Cemmaes Bychan

Cemmaes Bychan

Large two-storey square-plan house built in roughly coursed stone under a hipped slate roof, forming part of a group with Tan y Ffordd. A large central stone chimney stack with four shafts linked by a continuous capstone and weather-coursing rises through the roof.

The irregular east-facing front contains three windows. A Victorian porch projects to the right of centre, serving as the entrance to Tan y Ffordd. The porch has a steeply-pitched lean-to roof with a central narrow gable featuring decorative barge boards, tile cresting and finial; a cushed archway sits beneath the gable. Flanking the archway are narrow three-light windows with coloured glass. To the right of the porch stands a large two-light small-pane casement under a substantial timber lintel. A tripartite horned sash appears at the far left, also under a similar timber lintel. The upper storey has three sixteen-pane hornless sashes rising to the eaves, with two grouped together on the left side.

The south elevation contains the entrance to Cemmaes Bychan, accessed through a twentieth-century half-glazed lean-to porch on the left with a door to the east end and a three-light window to the south side. Immediately to its right is a four-pane horned sash with timber lintel and stone sill. Two windows sit aligned above: a twentieth-century top-hung window to the left and a sixteen-pane horned sash to the right. Evidence remains of a blocked ground-floor window to the left of the porch, in the position of the stairs, which had a narrow slate sill.

The west elevation features a twentieth-century rear door to the left of centre, serving Cemmaes Bychan, with rendered reveals and moulded hood. Immediately to its left is a late twentieth-century wooden window. At the centre is a two-light small-pane casement window with long timber lintel, above which sits a small-pane late twentieth-century window. To the far right is a tall small-pane window lighting the stairs. A single-storey rendered lean-to block stands immediately to its left, with a planked door and two-light casement on its north side and a twentieth-century window on its south side.

The north elevation shows a large late twentieth-century flat-roofed extension at ground floor level, constructed of yellow brick and stone. Its basement is formed by an earlier range of rubble stone featuring a boarded door at centre flanked by late twentieth-century windows, the right one with small panes. Above the extension, the upper storey is slate-hung with three large late twentieth-century windows.

Interior

Although the original central entrance is now blocked, the entrance to Tan y Ffordd on the right side leads into the original entrance hall, now functioning as a stair-hall with a timber staircase of probable nineteenth to twentieth-century date. The hall retains good seventeenth-century panelling and a fireplace to the rear, cut into the side of the original back-to-back chimney.

Long heated reception rooms originally occupied each side of the entrance hall. The room to the right, along the east side, has a ceiling with boxed-in cross-beams but is otherwise modernised. The room to the left, along the west side, retains good seventeenth-century wooden panelling and one boxed-in beam to the ceiling. An early twentieth-century small marble fireplace surrounded by contemporary panelling obscures the larger seventeenth-century fireplace. To the right of this fireplace is a seventeenth-century panelled door which originally led to the entrance hall. On the south wall is an early blocked window, no longer visible externally.

A seventeenth-century dog-leg staircase occupies the south-west corner, featuring a plain handrail, turned newels with finials and some original timber treads. A planked door beneath the stairs leads down into a coal store, possibly a former cellar, containing a box-framed wall. Adjacent to the staircase in the south wall is the current entrance to Cemmaes Bychan. The entrance passage leads to a service room containing a Rayburn with its flue linked into the north side of the central chimney, and two shallow stop-chamfered ceiling beams. A kitchen lies beyond.

The first floor (visible in Cemmaes Bychan only) retains good seventeenth-century panelling along with box-panelled partitions, and has cross- and spine-beams with cut and ogee stops. The staircase continues to the attic from the current bathroom. In the attic, the large central chimney is strapped by substantial pegged timbers supported by a pyramidal structure of horizontal beams attached to the rafters, all part of the early seventeenth-century construction. Box-framed partitions occupy this space, some with wattle and daub infill.