Ty-draw

Cadw's description

Location

At the side of a minor road, about 600 m west of the church of Llanarmon-mynydd-mawr.

History

A four-bay cruck-built hallhouse-longhouse dated by dendrochronology to 1479/80 (crucks), originally with timber-framed exterior walls. The wallplates have a dendrochronological dating of 1641/2, indicating re-framing.

The house is sited north/south (north-east/south/west) downslope, the upper part with its gable facing north to the road and dug into the ground and the lower part raised on a partly artificial platform, helped by a pre-existing lynchet. The central two bays were a hall with an open fireplace and some decorative carving on the soffit of the middle crucks. At the upper end was a dais partition with two rooms behind, and, it is thought, a solar. At the lower end was a byre, in which recent excavation has revealed evidence of hurdlework penning. There was a cross passage at the hall/byre division, which is believed to have been the main original access to the house as well as to the byre.

At an early date a central chimney was inserted with a large hearth on the upper side. At this stage the house plan probably changed to lobby-entrance type, entered at the east. In a later alteration this chimney was demolished to ground level, and probably at the same time the building was given stone exterior walls (some of the exterior stonework showing burning signs from possible reuse from the demolished chimney). It was perhaps at this time, post-1640, that the building changed use to a barn.

A small house refered to by the investigators as a 'later hovel' was constructed in tandem with the old farmhouse, in the gap between its north gable and the road. The latter house has subsequently been lost (early C20?) apart from its roadside gable wall where there are signs of a chimney and of its roof line at the road boundary.

Ty-draw continued as a barn until falling into decay in the mid C20 and partial collapse in the C21. When inspected at resurvey it was undergoing dismantling and archaeological investigation by the Clwyd/Powys Archaeological Trust pending re-erection.

Exterior

A four-bay cruck-built hallhouse-longhouse with exterior walls in local slatey stone, partly rubble, partly quasi-dressed rubble. Of the walls only the south gable and the lower part elsewhere survive.

In the surviving exterior stonework is a blocked up west doorway probably at the position of the original cross-passage. The south gable shows signs of rebuild and contains three ventilation slits.

Interior

Two cruck trusses survive. The central hall truss is archbraced with cusped struts, and has a decorative boss on the underside of the collar (dismantled when inspected, pending restoration and re-erection). The blade form is straight above a smoothly curving lower part, with the blades abutting the ridge.

Reason for designation

A C15 high-quality cruck-built longhouse with a two-bay hall, retaining nearly all its structural timber (under reconstruction).