Gellilyfdy

Cadw's description

Location

Approximately 2.5km NNW of Ysceifiog and reached by farm road on S side of a minor road between Babell and Caerwys.

History

An early C17 house probably built by John Jones. The original plan form comprised 2 equal units, but unusually the entrance opened to the outer, unheated room, in which the stairway may have been housed. In the upper storey was an open arched-brace roof. A parlour wing was added in the C19, followed by single-storey wings at the front and rear. John Jones (c1578-1658) was a calligrapher and transcriber of Welsh manuscripts. He was educated at Shrewsbury, possibly for a legal career, but subsequent financial difficulties led to many periods incarcerated for unpaid debts. Much of his work was penned in prison.

Exterior

A 2-storey house of rubble stone with bigger quoins, and slate roof. The windows are mainly renewed in earlier openings. The original entrance is enclosed with an added single-storey gabled projection on the R side, which has pebble-dashed walls and end stack. To its L is a casement window renewed in an earlier opening with a C19 stone segmental head, above which is a similar casement below a wooden lintel. A C19 lower gabled wing is set back against the L gable end, and has an end stone stack heightened in brick. Facing the front it has a segmental-headed window in the lower storey and window below the eaves, both renewed as wooden casements. To the rear the C19 wing has a horizontal sliding sash lower L under a wooden lintel. The rear of the main house is dominated by a massive external stack with a tall stone shaft. To L of the stack is an added single-storey gabled projection. The R gable end of the house has wooden casements in each storey, but in the upper storey and in the gable these are renewed in original dressed stone surrounds.

Interior

The original doorway is housed within the added projection to the front, and to the R of it is a narrow vent strip. A timber-framed partition between hall and outer room is now concealed by wallpaper, and a doorway is cut through it from the porch, but it retains an original Tudor-headed doorway. The hall and the outer room both retain good joist-beam ceilings with stepped stops. The hall has a stone depressed arch to the fireplace. The upper storey was probably originally open to the roof and is said to retain arched-brace trusses concealed by an inserted joist-beam ceiling.

Reason for designation

Listed as a sub-medieval house retaining external character, notwithstanding replacement of windows, and good interior detail.