Bron Ceris

Cadw's description

Location

Set just below the road running through Fachwen from Brynrefail to Dinorwic above the north side of Llyn Padarn.

History

Not shown on the 1838 Tithe Map, the cottage is likely to have been built before 1850, Fachwen having been purchased by the Vaynol Estate in 1840 as a convenient place in which to establish its by then preferred pattern of quarrymen's cottages without land situated close to the Dinorwic Quarry. As part of this process, the Estate in c1842 divided Fachwen up into about 30 holdings on which the quarrymen were allowed to build individual cottages under Estate control.

Exterior

Single-storey 2-room plan, aligned roughly east-west. Regularly coursed rubblestone, rendered to gable ends; slate roof. Front has 4-paned casements with slate cills and stone lintels on either side of central boarded door with narrow rectangular overlight; rendered integral end stacks.

Interior

Interior not accessible at time of Survey.

Reason for designation

Included as a well-preserved example of the small quarryman's cottage without land typical of the post-1840 phase of Vaynol Estate-authorised settlement associated with Thomas Assheton Smith's continued development of the Dinorwic Slate Quarry; Fachwen is a particularly important survival from this process of landowner-controlled settlement.