RADNORSHIRE

BEGUILDY, Bryndrynaenog (SO 204 785)

(a) Primary phase

Felling date: Spring 1436

Cruck 1435 (39¼C).  Site Master 1303-1435 bry1 (t=5.4 PLASUCHA; 4.9 WNCHSTR2; 4.4 BEDSTONE)

(b)     Repair phase

Felling date: Summer 1615

Principal post 1614 (38½C).  Site Master 1414-1614 bry2 (t=8.5 SALOP95; 8.3 NORTH; 8.0 GIERTZ)

Bryndrynaenog, Beguildy, is an elaborate hall associated with a dominant family in the Lordship of Maelienydd.  Dated here to 1436, the house is celebrated in a fifteenth-century poem where it is described as ‘the work of angels’.  The house is U-shaped in plan with a central three-bay hall flanked by wings combining open and storeyed bays.  A two-bayed lesser hall, or kitchen, was situated in the south wing.  The house is of box-framed construction but with base-crucks in the central hall.  The hall was entered by an unusual contemporary storeyed porch.

This vast structure is unified by a distinctive stop-with-torus and a decorative roof including cusped and pierced windbraces and traceried panels between collars over the base crucks.  The dais end of the hall is only modestly decorated with a crenellated beam at the centre; a similar beam supports the gallery over the cross passage.  The decorative elements have parallels in Herefordshire but the scale of Bryndraenog is exceptional.

The hall was never floored but was given a balcony in 1634.  The sampling of a principal post at the passage end revealed that the hall had been repaired with a timber felled in 1615.  This repair phase had also been inadvertently sampled by V. Siebenlist and the late date obtained had been a source of confusion since it suggested a very archaic Welsh building tradition (Fletcher 1980).

Plans and account:  Smith (1975), figs 15-16; Brooksby (1970), 29-31, 34-37; Haslam (1979), 218-20. (Miles and Haddon-Reece 1996, VA 27, list 74)

CWMDEUDDWR, Nannerth-Ganol (SN 950 700)

(a)     Primary phase

Felling dates: Summer/autumn 1555, Winter 1555/6

Cruck 1554 (33½C); Collar 1555 (20C); Muntin hall partition 1524 (h/s); Ridge, Purlin, Window head (0/3).  Site Master 1454-1555 nan1 (t=5.3 shu7; 5.3 NORTH; 4.9 ENGLAND)

(b)     Inserted hall floor

Felling dates: Early summer 1633

Half-beam 1632 (31½C); Mantlebeam (0/1).  Site Master 1503-1632 nan5 (t=5.1 BELFAST; 5.0 SCOTLAND; 4.5 SALOP95)

Nannerth-ganol, Cwmdeuddwr is an important house which classically exemplifies the problems of interpreting longhouses.  There are two phases: a cruck-framed and stone-walled house with an open smoke-blackened hall of a single bay with a floored inner room beyond.  The lower end has been lost.  The present hearth-passage plan with outside cross-passage was defined by the inserted chimney with fireplace stair.  Vernacular detail from the first phase includes the post-and-panel partition with harr-hung door, and the pre-glazing diamond-section mullioned windows, both having quarter-round moulding.  The first phase has been dated to 1555/6 and an inserted floor in the hall dated to 1633.  Plans and descriptions:  Iorworth Peate, The Welsh House 1940, p 80;  Smith, ‘The Long-house and the Laithe-house’, in Culture and Environment, ed I. Ll. Foster and L. Alcock (1963), 423-4, 436-7. (Miles and Haddon-Reece 1996, VA 27, list 74)

DISCOED, Upper House (SO 276 647) Solar cross-wing

Felling dates: Winter 1530/31 and Spring 1536

Purlin 1535 (25¼C); First floor girt 1530 (62C); Tiebeam 1521 (32). Site Master 1375-1535 DISCOED1 (t=11.4 SALOP95; 9.4  MASTERAL; 9.3  SOUTH)

