Ceunant

Cadw's description

Location

Situated in remote position at end of short rough track running off the road directly to the north-east of Pont y Ceunant; there is a steep drop immediately to the west of the rear gardens of the cottages.

History

Shown on the 1839 Tithe Map, the cottages are likely to have been built in the early C19, their occupants probably deriving their livelihood from subsistence agriculture and work in the nearby Penrhyn Slate Quarry which was rapidly expanding at this period. The cottage row belongs to the earliest phase of the quarry before the Estate began to provide land for and control the erection of cottages by its workers.

Exterior

Terrace of 3 single-storey cottages, each of 2-room plan with loft, the whole aligned north-south. Painted roughly coursed rubblestone; slate roof with slate coping to left gable end. Each cottage has slightly offset boarded door, centre with small glazed panel, left door flanked by 2-light 12-paned casement windows, centre and right by 2-light casements without glazing bars, all windows with slate cills; integral end stacks and ridge stack between centre and left cottages; small C19 rooflights to left and centre cottages; slightly lower outbuilding attached to left cottage and full-length lean-to at rear.

Interior

Interior not accessible at time of Survey.

Reason for designation

Included as a particularly well-preserved row of early C19 quarryman's/smallholder's cottages, built in the local vernacular tradition of the area. The building is a typical feature in the landscape of small fields and scattered cottages, characteristic of the upland settlement pattern associated with the development of slate quarrying in this region.