Hafod-y-Bwch Hall

Hafod-y-Bwch Hall

A one and a half storeyed house of substantial architectural interest, comprising a west range, an east cross-wing, and paired east wings. The building displays evidence of phased construction and alteration spanning from the medieval period to the twentieth century.

The west range is faced with well coursed and squared stone on its north elevation, with rough rubble and brick to the south. A storeyed porch of tooled stone with painted plaster (in imitation of and possibly modelled on an original timber frame) projects from the front. The outer doorway has a moulded architrave and is fitted with a heavy studded plank door with fine wrought strap hinges. Two stone mullioned and transomed windows are positioned to the right of the porch, with a twentieth-century lean-to extension continuing its line to the left. Gabled dormers at first floor level contain wood mullioned and transomed windows. A stone coat of arms, reset but dated to 1590, is positioned beneath the right-hand window. The rear elevation has largely renewed windows, except for a three-light gabled dormer window to the right of the lateral brick stack.

The east cross-wing is faced in well coursed and squared stone on its north front and brick to the rear. Earlier timber-framing remains visible towards the eaves in both east and west elevations, with a corner post also visible in the rear elevation. The fenestration is probably largely of mid-nineteenth-century date: a canted bay window with mullioned and transomed lights in the north gable, and mullioned and transomed lights with wedge lintels above. The brick rear elevation has three-light mullioned windows with single-ring cambered heads and renewed glazing bars. Paired side-wall stacks break through the continuous roof-slope behind the early seventeenth-century short east wings; they are enriched with sunk diaper panels in bands and were probably reconstructed when these wings were added.

The paired east wings, built against the east wall of the cross-wing, are timber-framed in small square panels with brick nogging. The paired gables on the east elevation flank a narrow central bay containing a later gabled porch and a four-light wood mullioned window in a dormer gable above. Each gable has a single five-light wood mullioned and leaded window at first floor, carried forward on moulded brackets; similar moulding adorns the bressumers of the gable apexes. An additional small window is located in the apex of the north gable. The south return elevation has a three-light wood mullioned window on each floor; similar four-light windows appear to the north.

The three-bay hall range retains evidence of an original two-bay open hall, with the survival of a truss featuring a steeply cambered tie-beam supported on shaped brackets (possibly from a concealed base-cruck) and with fine cusped braces in the west bay. Two closed trusses define the east bay: these are a king-post truss and a collar truss, positioned over box-framed partitions representing an internal partition wall and the original end gable of the house. Two sets of purlins with wind-braces are present. Other internal detail in this range is largely renewed. A fine seventeenth-century staircase with heavily moulded string and turned newels was introduced from Five Fords, Marchwiel around 1970.

The cross-wing comprises two rooms on each floor. The rear room is fitted with paired heavy stop-chamfered transverse beams. Two first-floor rooms have plaster ceilings with moulded cornices running round the transverse beams and fleur-de-lys motifs in each corner. The plasterwork is interrupted at each gable wall, suggesting that it predates the refronting of this range; it is probably of the early seventeenth century. A staircase from the first floor to the attic storey is also probably of this date, featuring splat balusters, splayed newels with heavy finials, and a moulded rail. The framing timbers enclosing it are decorated with stop-chamfered detail.