Gwanas Farmhouse including attached Byre Range

Cadw's description

Location

Located off the A 470 about 4 km S of Brithdir; accessed via a farm track leading W from the Caerynwch lane.

History

Dated 1838; C19 farmhouse added to pre-existing, probably late C17 range. In the later C19 the lower section of a late Medieval porch was relocated in front of the main entrance; of late C15/early C16 it formerly served the chapel at Gwanas Fawr, a Medieval grange of the Knights Hospitaller located 250m S of Gwanas. Although a post-Dissolution house now occupies the site of the grange, no Medieval work remains upstanding and only the site of the chapel is known. This gives the porch considerable significance as the only surviving element of the grange.

Exterior

The C19 house is a large 2-storey rubble building with a medium-pitched slate roof with deep verges and oversailing eaves; fine panelled end chimneys with moulded upper section, string-courses and weather-coursing. 3-bay symmetrical front with gabled central entrance bay; later C19 decorative bargeboards withwooden spear-finial. Within the gable a framed slate lozenge bearing the date 1838 in raised figures; beneath this a moulded eaves band. Plain, recessed later C19 sash windows with slate lintels and incised voussoirs with raised keystones. Contemporary boarded door to stepped-up entrance with diamond lattice fanlight. Further sash windows to rear including an original horned sash; slate-hung S gable end.

The porch is of large rough-dressed stone blocks and has a deep chamfered plinth. Slit-lights to flanking walls splayed inwardly with Tudor-arched heads. Later C19 slated roof with bargeboards and finial as before; Segmental timber tie-beam as entrance arch with struts.

The earlier range is of one-and-a-half piles and adjoins the house to the NE; construction as before. The N part is the earliest and has an end chimney to the W testifying to an former domesticfunction; subsequently converted into a stable/byre range, its openings are C19. Entrance to the N side with modern flanking windows; further window above and a further boarded door to the R. Modern rubble outshut to far R; C19 external stepped access to upper entrance at E gable. Modern entrance and windows to rearpile.