Old farmhouse at Trewyn Farm

Cadw's description

Location

On the west side of Trewyn farmyard about 10m from the farmhouse.

History

This is possibly an early C16 open hall house with a chimney inserted later, but the overall blackening of all the roof timbers is rather contradictory. The house would originally have had a crog-loft, but the space was divided into two rooms probably when the house was refurbished in the C19. There seems to have been very little alteration since that period. The third room seems always to have been entered separately and probably has a non-domestic origin. This is an extremely interesting house which may well be a great rarity. It may be that it was superceded as the farmhouse in the late C17 when the present farmhouse was built, but continued to be lived in in its primitive state until the C19 refurbishment; or there may have been an intermediate period of improvement when the stack was added.

Exterior

Red sandstone rubble with stone tile roof. Single storey single depth rectangular block with three rooms, the right hand of which is entered separately. The main elevation has a plain plank door on the left in a lobby entry position against the stack. A small two light casement to the right of this and a smaller one for the central room, the right hand room has a blind wall. Partially damaged stone roof with a stone stack on the left gable, this has weathering suggestive of a thatched roof. The left gable is blind, the right gable has a doorway with overlight, a low window with a drip over, and a four pane casement in the gable above. The rear wall is blind.

Interior

The interior suggests that the house was an open hall as the roof is heavily smoke blackened. Three small rooms, two inter-connecting, one entered separately. Stack inserted on south gable with the remains of a C19 iron range, to the right of this is the base of a copper. Two raised cruck trusses with ties and heavy trenched purlins, The crucks demonstrate that the front wall has been heightened, and there are slight secondary rafters. All these timbers are smoke blackened, in both the rooms, which does seem rather suspicious, since it includes those added when the pitch of the roof was changed for the stone tiles, and the chimney already seems to have been in place when the roof was still thatched. It was impossible to inspect the second and third rooms properly.

Reason for designation

Listed an a rare example of a C16 cruck framed house which has group value with the nearby barn and the present Trewyn Farmhouse.