Ty'r Felin

Cadw's description

Location

Set alongside the NW side of the A487(T) in the centre of the small hamlet of Tan-y-bwlch.

History

Mid to late C19 corn mill and mill house. The mill and kiln house were not marked on the tithe map of the parish, 1840, though agricultural buildings may not have been annotated and these formed ancillary buildings to the Tan-y-bwlch estate, at that time owned and occupied by Louisa Jane Oakeley. They are known to have been in place and working, with power derived from the millpond above, before Llyn Mair was created in the 1880s.
William Gruffyd Oakeley (1790-1835) was only 21 when he inherited the Plas Tan-y-bwlch estate and set about an ambitious programme of improving the estate. This entailed new building in the village of Maentwrog and rebuilding or improving the existing buildings. In order to do so he opened a quarry near Gelli Grin from which was quarried the large lengths of brown stone present in so many of the village buildings. The buildings probably utilised Gelli Grin stone, but may have been built after William Gruffydd's time.

Exterior

Two storey mill house and former cornmill in alignment, with open fronted storage building at SW corner. Built of coursed and dressed local stone; slate roof with overhanging eaves and verges and stone stacks with dripstones and capping to either end of the mill house. The house is a 2-window range with central doorway, all openings in pointed arched openings with stone voussoirs; the door is boarded and the windows are timber casements, first floor windows directly under the eaves. The mill is a 4-window range with the doorway offset to the R (E) end; openings are similar but at a lower level and there is a circular window in the W gable apex. At the SW corner of the mill is an open fronted storage area of 2 bays on monolithic stone piers; the rear and W wall built of rubble masonry and the slate roof has stone coping at the W end.

Interior

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

Reason for designation

Listed as a little altered C19 mill and mill house with good estate character, that forms a group with the adjacent mill and mill house at Tan-y-bwlch.