1 Gelli Fawr

1 & 2 Gelli Fawr, Gelli, Whitford

A two-storey three-window house of random stone under slate roofs with stone chimney stacks raised in brick. The building comprises a main front range with a gabled staircase projection to the rear and a later rear wing, extended further in the late twentieth century. Architectural details include large quoins and raised copings with kneelers. Large projecting stack marks the west gable end, with a lateral stack between the main range and rear wing.

The front elevation features a central doorway with a Tudor-arched head and hoodmould. Immediately to its right is a small square-headed blocked window, followed by a three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window with square hoodmould. Three-light mullioned window is aligned above, to the left of which is a two-light window with arched heads to each light, possibly of earlier date. To the left of the doorway, the masonry is disturbed where an external staircase formerly stood. Further left is a three-light ovolo-mullioned window with square hoodmould, with a similar window above. A small single light window lights the upper storey at the far left. The west gable end has a stepped projecting stack, to the left of which is a segmental-headed light to each storey. The west side of the two-storey staircase projection contains a two-light mullioned window with hoodmould, with a similar window to the gable of the projection and a renewed two-light window below. A small blocked window with square head is on the east side.

To the rear, immediately right of the staircase projection is a three-light window with arched heads to each light. Above is a similar two-light window. To the right is a late twentieth-century glazed porch with corrugated plastic roof (opposite the front entrance), above which is a twentieth-century window opening with brick jambs and concrete lintel. Right again is a renewed two-light mullioned window with an inserted window in the same style above.

The east gable end has a doorway offset to the right with a segmental head of voussoirs under a hoodmould, containing double planked doors with a glazed inner door. A very small light is to its left. Lighting the upper chamber is a window replaced in the 1950s, consisting of three lancets in plate tracery under an arched head with hoodmould. The rear wing was extended in the late twentieth century to include a doorway, two-light window above, and a stone end stack. The former doorway to the right, under a segmental head of voussoirs, has been converted to a two-light window with matching window above. The west side of the rear wing has renewed windows in a similar style, with a two-light window to the gable end offset to the left. Most windows are sixteenth century in date; they consist of two- or three-light mullioned windows with hoodmoulds, though some appear to be earlier.

Interior

The front room was the outer or service room of the sub-medieval house, located to the right of the cross-passage (now in 1 Gelli Fawr). To the rear is a room of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, with a late twentieth-century extension behind. The current entrance leads into the kitchen in the modern extension. A half-glazed panelled door leads into the front room. Inside this room is a blocked doorway offset to the left of the front with a Tudor-arched head and large stone jambs. The ceiling has one spine beam with narrow chamfer and pegs, which may have held a partition, and plain joists. The small window in the east end has splayed reveals. The south wall contains a small stone fireplace, which previously had a stone head now covered over. On the rear side of the fireplace, an opening was found in the wall, possibly of an early external window. A staircase formerly stood in the front room, now replaced by one in the addition.

The upper storey is open to the roof, with a corridor running along the east side of the house and bathroom and bedrooms opening to the left. A large arched-brace truss is visible against the east gable end of the front range, with three pairs of purlins, those at the top replaced. The pointed east window has splayed reveals and a wooden lintel. A further arched-brace truss is divided by a partition wall between two bedrooms to the left. In the front bedroom, against the front wall, is a doorway with a Tudor-arched head relating to the external doorway.