Upper House, Discoed, is a fine close-studded storeyed solar wing which survives from a late-medieval range which has been otherwise completely reconstructed.  The wing is comparable with the added solar at Burfa in terms of detail and plan development, but the applied pilaster window at Upper House is particularly notable.  Unpublished RCAHMW plan and sections. (Miles and Worthington 1998, VA 29, list 94)

EVENJOBB, Old Burfa (SO 279 613)

(a)     Hall

Felling dates: Winter 1486/7 and Winter 1487/8

Purlin 1486 (20C); Cruck blade 1487 (25C). Site Master 1347-1487 OLDBRFA1 (t=14.0 WALES97; 13.1 SALOP95; 10.9 HERECB2)

(b)     Solar cross-wing

Felling dates: Winter 1500/1501 and Spring 1502

(c)     Alterations to Hall

Felling date: Winter 1643/4

(b) Wall plate 1501 (32¼C); Principal rafter to hall gable 1500 (28C). (c) Inner longitudinal beam 1643 (27C); Moulded transverse beam 1643 (17C). Site Master 1506-1643 brfa7 (t=7.3 PENIARTH; 6.4 OLDHLLFM; 5.6 HABBERLY)

Old Burfa is a vernacular house of three main phases:  (1) a downhill-sited cruck-framed hall-house (1487); (2) a close-studded, jettied, storeyed solar wing replacing the upper end bay, and a cross-gable inserted over the upper end of the hall (1502); (3) the stair projection and enlargement of the hall with ovolo-moulded timber detail (1643/4).  Wall paintings survive on the hall side of the solar and within the wing.  The sampling was undertaken to refine the interpretation of the house and to date the timber detail.  RCAHMW plan and sections:  see VAG Spring Conference Radnosshire Programme 1996. (Miles and Worthington 1998, VA 29, list 94)

GLADESTRY, Llanhaylow Old House (demolished) (SO 2085 5356)                              

(a)     Primary cruck phase       

Felling date range: (OxCal modelled) 1515-36  (unrefined 1511-41)

(b)     Secondary cruck phase  

Felling date range: 1545-75

(a) Crucks (3/4) 1502(1), 1499, 1431; (b) Cruck 1534(H/S). Site Masters (a) 1344-1502 CLYRO (t= 9.1 GLOUC_MH; 9.1 WALES97; 8.7 HEREFC); (b) 1436-1534 clyr5 (t = 7.4 STOKE4; 6.5 WALES97; 6.2 LAWNS1)

A cruck-framed hall-house probably of ‘peasant’ type with three pairs of crucks with tiebeams defining the single-bayed hall and inner-room of a ‘peasant’ hall-house. The type has been described in Richard Suggett, Houses & History in the March of Wales (RCAHMW, 2005), and Llanhaylow should be added to the list of sites. The cruck frame had been dismantled prior to sampling, making a full interpretation of the building very difficult. Five of the six cruck blades were suitable for sampling. Two samples with complete sapwood from truss A failed to date conclusively. However another sample from truss A, as well as one each from trusses C and D did match together and dated. Another cruck from truss D also dated, but the 1545-75 date range shows that this cruck was from a later phase of construction. Sampling commissioned by owner in association with RCAHMW. (Miles, Worthington, and Bridge 2007, VA 38, list 193)

GLADESTRY, Lower Hengoed (SO 266 533)

Felling date: Winter 1491/2

Crucks (2/3) 1484 (16); 1491 (28C). Site Master 1357-1491 LHENGOED (t=6.6 MASTERAL; 6.6 NORTH; 6.5 WALES97)

The most complete of the Radnorshire three-unit cruck-framed hall-houses with a characteristic arch-braced and quatrefoiled central hall truss.  The precise late-15th-century felling date obtained is consistent with dates obtained from similar halls of gentry status in Wales and the Marches (VA 27 (1996), 29-33).  Unpublished plan and description: National Monuments Record for Wales. (Miles and Worthington 1999, VA 30, list 103)

LLANANNO, Bwlch (SO 085 747)

