a single-storey lean-to, added in the C19 to create a passage between the kitchen and parlour. In the upper storey is a doorway on the L side reached by external steps. The rear wing is obscured by vegetation.

To the L of the porch the lower gabled projection is of a single bay with blocked, probably originally sash, windows and a stone end gable stack. Behind this projection, the kitchen has a C19 dairy lean-to, above which is a small blocked stair light to the main range.

Interior

Inaccessible at the time of inspection, but described by RCAHM Wales as follows: The original plan form remains discernible and comprises a hall with parlour in the main range, and kitchen with lean-to C19 dairy in the rear wing. Many original doorways are blocked and were replaced by new doorways inserted in the C19, at the same time as partitions were introduced to sub-divide existing rooms and the hall screen was removed. The hall has cross beams with broad chamfered stops and a fireplace in the rear lateral wall with details altered in the C19. The parlour fireplace is blocked but retains original jambs. The kitchen has broad chamfered beams similar to the hall. The upper storey has the same original partitions as the lower storey but was sub-divided into smaller rooms in the C19. The room above the parlour was adapted as a granary with external steps at the rear of the house. The rooms above the hall and kitchen have broad chamfered beams with filleted stops. Attic rooms are open to the roof, the attic in the rear wing having an external doorway in the gable end. The roof trusses of the main range and rear wing have curved-foot principals and lap-jointed collars. The purlins are repositioned, indicating the replacement of the roof and explaining the C19 stacks and the absence of attic windows.

Reasons for Listing

Listed, notwithstanding its present condition, for its architectural interest as a substantial sub-medieval Glamorgan house.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29492005

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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