Ty Gwyn

Cadw's description

Location

Opposite Big House Farmhouse, set back from the village street.

History

Ty Gwyn was originally the bakehouse of the Big House farmhouse, later converted into a cottage.
This has an important historical association with Dr Ernest Jones (1879-1958), the leading English-language authority on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and its first practitioner in Wales, who is believed to have carried out much of his scientific thinking and writing from the 1920s to the 1950s here. Jones was director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis, founder and president of the International Psycho-Analytical Association and the British Psycho-Analylitical Society. He was born in Gowerton, was an early member of Plaid Cymru and a longstanding member of the Gower Society. From the 1930s Dr Jones lived at Ty Gwyn as his retreat from London. His ashes were laid in Cheriton churchyard on his daughter's grave.
Jones was the friend and biographer of Sigmund Freud, whom he first met in 1908; he was instrumental in helping Freud's escape from Austria in 1938. Freud died at Jones's home in London.

Exterior

A small two-storey, two-window cottage in stone, rendered and painted white, with slate roof, tile ridge, and brick end-chimney at right. Recessed frames in small window openings to front elevation, central front door. Side entrance from adjacent lane at rear of left gable. Small rear extensions.

Interior

Described as one room down, one room up, with exposed beams.

Reason for designation

Listed mainly for the historical importance of Dr Ernest Jones and his creative work written within this building.