Hen Noyadd

Hen Noyadd

A house built in rubble stone with slate close-eaved roofs. The structure comprises two main ranges of different periods and heights, with the upper part to the right forming a small single-room plan two-storey building, while the lower range is more extensive.

The upper range presents a 2-window elevation on its south-east front with a steep roof and large battered end stacks in rubble stone with dripstones. The south-east front features 20th-century Gothic openings in brown sandstone with leaded lights, including two square chamfered upper windows and a trefoil-cusped single-light window to the ground floor right. A pointed doorway to the left, accessed by three stone steps, may be medieval and has been altered; it features grey limestone jambs and voussoirs in small stones with a 20th-century plank door. The tops of two medieval basement lights are visible below. The right end wall has one tiny loop window. The rear north-west elevation shows tiny chamfered white stone single lights (restored after 1985), one to first floor left and one to basement centre, and a fine red stone Gothic cusped single light to the centre left at mid height, also restored, with an ancient head. A deep-set basement door to the left has a timber lintel. The ragged break in stonework to the right indicates that the lower end has been rebuilt above the basement.

The lower range has a lower ridge line with one ridge chimney. To the right of the chimney is a one-window range, and to the left a 2-window range. All windows are 20th-century 4-pane sashes, though the openings to the right are 19th-century with stone voussoirs, while those to the left are 20th-century with concealed metal lintels. Reused stone sills are employed throughout. A small single-storey 20th-century addition occupies the left end, with window and door to the front. Previously an outside stone stair led to a loft door. The rear elevation shows a high stepped basement wall with 20th-century 4-pane sashes with stone voussoirs on each floor to the left. The section to the right of the chimney has a similar 4-pane window to first floor and a half-length window below, both in 20th-century openings. A 20th-century first floor window appears in the end wall.

Interior: The ground floor room of the main range has an oak-beamed ceiling with square joists and three beams. The chamfered larger centre beam and the upper end beam are supported on stone corbels. Restored fireplaces occupy both end walls. The upper end features a medieval-style fireplace with a large grey stone lintel on corbels and a shallow sloping hood. The lower end has a 17th-century inserted chimney with a fine chamfered and stopped oak lintel, reused from a farm in Cymmer Valley. Stone voussoirs form a cambered rear arch to the front door.

A 1985 conservation report, made when the interior was partly stripped out before restoration, recorded substantial details of the building's earlier phases, some now covered up during restoration work.

Lower end: The medieval hall is lost beyond the main entrance doorway. The lower end has become a small parlour and byre with loft, latterly converted to living accommodation. The basement here contains three blocked windows in the front wall and a small niche to the rear. These windows were set high to avoid the high ground on this side and featured steep sloping sills in splayed reveals. At ground floor, the front wall contained a single jamb of a window, but most of the lower end walls have been rebuilt, possibly in the 17th century, and raised in the 19th century. All existing openings are 19th or 20th-century.

Upper end: The basement contains a medieval window in the front wall to the south of an opening that may earlier have been a small fireplace but later became some form of entrance with a step leading up to the east. A timber lintel spans the opening with evidence of shallow jambs, but no sign of a flue here or above. The rear wall contains a small window and doorway, possibly 17th-century. Between the two parts an inserted 17th-century cross wall carried a winding stone stair serving all levels and a fireplace for the 17th-century hall. Only the basement portion of the stair survives, though traces indicated its upward course.

Ground floor: In the 17th century the north-east room became the hall, entered through the medieval pointed doorway (reduced in size) with the chimney in the wall to the left. A semi-lobby to the left of the fireplace led down into the lower end. The 17th-century fireplace timber lintel has been removed and the fireplace reduced. Timber 19th-century stairs have replaced the stone stair, running up the north-west wall. A medieval fireplace in the end gable was blocked; it had a stone hood on a stone lintel and corbel. The rear wall contains a tall window opening, possibly medieval, with a relieving arch above the present floor level. A 19th-century window in the front wall has a 17th-century south jamb, the opening having been reduced. Evidence in the sill indicates there was once a door here, with a recess remaining inside. The present hall ceiling dates to the later 17th century with chamfered beams carrying curved stepped stops and plain square joists carrying oak boards. The beam on the main fireplace wall is supported at the south end on a lintel over the doorway, inserted under the internal arch of the medieval doorway.

First floor: Above the present floor level both side walls show sockets for beams, widely spaced to indicate only one bay of ceiling to the right of the entrance. A later fireplace in the end wall is associated with an earlier floor level, having had its jambs extended down to the present level in the 17th century. It utilises the flue of the medieval ground floor fireplace and has a timber lintel on corbels with a shallow hood. A slit window appears to the left. A chute was found in the rear wall terminating at external basement level, in whose rubble infill a late medieval spoon was discovered with other fragments. To the right of the chute recess, evidence indicates that a medieval window was extended down to form the present window, which cuts the relieving arch of the ground floor window below. The window head rises above the 17th-century wallplate. A small dressed Sutton stone window frame, found in four pieces in the blocking of the fireplace, could derive from either the ground or first floor rear openings. It is chamfered with an ogee head. The front wall shows signs of an early window at the north-east end, though both present windows are 20th-century. Put-log holes appear in both south-east and north-east walls.

Attic: The attic was formerly open but is now carried on beams bolted to two 17th-century collar trusses. The south-west truss incorporates reused timber, with principals curved below the collar and partly chamfered, and a cambered collar giving an arched form. The trusses rest on an internal wallplate that on the north-west appears to be a reused purlin.