Gelli Olau

Gelli Olau

Stone built, the main range hung with cedar shingles of approximately 1960, the rear slate-hung, with concrete tiles and 20th-century black brick stacks. Two and a half storey building with a three-window front. A cellar runs under the north side. The rendered whitewashed ground floor features cambered-headed 12-pane sashes either side of a 6-panel door with 4 glazed panels. The upper floors are cedar-shingled, with three first-floor 12-pane sashes and a three-gabled attic with larger eaves-breaking 6-pane sashes to each side and a centre tripartite lunette. The north end has a basement light, ground floor 12-pane sash and, to the right, the side of the 1871 additions — a 2-storey canted bay with a casement pair at ground floor level and plate-glass sashes above.

The rear range corresponds to plans of 1868 in the National Library of Wales except that it is slate-hung. It comprises triple gables, the outer two with external chimney breasts and 20th-century stacks, the centre stair gable with a door to the ground floor, a 6-pane sash above and a 12-pane sash in the gable. The ground floor is exposed rubble stone; the upper floors appear to be brick beneath the slate-hanging. The south side of the wing has a casement pair below and a large sash above.

Attached to the northeast corner of the house is a length of rubble wall with a crude Gothic gateway.

The front range has thick walls. A centre passage separates the south room (formerly the kitchen) from the north room. The south room has a timber-lintel fireplace and a pine partition to the passage. The north room has a simple moulded plaster cornice, possibly of the 18th century, and a timber-moulded dado rail probably of the 19th century, plus a 6-panel door. A plain stair serves the 1871 rear addition, with 2-panel doors to the main first-floor rooms and an attic with heavy purlins to open roof trusses. The cellar has hewn joists. In the rear range, a slate-floored pantry, probably pre-dating 1871, sits at a lower floor level.

A former service range is attached at the south end of the main range. Originally single-storey with a loft, it was raised by 5 feet and extended southward around 1871. Built of rubble stone with a small-slate roof and a large stone ridge stack, it was formerly colour-washed. The east front shows clear signs of the original eaves level to the right of the stack, with a ground-floor door adjoining the house and one small window to the left; an upper-floor eaves-breaking long window sits in a stone gable. To the left of the stack a coach-house and granary addition has two vent loops under the eaves. A south-end loft window and an attached gabled privy complete the structure. The west side has a large central gable with a window in the former loft door; ground-floor garage doors occupy the right section with one vent loop above, an off-centre window in a former door, and a small window and door to the left.

The interior contains a large timber-lintel fireplace in the former scullery. At first-floor level, a small doorway leads back into the main house, featuring a possibly medieval or sub-medieval segmental-pointed head formed of two stones on rough stone corbels. This does not appear to be obviously re-used, possibly indicating a first-floor hall-house predating the 18th-century rebuilding.

E M Goodwin's plans of 1868 included the rear part of the main house, built to replace a former lean-to. The plans also proposed raising the front to an even three storeys, though this was not executed. The front range is identified as dining-room to the north and kitchen to the south; the rear comprised a servants' hall to the south and dairy to the north with a drawing room above. The service range originally included a scullery and coal house, still proposed to remain single-storey. A 1870 specification (without plans) proposes rebuilding the service range with a store-room and granary above.