Felling dates: Spring 1522

Crucks (1/2) 1521 (28¼C); Yoke (0/1).  Site Master 1396-1521 bwl1 (t=6.6 neu4; 5.6 GOLDING; 5.1 by3)  Carved mantlebeam 1499 (h/s).  Site Master 1433-1499 bwl4 (t=8.2 MASTERAL; 7.3 GIERTZ; 7.1 SENG1)

Bwlch, Llananno, is a stone-walled cruck-framed three-unit hall-house with a two-bay hall. The open cruck-couple at the centre of the hall has a plain apex with raking struts over chamfered arch-braces.  There were originally no integral partitions under the tiebeams of the couples at each end of the hall.  The inner room appears to have been floored over with the joists carried on the L-sectioned tiebeam, a feature found in other houses in the county.  The estimated felling date range for the elaborately carved mantle-beam suggests the fireplace was inserted not long after the hall was built in 1522.  The decoration includes a dragon, Tudor rose, a ‘green man’, and a hollowed-out salt cupboard; the mantle-beam, however, is not in situ. Plans: VAG Spring Conference Programme 1996. (Miles and Haddon-Reece 1996, VA 27, list 74)

KNIGHTON, Llanshay (SO 296 718)

(a)     Primary phase

Felling dates: Very early spring 1431, Winter 1432/3

Cruck 1430 (23C); Purlin 1432 (23C); Rafter 1432 (12C).  Site Master 1319-1432 LLANSHAY (t=8.2 SALOP95; 7.2 NORTH; 6.5 BOWHILL)

(b)     Repair phase

Felling dates: Spring 1606

Purlin 1605 (26¼C).  Site Master 1476-1605 lsy1 (t=6.3 UPWICH3; 5.5 GWRNFYDA; 5.5 BEDSTONE)

Llanshay, Knighton, is a cruck-framed, timber-walled three-unit hall-house with a hall of two bays between upper parlour and the lower cowhouse.  The passage partition had large open panels and the ornate central arch-braced truss has a cusped apex of quatrefoil between trefoils.  Sampling produced a date of 1432/3 and a repair phase of 1606.  Survey: National Monuments Record for Wales, RCAHMW. (Miles and Haddon-Reece 1996, VA 27, list 74)

NANTMEL, Cefn-ceido (SN 982 682)

Felling date range: 1475-1505

Purlin (1/3) 1466 (2); Cruck blades; Collar (0/3); Site Master 1415-1466 cefn3 t=6.6 WALES97; 6.4 GARDENCT; 6.4 HERECB2)

Cefn-ceido is a late-medieval cruck-framed hall-house which has produced a felling date range of 1475-1505.  A central hall of two bays is set between an upper end bay and a lower end projecting wing.  Unusual features includes the king post of the central truss, the over-sailing cruck blade of the wing which defines the cross-passage doorway, and the apparently contemporary combination of stone and timber walling.  The central truss is un-cusped.  Cefn-ceido was probably converted into a barn circa 1800 and the hall remains open to the roof. RCAHMW plan and sections:  see VAG Spring Conference Radnosshire Programme 1996. (Miles and Worthington 1998, VA 29, list 94)

NANTMEL, Middle Nant-serth (SN 969 699)

Felling date: Winter 1555/6

Tiebeam 1555 (23C); Collar (0/1); Crucks (0/2). Site Master 1446-1555 mns1 (t=6.0 WALES97; 4.8 BEDSTONE; 4.8 PENIARTH)

A three-unit cruck-framed upland hall-house with an arch-braced but otherwise plain central hall truss.  An interesting late felling date was obtained for the crucks but the inserted fireplace and ceiling was not sampled.  Unpublished plan and description: National Monuments Record for Wales. (Miles and Worthington 1999, VA 30, list 103)

NEWCHURCH, The Great House (SO 216 506)

