2 Jim Crow Square

Cadw's description

Location

Set back on the NW side of the Highway, with houses at R angles that form Jim Crow Square.

History

Early C19 cottage shown on the 1841 Llanfrechfa Tithe map, when it was occupied by Benjamin Evans. The name ‘Jim Crow Cottage’ was in use by 1849 but its origins are uncertain. Local tradition holds that Evans named the cottage after an English sailor friend. The racist stage character ‘Jim Crow’ was popular in Wales and England during this period but the name in itself has no bearing on the decision to List the building. The cottage was extended in the latter half of the C20 by adding an extra room on the L-hand (SW) side and replacing a doorway with a window.

Exterior

A 1½-storey cottage in early C19 picturesque gothic style, of random rubble walls painted white, with freestone dressings, and under a slate roof behind wavy barge boards. The ridge stack, which has 2 diagonal shafts, is a modern replacement in brown brick. Entrance on garden front, which is picturesquely composed with gabled range flanked by a short wing on the R and formerly similar but enlarged wing on the L, both set back. There are two 2-light mullioned windows in the lower storey, with round-headed lights with small-pane glazing, sunk spandrels, and under hood moulds. Above is a single but similar attic window but under an ogee hood mould. On the R side is the doorway under a pointed arch, with replacement door, under a smooth-rendered parapet with small gable concealing the monopitch roof behind. On the L side a former pointed doorway has been converted to a floor-length window, with 2 round-headed lights and small-pane glazing. This doorway was formerly under a smooth-rendered parapet with gable, but has been incorporated into the parapet of a flat-roofed extension, which has a 2-light window in a similar style to the main cottage windows. In the rear is a small-pane 2-light casement in the attic and a casement window below, under wooden lintels.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Listed, notwithstanding some alteration and extension, as a rare surviving example of an early C19 small rural cottage in a picturesque style retaining early character and detail.