5 Bryn Eglwys

Cadw's description

Location

Located on south side of road at east end of Bryn Eglwys where it turns sharply to south-west; low rubblestone wall in front, partly removed at left end to create vehicular access and to middle for car parking; No.5 has slate slab fencing to sides.

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 3.

Nos 5, 6 & & Bryn Eglwys, Llandygai.

Symmetrically composed group of 3 single-storey cottages in simple 'vernacular revival' style with attics to gabled wings projecting on either side of lower central range. Roughly coursed rubblestone with slate-stone lintels; slate roof with overhanging verges and carved purlin ends. Symmetrical front of 1:3:1 bays, gables having 3-light windows on ground floor and 2-light windows above; original window openings with C20 windows flank central entrance to central range (No.6), now with C20 glazed door; entrances to Nos.5 & 7 through slate slab gabled porches to outer returns. Prominent red brick ridge stacks with stepped capping to left and right of central range with shorter integral stacks to rear gable ends of gabled ranges.

Interior

Interior not inspected at time of Survey.

Reason for designation

Included as a formally planned group of 3 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.