Pen-y-Graig Farmhouse, including attached garden walls

Pen-y-Graig Farmhouse, including attached garden walls

A 17th-century limestone rubble farmhouse with a renewed steep slate roof, comprising a 1-and-a-half storied main range with a lobby-entry, 3-unit plan and lean-tos against the gable ends, together with two rear wings—an earlier main wing on the west side and a later dairy wing on the east side. The house has tall freestone stacks to the right of centre and at the rear, with a roughcast stack to the left.

The south front features a 4-window elevation with 20th-century fenestration in white brick surrounds beneath gabled dormers on the upper storey. The windows are replacement 2- and 3-light wooden casements. The entrance, positioned right of centre, sits within a brick porch of the same date as the windows, fitted with a modern door. To the left of the front is a brick shed set back against the gable end, under a lean-to corrugated asbestos-cement roof. The left gable end is cement rendered and contains a 2-light upper-storey window. On the right side is a set-back lean-to former wash house with a boarded door beneath a brick segmental head. Above it in the gable end of the main range is a window that replaces a blocked former doorway, with a 2-light window above the lean-to in the gable. Behind the wash house stands another lean-to abutting the dairy wing, which projects slightly further. The dairy wing is 2 storeys but lower than the main range, with 2-light windows in its gable end. It partially obscures an upper storey window in the main range—a wide strip with wooden mullions, now with only a glass panel added before it. Between the dairy wing and the main rear wing sits a low lean-to bread oven. The main rear wing is higher than the main house and has a separate entrance on the west side with a modest boarded door beneath a segmental head. To its left is a 2-light window lighting a stairway, and further left are metal-framed French doors added in the late 20th century. A single 2-light window appears beneath the eaves in the upper storey. The opposite, east-facing wall has windows under brick segmental heads in the lower storey and beneath the eaves above. To the right of the rear wing is a single rear window in the main range. Elsewhere, windows have generally been replaced by modern casements in original openings, positioned either beneath the eaves or under timber lintels.

Rubble stone walls are attached to the front wall, creating a very narrow forecourt. A further garden wall is attached to the rear angle at the left gable end.

The 17th-century part of the house contains a lobby-entry 3-unit plan comprising a hall, kitchen and parlour, with back-to-back fireplaces. The lower storey has slate slab floors throughout, except for the bathroom in the rear wing. Embedded in the walls of the hall, kitchen and entrance lobby are fragments of cruck blades indicating an earlier house of at least 3 bays. All three rooms and the entrance lobby have joist-beam ceilings with stepped stops to beams and joists, their arrangement apparently influenced by the position of the former cruck trusses. In the hall are cross beams, one of which abuts the fireplace and is supported on a stone corbel. The kitchen and parlour contain spine beams; in the parlour, a spine beam is attached to an earlier cross beam associated with a cruck truss. The hall has a fireplace beneath a timber lintel, and its north wall contains a blocked former window. Part of a post-and-panel screen dividing the hall from the parlour survives, featuring two doorways: one original with a boarded door and strap hinges, and one modern. The original door opens onto a close-string straight stair concealed behind the screen from the parlour by a timber-framed partition. The parlour contains a 19th-century cast-iron fireplace in a panelled wood surround, and its rear window has an adjoining recess, probably designed to accommodate a sliding shutter. The kitchen has a timber lintel over the fireplace, beneath which is a bread oven with a cast-iron door, and a straight stair with winders at the top, featuring a simple newel and handrail.

Steps from the hall lead into the main rear wing, which is divided on the ground floor into a main room, bathroom and stair hall. The main room contains a 19th-century cast-iron fireplace with tile inserts in a slate surround and a high joist-beam ceiling. Access to the first floor is by a straight closed-string staircase with a panel cupboard door beneath it. The dairy wing, now divided into 2 units, has slate shelves around its walls; access to the upper storey was originally by ladder and this upper room was not inspected. The wash house has a brick floor.

In the upper storey, the room above the hall contains a fireplace with a timber lintel, above which sits a roof truss with superimposed collar beams. The lower collar beam is carried on stone corbels above the fireplace. Exposed timber-framing appears in the partition between the room over the hall and the room over the parlour, which also incorporates an original boarded door with strap hinges. The room above the parlour has simple 19th-century balusters and hand rail at the top of the stairs. Above the lobby entrance is a short corridor leading from the top of the kitchen stairs. In the room over the kitchen, the staircase is concealed by a plaster partition bearing a painted inscription "JW:EB/1775". The stone stack in this room is hidden by a timber-framed partition that also bisects the wide rear window, which has wooden diamond mullions, some concealed from outside by the dairy wing. The gable-end window has a recess on its left side, probably for an original sliding shutter. The first floor above the main rear wing is divided into 2 rooms and a bathroom, with a cast-iron fireplace in a wooden surround in the rear gable end.

The rear wings and side lean-tos were added later to the original 17th-century structure.