Penarth-fawr

Penarth-fawr is a 17th-century farmhouse, built of local rubble stone on offset boulder foundations and originally with a flush pointed finish, now with a modern thick slate roof and gable stacks. The building originally comprised a 2-bay open hall with a cross-passage and a service bay with an upper floor and later a cellar or buttery below. At the front is a radial stone arched entrance with a mid 20th-century boarded door and a tall 3-light transomed timber window from the 1930s restoration, featuring leaded glazing and extending to the eaves. A 19th-century 16-paned sash window is located at the service end. The rear features a large projecting lateral chimney breast with stepped shoulders rising to a stone stack with weather drip courses, and a pitched roof hipped into the main roof. A further window is present to the side of the stack. Two 16-paned sash windows are in the south gable end, which extends eastward as a separate dwelling at right angles, covering the rear door and the east side service end window. A former parlour wing extending to the rear at the north end has been lost.

Internally, the exposed and pointed rubble stonework reveals a stone flagged floor, replacing a previous beaten and finished clay surface. The open 2-bay roof features a tie and collar beam truss against the north wall; the tie is moulded on both soffits and the upper part was originally filled with wattle and daub. The most significant feature is the remarkable spere truss at the south end of the hall, along with the roof structure over the hall itself. The main spere posts are moulded, with horizontal braces to the outer aisle posts, with chamfered internal arises, and raised sill plates extending to the outer walls. The posts are arch-braced and stopped to the tie beam, which picks up and returns the heavy roll moulding of the posts; the moulding features small capitals forming the base of the arch braces. The posts also have shaped braces to the arcade plates, with raking struts tenoning to the principal rafters, creating cusped openings. The principals are slightly tapered and have one tenoned purlin above the plates. The central hall truss spans the full width, with curved feet set into the stone walls on a wall plate. Cusped braces extend to both the square set arcade plate and the upper purlin. The original beam carrying the floor over the cross passage has an inscription dating to February 20, 1656. Adjacent to this, in the north bay, is a cusped and yoked support for a former smoke louvre. A ridge beam is set at an angle. The wall on the south side of the through passage was originally framed to the roof and filled with wattle and daub, with a moulded main bressumer. A modern stair provides access to the upper floor. An inserted lateral fireplace in the hall is arched with shaped voussoirs, crowned by a moulded string course; directly above it are the arms of Huw Gwyn and the date 1615. The wall at the upper end of the hall is plastered and limewashed, concealing two blocked doors that originally led to the former parlour range. The solar room at the south end contains a small, later fireplace similar to the one below.