Ffos

Cadw's description

Location

Situated some 400m NW of Swyddfynnon at the end of a 200m track W from road to Tynygraig.

History

Farmhouse, former gentry house called Ffosybleiddiaid. The present house may be the original in much rebuilt form: it looks C18 and was altered c. 1900. In 1893 it was described as having a huge ground floor kitchen with cobbled floor, a narrow room at the upper end and outer kitchen on the S side. There was then no upper floor except a few boards placed on the rafters where the Ystrad Meurig students who lodged there slept, which may suggest a C17 hall. The interior suggests that the house was refurbished after 1893.
It was from at least the C16 until the early C19 the home of the Lloyd family, one of the principal families of the county. Not exceptionally large, having 4 hearths in 1670 when owned by John Lloyd, whose brother David Lloyd (died 1722) was a sea comrade of James II. John Lloyd died 1748, his sons were James (1721-1800), the last to live at the house, but who moved to his wife's house at Mabws, John (1716-1806) of Pound, Devon, Clerk of the Check at Plymouth Dockyard, whose portrait was painted by Reynolds, and General Vaughan Lloyd (1736-1817), commandant of the garrison at Woolwich. The house was tenanted from the mid C18: David Richards 1757, followed by his son; David Meredith in 1843, when part of the Mabws estate. Sold in 1888 to the Trawsgoed estate.

Exterior

House, colour-washed rubble stone, slate roof with rendered end stacks, left stack larger. Two storey and attic. Long front, the upper floor with three widely-spaced twelve-pane sashes with brick cambered heads and slate sills, ground floor with six similar openings, three sash windows aligned with those above, additional sash to right of first bay and to right of last bay, plain board door in wider opening to right of centre bay, with very narrow overlight.
C20 blockwork lean-to garage to left. In right end wall, triple mullion window to attic with 3 tiny sashes and heavy lintel, and long rear roof slope with four-pane casement to right. Rear has yellow brick stack on roof slope to right, and four-window range of large sash windows: nine-pane to ground floor left; doorway with board door; nine-pane sash with four-pane casement above [under eaves] and four-pane sash to right.

Interior

Front door leads into boarded lobby with four-panelled doors leading to former kitchen, passage to rear kitchen, stairwell and parlour. Passage flagged with two low steps down to rear door, with pantry to right in outshut and rear kitchen with two oak beams, to left. Dogleg stair with thick stick balusters and ball finials. Upstairs rooms divided by board partitions. Rear room, under outshut, has evidence of another staircase rising from pantry.

Reason for designation

Included as a substantial traditional farmhouse, with long history connected to one of the leading families of the county.