Cefn Pentre

Cefn Pentre is a house and farm-building range of largely timber-framed construction. The house comprises a 3-window range with a rendered front façade, while the adjoining farm-range is clad in weather-boarding to its front elevation. Both structures have slate roofs throughout, with brick end-wall stacks serving the house. Some brickwork is visible in the gable ends of both the house and farm-range, evidence of 19th-century remodelling and repair.

The house front elevation features small-paned casements, with the ground-floor windows now concealed beneath a modern lean-to covering the left-hand bays. A modern porch containing a doorway has been added against the right-hand gable stack. A further doorway in what appears externally as the left-hand bay of the farm-range actually leads to a wide passage that forms part of the dwelling.

The rear elevation reveals two distinct phases of timber framing. The lower section, which continues across the farm-range, comprises two panels high and is filled with painted brick. Above the original wall-plate sits a further two panels with tension bracing at angles. Small-paned windows are positioned at irregular heights. An added end bay with rubble construction is exposed at the rear.

The adjoining farm-range features square-panelled timber framing, two panels high, with exposed framing and brick infill to the rear. The front wall, clad in weather-boarding, has a higher eaves line indicating later raising of this elevation. The ground floor contains two boarded and split doors and two inserted windows, while three shuttered openings occupy the left side. A rubble lean-to with a plank door and small window is set against the right-hand gable end.

The original house comprises two units, with the present entrance positioned against the stack at the gable end. A single-storey bay to the right of the entrance, standing under the same roof line as the farm-range, appears originally to have been a cross-passage, as evidenced by a shaped doorhead exposed in the rear wall. Evidence of later division into two rooms survives in doorways on either side of the stack, and some chamfered joists remain visible.

The main room contains two stop-chamfered longitudinal beams and a large stack with chamfered arched bressumer. The remains of a post and panel partition with evidence for two doorways into the inner unit survive, with nicely chamfered detailing to the jambs and heads of each panel. The inner unit was originally divided into two by a longitudinal partition, with chamfered joists appearing in the front section only. A blocked doorway to the rear of the partition confirms this sub-division. An inserted staircase runs alongside the partition.

The first floor reveals evidence of successive lifts in the timber-frame and roofline. Original queen post and collar trusses are exposed in the gable and partition walls. Early wattle and daub infill survives in places.

Within the farm-range, the framed structure is visible in its entirety across three bays, with framing substantially intact, though one gable wall has been rebuilt in brick. Queen post and collar strut trusses flank a fine tie-beam truss with crossed scissor braces, apparently originally marking an internal subdivision. The roof appears to have been raised at an early date in its front pitch, with pegged spurs to secondary rafters. The upper floor is inserted, and the ground floor level has been lowered.