Tai Tywyn

Cadw's description

Location

To the west side of Glan-y-gors, close to junction with Victoria Park Avenue

History

The two-room cottage which is at the centre of the south range of this building is the original part, built probably c1830. In the Tithe Survey (1839) it is recorded as Crown property (i.e. the foreshore) but occupied by Sarah Davies as a house and croft. It is clearly a squatter's encroachment related to fishing. Another early occupier has been identified as Peter Jones, who appears to have been a miner, although the location indicates fishing as a more likely trade for the original occupant.

By the end of the C19 the cottage had been extended at both ends. Probably also in the late C19 a parallel range had been added to the north, occupied as a separate cottage arranged informally back-to-back (predating, or flouting, the model bylaws of the 1870s - if locally enforced). The property is said to have been bought in 1884 by the Rev. J Townsend for the unlikely figure of £135, and in 1900 by W Parry for the even more implausible figure of £200.

Early names of this building are Lavender Cottages and Fisherman's cottages. The cottages have recently been restored and extended for use as a business centre for small firms, now under the name Tai Tywyn. The first bay of the rear cottage at west contains an exhibition illustrating the conservation scheme.

Exterior

Two cottages, the original being the range to the south, much extended at each end, the later one being added parallel to the rear. The south range is in local uncoursed stone, there being a slight difference in the masonry character of the original part compared to the additions. Some brickwork near to the east end of the south elevation and in the east gable. The rear range is in brickwork. Slate roof to both ranges in regular courses. In both the walling and the roofing the contrast between original and later fabric has been masked by conservation work. Three brick chimneys in the south range, one at least heightened; three also in the rear range.

In the conservation work rooflights have been inserted inconspicuously in the valley-facing slopes of the roofs, a third range to north with an enclosed yard has been added, the additional range not quite parallel to the earlier fabric. Patent-glazed entrance to the latter building and new pavings.

Reason for designation

Listed as a carefully conserved encroachment settlement with a largely unaltered long-plan cottage (near the former anchorage of Pen-yr-Hwylfa) now a very rare building type in Prestatyn, the cottages also forming an informal back-to-back group.