Pen-y-Graig Farmhouse, including attached garden walls, Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, Denbighshire

History

Fragments of cruck trusses embedded in the walls of the house represent an earlier late-medieval house. This was rebuilt and heightened in stone in the C17, with an inserted stack. A rear wing was added in the early C19, which is shown on the 1839 Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd Tithe map, and then a dairy wing and wash-house lean-to were added in the second half of the C19. These additions are shown on the 1880 OS map, which also shows a quarry immediately S of the farmstead, which was probably the source of building stone.

Exterior

A farmhouse built of limestone rubble under a renewed steep slate roof, with tall freestone stack R of centre, and roughcast stack to the L and freestone end stack on the main rear wing. It consists of a 1-and-a-half storeyed, lobby entry, 3-unit plan main range with lean-tos against the gable ends, and 2 rear wings, the earlier main wing on the L-hand (W) side, the later dairy wing on the R-hand (E) side. Except for the front, windows have generally been replaced by modern casements in original openings, which are either beneath the eaves or under timber lintels.

The 4-window S front has C20 fenestration in white brick surrounds under gabled dormers in the upper storey, and has replacement 2 and 3-light wooden casements. The entrance, R of centre, is in a brick porch the same date as the windows, with modern door. Set back against the L (W) gable end is a brick shed under a lean-to corrugated asbestos-cement roof. The gable end itself is cement rendered and has a 2-light upper-storey window. Set back on the R (E) side is a lean-to former wash house, which has a boarded door under a brick segmental head. In front of it, in the gable end of the main range, is a window in place of a blocked former doorway, and above the lean-to is a 2-light window in the gable. Behind the wash house is another lean-to, abutting the dairy wing, which projects slightly further. The dairy wing is 2 storeys but lower than the main range, and in its gable end it has 2-light windows. This wing partly obscured an upper storey window in the main range, a wide strip with wooden mullions and with only a glass panel added in front of it. Between the dairy wing and the main rear wing is a low lean-to bread oven in the main range.

The main rear wing is higher than the main house. It has a separate entrance on the W side, although with only a modest boarded door under a segmental head. To its L is a 2-light window that lights a stairway, and further L metal-framed French doors added in the late C20. There is also a single 2-light windows beneath the eaves in the upper storey. The opposite, 2-window E-facing wall has windows under brick segmental heads in the lower storey and beneath the eaves in the upper storey. To the R (E) of the rear wing there is a single rear window in the main range.

Rubble stone walls are attached to the front wall of the house, creating a very narrow forecourt. A further garden wall is attached to the rear angle in the L-hand gable end.

Interior

The C17 part of the house has a lobby-entry 3-unit plan of hall, kitchen and parlour, with back-to-back fireplaces. The rear wings and side lean-tos were added later. In the lower storey are slate slab floors throughout, except for the bathroom in the rear wing. Embedded in the walls of the hall, kitchen and entrance lobby are fragments of cruck blades suggesting an earlier house of at least 3 bays. The 3 rooms and entrance lobby in the C17 part of the house all have joist-beam ceilings with stepped stops to beams and joists, but the arrangement of them appears to have been influenced by the position of the former cruck trusses. In the hall there are cross beams, one of which abuts the fireplace where it is supported on a stone corbel. In the kitchen and parlour there are spine beams, although in the latter a spine beam is attached to an earlier cross beam associated with a cruck truss. In the hall is a fireplace under a timber lintel, and in the N wall is a blocked former window. Part of a post-and-panel screen dividing the hall from the parlour survives; it has 2 doorways, one original with boarded door and strap hinges, the other modern. The original door opens to a close-string straight stair behind the screen, and concealed from the parlour behind a timber-framed partition. The parlour has a C19 cast-iron fireplace in a panelled wood surround. The rear window in the parlour has an adjoining recess, probably designed to accommodate a sliding shutter over the window. In the kitchen there is a timber lintel over the fireplace, and inside it is a bread oven with cast-iron door. There is also a stairway in the kitchen, which is a straight stair with winders at the top, with simple newel and handrail.

Steps from the hall lead up into the main rear wing, which is divided into a main room, bathroom and stair hall in the ground floor. In the main room is a C19 cast-iron fireplace, with tile inserts, in a slate surround. There is a high joist-beam ceiling. Access to the first floor is provided by a straight closed-string staircase, which has a panel door to a cupboard under the stairs. In the dairy wing, which is now divided into 2 units, there are slate shelves around the walls and access to its upper storey was by ladder (this upper room was not inspected). The wash house has a brick floor.

In the upper storey, in the room above the hall there is a fireplace with timber lintel, above which is a roof truss with superimposed collar beams, of which the lower is carried on stone corbels above the fireplace. Timber-framing is exposed in the partition between the room over the hall and room over the parlour, which also incorporates an original boarded door with strap hinges. In the room above the parlour there are simple C19 balusters and hand rail at the top of the stairs. Above the lobby entrance is a short corridor that leads from the top of the kitchen stairs. In the room over the kitchen the staircase is concealed by a plaster partition, on which is a painted inscription JW:EB/1775. The stone stack in this room is concealed by a timber-framed partition, which also bisects the wide window in the rear wall which has wooden diamond mullions, some of which are concealed from the outside by the dairy wing. The window in the gable end has a recess on its L side probably for an original sliding shutter. The first floor above the main rear wing is divided into 2 rooms and bathroom. There is a fireplace in the rear gable end, which is cast iron in a wooden surround.

Reasons for Listing

Listed grade II* as a well-preserved C17 house, with earlier origins and with C19 enlargement, especially notable for the retention of interior plan form and wealth of detail from the C17, C18 and C19.

External Links

Cadwr Listing

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