Tyn-y-mynydd

Cadw's description

Location

In a valley 1 km south west of the village of Clocaenog, reached by a track north from an unclassified road, sited immediately west of the valley stream.

History

The location of Tyn-y-mynydd was manorial waste until the late C18. When this area was enclosed by Richard Myddleton, Lord of the Manor, in the 1770s there were several encroachments, including Tyn-y-mynydd with a field to its rear. Minshull's plan of the enclosed manorial wastes in 1777 names the tenant as Parry. In 1839 the Tithe Survey shows the then cottage and two small fields to the rear as owned by Miss Harriet Myddleton and occupied by Edward Jones.

What is likely to have been a very poor cottage was rebuilt or radically improved in the late C19, apparently on the same foundations. A cowhouse, part of which survives, was added in the C19 in tandem at the south west gable, and other buildings of a very small smallholding were added nearby and across the stream.

Exterior

A two-storey, two window cottage in local rubble masonry, with slate roof and tile ridge, with a single central brickwork chimney stack. The front is painted creamy white with the brick arches painted red. The front is symmetrical with a central door. The upper and lower windows are of nine panes, fixed apart from a metal opening casement as the bottom middle light of each window. Stone sills. The upper windows are against the eaves, the lower windows and the door have brick arches.

Later small two-storey rear extension slightly off centre, with same eaves height but lower ridge. Multi-pane metal casements above and below. Rear door at side.

Interior

The plan is two-room, with a central chimney in which there is a fireplace serving each room. The front door is central and opens to what was originally a lobby between rooms, but is now part of the right room. The door to the left room has been walled in. The left room had originally a small scullery partitioned off at rear, but the scullery and its partition were removed and an opening formed at the rear of the chimney to communicate with the right room. The right room was the kitchen and a hook for pots survives behind the bressummer. This room has a boxed in staircase against its rear wall. There is now a rear extension containing a kitchen and a small additional bedroom above.

Reason for designation

A very late vernacular cottage of exceptionally well preserved character, on a known squatter encroachment site.