Primary House at Pwll Callod

Cadw's description

Location

Located on a rise approximately 800m SE of Pwll-Glas towards the SE boundary of the community. Accessed from the main road via a track running E. The house is sited on a revetted platform above the farmyard, at right-angles to the present farmhouse.

History

Originally a late C15 timber-framed gentry house of 3 bays with base cruck trusses; this was encased with limestone rubble c1600 and given an end chimney to the L gable. The original plan appears to have consisted of a 2-bay open hall (the central cusped truss of which survives) with a single-bay unheated end parlour. The house is thought to be the birthplace of Richard Parry (1560-1623), Bishop of St. Asaph, the inspiration behind the famous Welsh 'Parry Bible' and the Book of Common Prayer, published in 1620 and 1621 respectively. The house became a farm building probably as early as the late C18 or early C19.

Adjacent to the house is the present farmhouse which, though heavily modernised, bears an external date of 1659. As such Pwll Callod can be seen as having been a unit planned site, the cruck-framed building of which was probably primary.

Exterior

Small storeyed stone gentry house with cruck-framed late-medieval core. Limestone rubble casing with tall, projecting end chimney to the L (much overgrown); slated roof (mostly stripped). The entrance side (W) has an entrance to the L with C19 boarded door and exposed timber lintel; 2-pane glazed window above. To the R are two further, unglazed, 2-light windows, with two more under the eaves, asymmetrically-placed; all have wooden mullions and expressed lintels. The R gable has a late C18 or early C19 external stone stair addition giving access to the upper floor; stone parapet. The upper entrance has a segmental arch with rough-dressed voussoirs. To the L of this is an early C17 window with ovolo-moulded, pegged oak frame, originally a small 6-light mullioned window; later single mullion and boarded shutters. The L gable has an C18 or early C19 oven projection.

Interior

The base crucks of the primary hall house are visible internally, though the whole has been subdivided by the insertion of a first floor c1600. This has stopped chamfered main beams and joists, though it mostly rotten and in increasingly unsound condition. The interior is divided into 2 spaces, the hall and parlour ends having apparently been swapped around at the time of the rubble encasing. A lath-and-plaster partition forms the division, placed between the original trusses (towards the end of the second bay). On the first floor the original decorated truss of the medieval hall is visible. This is of arched-braced collar truss type, with chamfering and a simple carved foliate pendant. Cusped raking struts above the collar, forming characteristic trefoil decoration. Two tiers of purlins (all original save one early replacement), though no windbraces survive.

Reason for designation

Listed Grade II*, notwithstanding condition, for the special interest of its origins as a late medieval cruck-built gentry house, and as the reputed birthplace of Bishop Richard Parry.