Dyffryn Arms Public House

Cadw's description

Location

In the centre of the hamlet of Pontfaen, near to the Picton Mill Bridge.

History

Dated 1845 and shown largely in its current form on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888. Originally constructed as a house and later converted for use as public house. It has been in the ownership of the Davis family since it was built, the current licensee Bessie Davis giving the pub its affectionate name of ‘Bessie’s’.

The interior of the Dyffryn Arms has a layout typical of most traditional rural pubs, as houses where beer was served and people congregated, a type of pub that has now largely disappeared. There is no bar or conventional pub fittings: the ‘bar’ is one of the ground floor rooms, and rather than a bar counter there is a serving hatch through to a rear extension which is used as a cellar where the beer is stillaged and served by glass jug into glasses. The furniture and decoration in the bar is typical of a rural farmhouse or cottage.

Exterior

Public House, 2 storey 3 bay symmetrical façade with central pedimented entrance bay projecting slightly. Lower 2 storey wing set back to right hand side. Painted roughcast, small pane 12-light sash windows with raised keystone architrave surrounds and projecting cills. Slate roofs and brick gable stacks. Recessed round headed plaque in gabled pediment with date 1845 and ‘LLWYN-CELYNEN’ around a depiction of a tree. Timber pub sign above the door, ‘DYFFRYN ARMS, FREE HOUSE – BURTON – BASS, PROPRIETOR BESSIE DAVIS’. Wing to right of 2 offset bays, door to ground floor against gable of pub and small window to side, two similar sized windows above, all replaced

Interior

Central corridor on the ground floor, with red and black quarry tiled floor and 1930s brown and black dado tiling. Doors at end to left and right hand rooms. Left hand room is the ‘bar’ room. In the rear wall a 3-light sliding sash opens onto the ground floor cellar in the rear extension. Red and black quarry tile floor, late C20 stone fireplace. Lounge in the right hand room, also accessed from passage in right hand extension. Cellar in rear extension, modernised c1950.

Reason for designation

Included for its special architectural and historic interest as a very rare survival of a rural pub in a mid C19 building of late Georgian pattern, typical of this period and retaining good historical detailing. It represents a once common building type across the British Isles that has now been almost completely lost.