2 & 3 Bennar Terrace

Cadw's description

Location

Bennar Terrace is a steeply sloping footpath, one of the principal routes to thread its way through Old Barmouth. Nos 2 and 3 form a long row, tucked against the slope immediately behind the blocks running back from Church Street.

History

Probably late C18. Illustrations of Barmouth around 1800 clearly show that its early development was concentrated in this area; The building pattern on these lower slopes is characteristically dense, of short rows with little associated land - an urban pattern presumably associated with the town''''s growth as a port. Nos 2 and 3 Bennar Terrace form a surprisingly large block, possibly suggestive of origins as a tenement.

Exterior

Pair of houses, comprising a 2½-storeyed, 6-window range. Roughly coursed, barely shaped long blocks of rubble, slate roof with gable end stacks with pronounced capping stones. Each house is symmetrically arranged with windows above and flanking a central doorway. Hipped dormers of attic storey break through the eaves line. Much of the detail has been renewed, with loss of ledged doors, and the overlight recorded at No 2 in the original list description; 2-light casements in No 2 but modern replacements of the earlier horizontal sliding windows to No 3, all however in original openings with simple stone lintels.

Reason for designation

Listed, notwithstanding loss of much original detail, as an important element in the character of Old Barmouth, and a good example of vernacular construction; of special interest as representing a type of large scale building apparently characteristic of the early growth of Barmouth as a port.