Range including cowhouse, stables, coach house, smithy and poultry house at Llwydiarth Esgob Farm

Range including cowhouse, stables, coach house, smithy and poultry house at Llwydiarth Esgob Farm

A long agricultural range aligned downslope, comprising six main sections divided by stepped rooflines. At the uphill end is an early 19th-century cowhouse and stable, positioned forward of the remainder of the range. This is followed by two further stables, a coach house and a smithy, all added or remodelled in the mid to late 19th century. A poultry house abuts the lower end of the range, with a dog kennel and run attached to its right.

The buildings are constructed of rubble walls with slate roofs and tiled copings. Running along the front of the range, up the coach house, is a raised kerbed apron of flagstones in front of the cowhouse and cobbles in front of the stables. To the rear is a purpose-built midden lined with flagstones and fitted with a drainage outlet, into which animal waste was passed directly through holes in the rear walls of the cowhouse and stables. A series of two-pane windows and vents serve the rear walls of the cowhouse and stables, and the lofts above, though many frames are in poor condition or missing.

The lean-to abutting the left gable end of the cowhouse has boarded doors in the main elevation and the left return, where there is also a two-pane window. The cowhouse and stable range features timber lintels to the three-door cowhouse on the left, and stone voussoir heads to the openings of the working horse stable on the right. A steep stone staircase with an iron handrail, positioned centrally, leads to a loft door set under the eaves. The loft provided sleeping accommodation for cowmen, who were woken each morning by a bell rung from the farmhouse. Two half-glazed agricultural pattern windows to the left display eight panes in the upper part with two shutters to the lower part and a narrow central mullion.

The working horse stable to the right has a central boarded door flanked by similar eight-pane shuttered windows, with a narrow boarded pitching door above to the right. An unusual early 20th-century combination sundial and wind-direction indicator is mounted to the left, originally operated in conjunction with a weather vane placed on the building's ridge and linked by geared rods, the latter surviving inside. A second stone staircase rises the right gable with a rubble parapet, leading to a boarded door in the gable wall. A twelve-pane casement window in the gable apex lights a garret storey above the stable loft. All loft doors retain round cat holes cut in the lower part.

The cob and donkey stable to the right is set back from the main range, with a central split boarded door flanked by half-glazed eight-pane shuttered windows with brick arch heads. The loft above features two half-glazed three-pane shuttered windows and a single-pane skylight. Former dove holes remain in the right gable apex with three rows of corbel ledges. The riding and carriage horse stables, with a lower eaves line, has a door offset to the left flanked by twelve-pane casement windows with central mullion and stone voussoir heads to ground floor openings. Plain two-light replacement windows serve the loft. Blocked former dove holes with corbel ledges appear in the gable apex. A two-storey lofted loose-box wing is attached to the rear, with two small-paned windows to the ground floor rear and a twelve-pane sash window to the centre of the gable above, all with brick arch heads. A brick chimney serves the gable. The loft provided accommodation for the coachman or head groom.

The coach house to the right is single storey with three wide doors: two bays to the left for coaches and one to the right for shoeing horses, adjoining the smithy. A lean-to addition extends to the rear of the right coach bay. The left door has been altered with the original head removed and the door heightened; the other two doors feature stone basket-arches with dripcourses. All doors are boarded with long external strap hinges, and three ventilation slits are cut into each door to the shoeing room. The smithy is a short cross wing attached to the right gable of the coach house. A stone staircase to the front gable leads to a boarded door accessing the paint loft above, with a stone voussoir head. A stone chimney serves the rear gable. A window to the right return ground floor lights the smithy; it is an unusual framed timber window with a sixteen-pane fixed light as the main part, a tall narrow aperture to the right, and a double opening below, both empty but probably for ventilators.

Abutting the right side of the smithy is a two-unit poultry house with yards, constructed of rubble walls with a single pitch roof. Two low doors have rubble voussoir heads. The left unit is substantially larger. The yard wall to the right is full height, which together with the side wall of the smithy forms a three-sided high walled yard, with a lower wall to the front opening onto a walkway that also serviced pigsties listed separately. A stone arch doorway in the high yard wall to the right leads to a small brick lean-to kennel, built against the yard wall and opening onto an iron-railed run.

Interior

The cowhouse on the left has a central transverse feeding passage with timber stalls either side and a brick wall partition to the right. The working horse stable contains timber stalls for four horses with a separate harness room featuring a double row of harness pegs. The cob and donkey stable has timber stalls and racks for three animals and a sawn and bolted collared truss. The riding and carriage horse stable contains a loose-box to the left with stalls for three horses to the right, and a small timber-lined tackroom to the front left. A curved-headed doorway in the rear wall leads through to an added high-ceilinged bay containing two further loose-boxes, which retain hayracks, corner nose bowls and a tiled floor.

The coach house features a heavy collared tie-beam truss, with the bay to the right extended by a lean-to to the rear. The smithy is accessed via the shoeing room and retains a stone and brick hearth and leather bellows. The paint loft above comprises two bays with a collared truss. The poultry house to the left has three rows of stone nesting boxes built into the rear wall, four to five boxes per row. The unit to the right is smaller with fewer boxes.