Felling dates: Autumn 1449, Winter 1449/50

Crucks 1448 (20½C), 1449 (16C); Lower tie 1449 (19C).  Site Master 1359-1449 GRTHOUSE (t=9.2 MASTERAL; 8.0 WICK; 8.0 SALOP95)

Great House, Newchurch (1450), is a timber-framed hall-house of cruck construction, having couples with the widest recorded span in Wales.  The two-bay hall, with a central open couple decorated with cusping and arch-braces, remains mainly intact, although the lower end and the upper end have been rebuilt; the partition at the upper end of the hall had two arch-headed doorways.  At the lower end there are again two doorways, probably leading into service rooms, but here both have flat heads.  All the external walls were rebuilt in stone when the chimney was inserted and a porched lobby-entrance was made on the west side in 1661.  A timber-framed dormer was constructed on the west side of the chamber above the floored-over hall. Plan and survey: National Monuments Record for Wales, RCAHMW, description: VAG Spring Conference Programme 1996. (Miles and Haddon-Reece 1996, VA 27, list 74)

NORTON, Old Impton (SO 292 670)

(a)     Main Range

Felling date: Winter 1471/2

Purlins 1471 (30C); 1431 (H/S); Principal rafters (0/2). Site Master 1391-1471 OLDIMTN1 (t=9.1 GIERTZS; 9.0 WALES97; 8.6 OLDBRFA1)

(b)     Porch and rear wing

Felling dates: Summer 1542 and Winter 1542/3

Corner post 1542 (56C); Purlins 1542 (29C, 31C), 1541 (33); Wall plate 1541 (23½C); Window cill beam 1519 (H/S); Strut/principal rafter 1521 (H/S). Site Master 1415-1542 OLDIMTN2 (t=7.7 STOKE4; 7.0 SALOP95; 6.9 WALES97)

Old Impton, Norton, is a complex house of unit system type which developed from a downhill-sited stone-built medieval core of 1471.  Two close-studded storeyed wings were added to the upper and lower ends of the medieval range and a new jettied porch provided an elaborate entrance to the hall.  The timber detail is of exceptional quality with distinctive pilaster-mouldings on the posts of the west range and elaborate and sophisticated carved detail to the porch, both giving felling dates of 1542.  Special mention must be made of the porch jetty bracket depicting carpentry tools.  The sampling was undertaken to refine the interpretation of the house and to date the timber details. RCAHMW plan and sections.  See VAG Spring Conference Programme Radnorshire 1996. (Miles and Worthington 1998, VA 29, list 94)

PRESTEIGNE, Tan House (SO 316 645)

Felling dates: Winter 1435/6 and Spring 1436

Principal rafter 1435 (15C); Purlin 1435 (27¼C); Collar (0/1). Site Master 1338-1435 TANHOUSE (t=7.2 OLDBRFA1; 6.5 LLANSHAY; 5.8 WHITEHLL)

A fine box-framed storeyed solar wing of three bays with multi-cusped trusses survives from an important hall-house sited near the parish church.  The 1436 felling date is one of the earliest obtained by the Welsh dendrochronology project.  The felling dates for Tan House and White Hall (below) suggest that a post-Glyndwr rebuilding took place in this border town.  Unpublished plan and description: National Monuments Record for Wales. (Miles and Worthington 1999, VA 30, list 103)

PRESTEIGNE, White Hall (SO 314 643)

Felling dates: Spring 1462 to Summer 1463

Cross-wing principal rafters (1/2) 1461 (29¼C); Hall rafters 1452 (H/S); 1462 (26C, 27C, 20¼C, 24½C); Principal rafter (0/1). Site Master 1352-1462 WHITEHLL (t=10.8 OLDBRFA1; 10.7 WALES97; 10.6 SALOP95)

The most complete late-medieval town-house in central Wales.  A box-framed two-bay hall with upper cross-wing of three bays survive.  The roofs of both hall (with louvre) and cross-wing (with restrained cusping) survive virtually complete.  Unpublished plan and description: National Monuments Record for Wales. (Miles and Worthington 1999, VA 30, list 103)