1 Bryn Eglwys

Cadw's description

Location

Located on south side of road at the west end of Bryn Eglwys at edge of steep hill which runs down past St Anne's Church towards Cil-geraint; low rubblestone wall in front, partly removed to right to create vehicular access for No.2.

History

Built c1850 as part of a small planned community for workers at the nearby Penrhyn Slate Quarry, the cottages are typical of Edward Douglas-Pennant's considerable efforts to improve the Penrhyn Estate, to which he had succeeded in 1840. The Bryn Eglwys cottages appear to be slightly earlier than St Anne's Church, rebuilt here by the estate in 1865 after the original church of 1813 had been submerged by new workings at the quarry.

Exterior

Belongs to a group of 2.

Nos 1 & 2 Bryn Eglwys, Llandygai.

Pair of Estate cottages, each of single-storey 2-room plan with loft, the whole aligned east-west. Regularly coursed and dressed rubblestone blocks, rendered to gable ends; slate roof. Each cottage has handed arrangement of 2- and 3-light windows with slate cills and voussoirs to slightly cambered heads on either side of central entrances, left (No.1) with C20 4-panel door, right (No.2) with C20 boarded door with glazed panel; integral end stacks and larger shared stack to centre; gable end windows light lofts.

Interior

Interior not inspected at time of Survey.

Reason for designation

Included as a pair of essentially unaltered mid-C19 small estate cottages of the simple 'vernacular revival' style particularly favoured by the Penrhyn Estate for its workers in the decades immediately after c1850; group value with similar contemporary cottages at Bryn Eglwys, a good example of a small planned quarry community of the mid-C19.