Hendai Medieval Farmstead

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument comprises the remains of a building, which was excavated in 1973 and is a feature of the Forest Trail at Newborough.

Excavation revealed the foundations and lower walls of two rooms, consisting of a living/working area and an area for animals, constructed of unfashioned local stones with clay packing set on a layer of red clay directly over sand dune. The building had a Snowdon slate roof.

The larger room measures approximately 9m by 4m with masonry walls surviving to 1.5m high and 0.75m thick and a doorway in the SE-facing wall. The excavation showed that it contained a central open hearth consisting of seven large stones set in thick bedding clay. Surrounding this was a hard-packed layer of clay and pebble flooring. There was also evidence of a sleeping platform near the hearth. The smaller room or byre measures 5.5m by 3.5m and is reached by a centrally placed doorway in the SE-facing wall. It contained a central passage or feeding walk of clay and pebbles down its centre surrounded by pure sand, with traces of a fire at the N end. Cow ribs and vertebrae were found in the sand flooring. Other finds included stone fishing net-weights.

Material coated with rust and metal oxide and a large piece of pitted clay, apparently subjected to tremendous heat, were also found within the house. This and local tradition suggest that it might also have been used as a forge for shoeing cattle or horses before they were driven across the Menai Straits to Caernarvon.

A late or sub-mediaeval date was suggested for the site, but the results of the excavation did not support a period earlier than the eighteenth-century.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of rural settlement. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.