Upper Bwlch, including attached farm ranges

Cadw's description

Location

Approximately 0.75km NNE of Gaufron hamlet, reached from the N side by a farm road S of a minor road between Rhayader and Abbey Cwmhir.

History

A late medieval cruck-framed house, converted to a storeyed house in the C17 with end entry and longhouse-derived plan. The house was altered again in the second half of the C19, when the front was mainly rebuilt in brick and a central entrance was created. The present cow house is also C19 but replaces an earlier similar structure shown on the 1840 Tithe map. The cart shed is also a C19 addition.

Exterior

A 2-storey 3-window house of rubble stone, the front rebuilt in brick to the centre and L side, painted white, with renewed slate roof and stone end stacks. Openings are beneath segmental heads in the lower storey and beneath the eaves in the upper storey. The central door has been replaced. Windows are 6-pane horned sashes. Farm ranges are in line to the R and L. On the L side is an added, open-fronted cart shed with weatherboarded loft, rubble-stone gable end with boarded loft door, and C19 slate roof. Against the R gable end of the house is a weatherboarded cow shed with corrugated-iron roof, which has 5 split boarded doors and 3 boarded loft doors.

Interior

One complete cruck truss survives inside the house, although partly concealed. In the gable end part of a cruck truss has survived embedded within the stonework of the hall fireplace. The present plan of the house is C19 with central hall and dog-leg stair. The former C17 hall, on the R side, has 2 spine beams with stepped stops, and fireplace with big timber lintel and bread oven.

Reason for designation

Listed as a late-medieval house showing evidence of change over several centuries, retaining C19 character and, with the attached farm ranges, a well-preserved Radnorshire farmstead of a type once characteristic of the region.