Sycamore Cottage

Cadw's description

Location

To south side of an unclassified lane from Llanerchemrys to Bwlchyddar; built facing east on a platform site close to a small hilltop; small enclosed garden at front, agricultural range at right.

History

Sycamore cottage was a small C19 estate farmhouse, which appears from the evidence of the Tithe Survey to have been newly established in c.1838; its land was then recorded as a smallholding in the estate of Sir Edward Kynaston bart, tenanted by Thomas Pritchard. It is remembered later as part of a smallholding based on five small caeau (probably unchanged from those in the Tithe Survey) in the Wynnstay estate. The house is still complete with its associated agricultural range and earth closet.

The house appears to have been designed initially as a dwelling and stable, or possibly a large cottage, with an exactly symmetrical front elevation suggestive of two cottages. This feature of standardised design is indicative of non-vernacular origin. It is improbable that it was ever two cottages, however, as there is no sign of there having been any substantial chimney at the right gable end. It is now a single dwelling only, with a kitchen range and an evidently original large gable-end chimney in the left unit, and a staircase in the right unit. There are two lean-to domestic additions to the right gable (at north), clearly secondary to the gable end, one for a semi-cellar or cold storeroom (now used as a bathroom) and the other (probably more recent) for a bread oven of a type said to be common c.1850. A brick flue has been inserted in the centre of the right gable wall presumably for a small hearth associated with this oven, although no hearth or stack have now survived. The chamber floor of the right unit and the entire roof have been rebuilt in the C20, and the chamber floor of the left unit may have been rebuilt in the C19.

The house carries the date 1862 cut into a brick at the centre of the front wall, immediately beneath a Salop Fire Office firemark; as a Kynaston or Wynnstay estate property, it is unlikely that a date carved in this informal manner is the date of construction; it is more likely that it was added by a tenant to date an alteration.

Exterior

A two-storey two window symmetrical cottage in local light red brickwork at front and at left, but in local quasi-rubble stonework at right and at rear, apart from quoins formed of brickwork. Large chimney at left with slated shoulders; the topmost courses of the stack have been rebuilt in Ruabon or similar bricks. Two lean-to secondary additions at right, in stonework with brick quoins. Slate roof. Boarded doors, small-pane timber windows.

Interior

In the left unit there is a large hearth incorporating a hob wall with a very small (restored) cottage range. Above the hearth the soffit is formed of metal plates. In the central partition there is a boarded door with a Norfolk latch. In the right unit is a pine staircase with boarded soffit and side partition. To the right of this a partition separates the present kitchen, including a door with ventilation bars above.

Reason for designation

An exceptionally well preserved smallholding farmhouse with associated outbuildings.