Lower Berse Farmhouse

Cadw's description

Location

Down a drive off Berse Lane, near its junction with the A525 Wrexham-Ruthin Road.

History

Farmhouse, remodelled in 1873 but incorporating the remains of a timber framed hall of the late C14 or early C15. The hall was bisected with the insertion of a floor, probably in the C16, and an external chimney stack was added at the same time. The two wings may also be partly earlier structures, but no medieval fabric survives in them, and with the exception of the hall range, the farmhouse is encased in late C19 brickwork, and all external detailing dates from the 1873 remodelling, in the style of the Plas Power estate of Bersham.

Exterior

Brick throughout, with slate roof. 2 storeys, H-plan, with asymmetrical parlour and service wings. Main range is an encased C14-C16 hall, with cross-passage, the brickwork of the exterior wall itself of early date, perhaps early C18. Massive stone stack projects from the front wall of this hall range, and is a C16 addition. Long wing to right, with doorway under veranda porch, and shorted wing to left. Both have casement windows with latticed panes and hood moulds, and these, together with the decorative bargeboards to the overhanging eaves, are a hall mark of the estate architecture of Plas Power. Rear fenestration renewed.

Interior

Interior of the original box-framed central hall, the central truss, with arched braced cambered tie beam and raking struts below the collar survives, along with part of a spere truss, together with the moulded beam of a dais canopy. Moulded ceiling beams and side wall fireplace in which a chamfered beam is carried on corbelled jambs, date from C16 subdivision of the hall.