1 The Old Inn

Cadw's description

Location

On S side of main road through Tretower, NW of parish church.

History

The building began early C17 with a single house, the upper house (No 2), to which a lower house (No 3) was added nearly at right angles by mid C17. The upper house consisted of a hall and inner room, together with an outside cross passage and an outer room which were rebuilt C19 (No 1). The lower house had an outside cross passage wide enough for a cart and leading directly to a wide barn doorway across the yard. The existence of 2 attached houses of approximately equal status, sharing a single farm yard and working the farm jointly, is probably the result of gavelkind (the division of a holding equally among sons), one of a number of examples in the Cwmdu area (the others at Llandegeman, Llwynau Mawr, Cilfaenor and possibly Middle Gaer and Upper Gaer). Became a public house C19, of which the main bar was in the upper house (No 2) and had a new main entrance to the street, but was converted back to dwellings late C20 and subdivided into its 3 distinct historical units.

Exterior

The upper house (Nos 1 and 2) has original stone stacks L of centre and to R, and a C19 stack over L gable end. The original front facing the yard has added lean-tos and inserted 1- and 2-light casements in first floor. The 3-window early C19 front is on the N side facing the road and is pebble-dashed. In the lower storey are 12-pane hornless sashes, in the upper storey similar 9-pane sashes. A doorway with boarded door is L of centre and reached down steps. In the E gable end is a corbelled 1st-floor stack with added window to its L.

Interior

Not inspected at time of survey (September 1997).

Reason for designation

In origin an important example of the sub-medieval Breconshire farmhouse retaining much of its early plan form and high-quality detail.