3 The Old Inn

Cadw's description

Location

On S side of main road through Tretower, NW of parish church.

History

The building began early C17 with a single house, the upper house (No 2), to which a lower house (No 3) was added nearly at right angles by mid C17. The upper house consisted of a hall and inner room, together with an outside cross passage and an outer room which were rebuilt C19 (No 1). The lower house had an outside cross passage wide enough for a cart and leading directly to a wide barn doorway across the yard. The existence of 2 attached houses of approximately equal status, sharing a single farm yard and working the farm jointly, is probably the result of gavelkind (the division of a holding equally among sons), one of a number of examples in the Cwmdu area (the others at Llandegeman, Llwynau Mawr, Cilfaenor and possibly Middle Gaer and Upper Gaer). Became a public house C19, of which the main bar was in the upper house (No 2) and had a new main entrance to the street, but was converted back to dwellings late C20 and subdivided into its 3 distinct historical units

Exterior

The lower house (No 3) has a central stack rebuilt in C19 and an end stack to right. Facing the yard it has a 2-window front with hoodmoulds and chamfered lintels, with lately inserted casements (and widened to lower right). The south gable end has two 2-light windows with hood moulds in the upper storey and a blocked attic window offset to left. Lower left is the dripstone above a former doorway. The rear of the lower house retains the hoodmould of a blocked stair light and has a 2-light casement to its left.

Interior

In the lower house the cross passage is still discernible, and has doorways to hall on S side and stairs on N side, both with Tudor heads, stop-chamfer surrounds and boarded doors with wrought-iron strap hinges. The hall and parlour have cross beams with stepped stops (although original screen now removed) and the hall has a fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and stone baffle walls. In S wall of the parlour is the chamfered lintel of a former doorway. The stair has wooden treads but is said to have stone beneath it.

Reason for designation

In origin an important example of the sub-medieval Breconshire farmhouse retaining much of its early plan form and high-quality detail.