Coed-y-Foel Isaf including adjoining Agricultural Range

Cadw's description

Location

Located towards the SE boundary of the community at right-angles to a lane running parallel with the A 4212 approximately 2.5km NW of Bala.

History

Second-half C17 farmhouse with contemporary adjoining agricultural range and mid-Victorian alterations. In the C17 the house was a Quaker farmstead. In 1682 the then owners, Edward and Eleanor Ffoulkes, were amongst a group of local non-conformists who emigrated to Pensylvannia, USA, where they founded a Quaker settlement.

Exterior

Linear range comprising a 3-unit, one-and-a-half storey farmhouse with rear wing and adjoining agricultural range stepped-down to the L. Of local rubble construction with boulder foundations and medium-steep slate roof. Axial chimney with end chimney to the rear wing, both with weathercoursing and plain cornicing. The farmhouse has an off-centre L entrance (against the stack) with 4-panel door and broad 8-pane sash to its R; 6-pane sash o the L and a further entrance to the far R with early C20 part-glazed door. The upper floor has 3 six-pane sashes in gabled dormers. The rear wing has 6-pane part-tilting modern windows to both floors on its R return. A single-storey catslide outshut extrudes to its L, flush with the gable end of the main block, thereby infilling the angle between the two ranges; boarded entrance to the R.

The agricultural range adjoins to the L with a slatestone mounting block at the junction with the farmhouse section. Medium-steep roof. This has 3 doorways to the front, the two to the R with crude projecting slatestone lintels; similar window openings flank the central entrance, which has boarded double doors. The left-hand entrance has a boarded door and a window to the L, itself a reduced former entrance. The rear has an entrance to the L with C19 catslide dormer to the roof; part-boarded window. Central boarded double doors. To the R is a catslide projection with steps up to a boarded entrance on its L return. Two further boarded doors to the main face, with plain window opening to the centre.

Interior

Lobby-entry plan with central hall and former parlour to the L, with services to the R. Large fireplace to the hall with roughly-chamfered bressummer. Chamfered main ceiling beam with plain joists; similar beamed ceiling to the rear chamber. The agricultural section is of 6 bays with rubble partitions between bays 3 and 4, and 5 and 6. Pegged collar trusses and tie-beams with raised crucks to the end bay R. This has a rough beamed ceiling with a C19 stick baluster stair leading to an unheated, plastered farm labourers' dormitory on the loft floor; stick-baluster landing.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special interest as a linear farmstead range, based on a later C17 farmhouse, retaining good original character as part of a well-preserved road-side farm group; also noteworthy for its early associations with quakerism.

Group value with other listed items at Coed-y-Foel Isaf.