Gwenlais-uchaf

Cadw's description

Location

At the end of a track off Clordir Road approximately 1km NW of the centre of Pont Lliw village.

History

Early C18 small farmhouse with later attached byre. House backs onto farmyard, byre faces yard with barn opposite.

Exterior

Farmhouse, rubble stone, formerly whitewashed, with asbestos sheet roof, originally thatched, and stone end stacks, larger to left. Stacks rebuilt in late C20. Two storeys. Front has 3 small windows under eaves, windows offset to right, formerly small-pane single casements. Square window to left with small-paned glazing, to right with C20 single pane, and centre narrower light aligned slightly left of door, possibly inserted later. Ground floor has C20 much enlarged window each side of porch, with late C20 plastic glazing. Very large rubble stone whitewashed gabled porch to right of centre with cambered oak lintel over entry and slate roof. C20 glazed plastic door within. Right end corner has been partly rebuilt in late C20. Windowless end wall. Rear has 4-pane stair light to first floor centre and C19 added single-storey dairy to right. Later C20 flat roofed addition in angle between dairy and cowshed. Whitewashed rendered end gable, above cowshed roof.
Attached cowshed runs downhill from left end wall. Whitewashed rubble with slate roof. One door to yard with iron lintel and brick sides. End wall has vent loops with triangular dripstones. Ground floor window in former door with timber lintel to centre, inserted door with brick sides and timber lintel to right. Rear roofless lean-to to left, wall canted in to right to front wall of house, with blocked door.

Interior

Two room plan with passage between. Lower end hall fireplace is largely infilled. one beam over fireplace, 3 narrow chamfered beams and one wider beam before hall partition which was rebuilt slightly further up in C20 (previous partition was of planks, some reused for under-stair door). Square joists span from beam over hall to beam on parlour partition. Parlour has 2 similar narrow chamfered beams and a third over fireplace. Fireplace rebuilt in C20. Recess to left. Hall has relatively broad stairs rising with right-angle turn to landing. Landing has low wooden balusters in 2 short lengths, flat balusters with scribed moulding. Collar trusses ceiled at collar level and said to have been cut-off above.

Reason for designation

Included as a small earlier C18 farmhouse largely retaining its vernacular character.