Pentre Farmhouse

Cadw's description

Location

Remote roadside position on minor valley road running parallel with the A5 along the Ogwen valley; low rubblestone wall in front of farmhouse with stone-on-edge coping and iron gate and steps to centre; spectacular mountain backdrop.

History

Not shown on the 1839 Tithe Map, the farmhouse was probably built c1850 as part of the expansion of farming in the remote Ogwen valley at this period, much of which sponsored by the Penrhyn Estate. The road on which the farmhouse is situated is the so-called "old road", an improvement by the Estate in 1790-1 of what Thomas Pennant had described as "the most dreadfull horsepath in Wales". Several other farms are sited on this road, which was effectively superseded as the main through route along the Ogwen valley by the building of the turnpike road on its eastern side in 1802.

Exterior

2-storey, roughly symmetrical 3-bay front. Rendered rubblestone, painted to front; slate roof with coped verges. Three 6-paned sashes with slate cills on first floor (probably original) and 2 on ground floor, one to each side of slightly offset entrance with C20 boarded door under C20 lean-to porch; tall integral end stacks. Lean-to to rear.

Interior

Interior not accessible at time of Survey.

Reason for designation

Included as a well-preserved mid-C19 farmhouse in the late Georgian tradition with contemporary farmbuildings, illustrative of the colonisation of marginal agricultural land at this period and forming a typically distinctive component of this rugged upland landscape.