Searching for the Oldest Houses in Wales

With over 306,000 hits on the website in the last twelve months and more than a hundred members signing up since Easter the DATING OLD WELSH HOUSES GROUP is already making an impact in communities across north west Wales. “Our programme of events is very popular, with waiting lists for our guided visits to old houses and our Study Tour to St Fagans and Cosmeston Medieval village” says Margaret Dunn, Group Secretary. She has recently been made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London for her work running the successful Dating Old Welsh Houses Project and will shortly be giving a lecture on the Project to that Society in London.

Margaret added “we are excited to announce that with our partners, the Royal Commission on Ancient & Historic Monuments of Wales, we will be publishing a book titled Discovering Historic Homes in North-West Wales.”

The Project spent over £250,000, including the time given by around 200 volunteers, to date, record and research around eighty Tudor houses across the region. This was only possible with grant aid from around twenty five organisations led by the HLF. Over a hundred people attended the Annual Public Lecture held this year in Conwy.

“Searching for the Oldest Houses in Wales” has been selected as the topic for the Annual Lectures of both the Caernarfonshire and Merioneth county history societies.

Richard Suggett, of the RCAHMW, will be the speaker giving an emphasis on local buildings on each occasion. The Merioneth Historical & Record Society AGM & Lecture will be held on 6^th October at 2.00 p.m. in Llanelltyd Village Hall, and that for the Carnarfonshire Historical Society will be held on 20^th October at 2.30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, Caernarfon. All are welcome. 

Margaret commented “Another development is the newly revised bilingual website: www.datingoldwelshhouses.co.uk  which contains an increasing amount of information about the project and the Group”.   Anyone interested can join the Group via the website or contact Margaret on 01766 890550.

Old Houses in the Vale of Ffestiniog

This valley and the surrounding area contain amazing survivors of the many Elizabethan homes of farmers and gentry who lived in this then prosperous area. After the wars and famines of the 1400s, the cattle trade with England prospered and the drovers brought back cash and new ideas. Today’s slate tips hide early cattle rearing farmsteads which dotted the hillsides. However it is still possible to trace the developments of houses as the fashions changed.

Even in these stony Welsh mountains, the earliest surviving homes were timber-framed halls open to the roof, with a hearth on the floor and small windows. Large curved crucks of oak reached from the ground to the ridge, often with ornate carved collars. Other hall houses had straight trusses resting on stone walls. At either end of the hall were smaller rooms, for family quarters and storage, which could be of two storeys. Hall houses were smoky with little privacy.

Around the 1530s a new design (now called the Snowdonian style house) became popular across north Wales, and many can be seen locally. This was a storeyed house with a large inglenook fireplace and a gabled end chimney with a spiral stair in the gable end next to the fireplace. Upstairs there was a corbelled chimney in the other gable. Many hall houses were converted into storeyed buildings by inserting a chimney centrally or in a gable end.

Later on, richer families extended their houses by either building additional wings or by building a second house parallel or at right angles to the first.

Y Dduallt

As farming became less prosperous, these farm houses were not replaced in Georgian or Victorian times. Minor improvements such as bathrooms were added, but it can still be possible to discover the earlier styles of 400 years ago.

The felling dates of original timbers in several local houses have been calculated using dendrochronology as part of the “Dating Old Welsh Houses” project run in partnership with the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales. Local volunteers continue to research the histories of these houses, their families and communities.

If you would like to know more or get involved with the project further details are on the website  www.datingoldwelshhouses.co.uk

The contents of this blog are extracted from a leaflet prepared by Margaret Dunn for the Dating Old Welsh Houses Project and financed by a grant from the Friends of Plas Tan y Bwlch. It is available free from Plas Tan y Bwlch, Tourist Information Centres and other outlets.