History

Built in the 1880s as the model farm for Gorddinog, a large house nearby in severe Tudor Gothic style, built for the Platt family, industrialists from Oldham (Lancs.), who created a small country estate here, of which the farm manager's house and highly mechanised farmbuildings at Madryn formed an integral part.

Exterior

Model farmbuildings with long cowhouse/stable range on east divided by Tudor Gothic style gatehouse (the gatehouse range), a large yard for cows on south with mock crenellated wall to south side and 2 substantial parallel ranges north of the yard (the south containing a cart shelter, barn with granary above and smithy, the north housing the main stabling), linked by a connecting range on west. Mixture of uncoursed and roughly coursed rubblestone to main buildings with regularly coursed and dressed rubblestone blocks to gatehouse; slate roofs, of gable ended or lean-to form except for north end of connecting range on west which is half-hipped. The whole complex was formerly protected by a screen wall to the north (as still exists on the south side of the large yard) but, apart from a short section of crenellated wall in the north-east corner, this has now been demolished.

Barn/cart shelter and smithy range with granary above. South side has 6 square openings to eaves, 4 retaining ventilated louvres for grain store on this floor; below are 5 wide segmental-headed openings with voussoirs, the openings to the right paired and larger than the others; second opening from the left is partly blocked with doorway in infill and has iron wheel for driving gear above; 2 segmental-headed windows to left of left opening; wide segmental-headed opening in west gable end and lean-to on north. Smithy is also entered on north side towards east end.

Interior

King-post roof trusses to granary above barn. Smithy is particularly well-preserved, retaining a large brick-built furnace and wooden work benches fixed to the walls.

Reasons for Listing

Included, despite a degree of C20 alteration and limited demolition, as an integral part of a largely complete late C19 model farm of a comparatively small country estate, important for showing the extent to which such farms were by this date becoming highly mechanised, almost industrial units.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29500080

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)