Glandwr Cottages including garden wall and gates

Cadw's description

Location

Slightly set back from the SE side of Bull Street (A496) towards the S end of the village of Maentwrog.

History

Late C19 cottage, one of a mirrored pair. Following the death of William Gruffydd Oakeley of Plas Tan-y-bwlch in 1835, the estate was left to his widow Louisa Jane Oakeley and then on to William Edward Oakeley, William Gruffydd's nephew. Louisa suddenly left Maentwrog in 1868 and did not return before her death in 1878. The estate was therefore left under the management of William Edward Oakeley from 1869 onwards and despite the depletion of the family fortune and the decline in the slate industry towards the end of the C19, he embarked on a programme of rebuilding and improvement of the estate. He rebuilt many of the houses in the village and also extended the village with the erection of several new properties to the S and W end of the village. One of the buildings built at this time was the school, erected in 1871-2, the cottages were probably built shortly after.

Offered up for sale in the auction of the Plas Tan-y-bwlch estate, 1910, in Lot 12 'The Picturesque Rural Village of Maentwrog'. The property was described as Glandwr - a pair of ornamental cottages, occupied by John Jones and Catherine Williams, for an annual rent of £5-10s-0d (£5.50) apiece.

Exterior

Belongs to a group of:
No's 1 and 2 Glandwr Cottages.

Mirrored pair of late C19 estate built cottages, in the simplified gothic style characteristic of the Tan-y-bwlch estate at this period. Built of mortared rubble masonry with large stones as quoins and lintels. Slate roof with overhanging eaves and verges; broad central stone stack with dripstones and capping. Each house has a gabled half dormer that breaks the eaves line to the centre of the principal elevation, they are advanced from the wall and have timbered panelling at the apex and are surmounted by shaped finials; similar, but open, panels are at each gable apex. There is a full width, slate roofed verandah on timber piers along the main elevation. Doorways are aligned to the outer ends of the main elevation and windows are timber casements of 2 and 3-lights with slate sills. The garden is enclosed by a low rubble wall with raking stone slab coping, articulated by tall square gatepiers with pyramidal heads, and surmounted by alternate tall and short vertical railings with arrowhead finials.

No 1 has UPVC windows replacing original timber casements.

Interior

The interior was not inspected at the time of the survey (June/July 2003).

Reason for designation

Listed as a little altered late C19 estate cottage that forms a group with the other buildings in the estate village of Maentwrog.