Y Garn

Y Garn

A house built in rubble stone with a slate roof, comprising two connected parts: the original main house to the south and a range to the north that was probably originally an outbuilding. The building stands two storeys high. A late 20th-century restoration involved renewing the roof with new slates, replacing all windows (which had been changed to plastic) with painted hardwood double-glazed windows, generally renewing timber lintels, and rebuilding parts of the walls.

The east entrance front is dominated by a massive lateral chimney stack with a square rubble stone base supporting a rendered circular tapering stack. The main house occupies the southern portion. Its east-facing front has a chimney with a massive square rubble stone base, and comprises two bays to the right with square 4-pane windows above (9-pane casements shown in old photographs), a door, and a longer 4-pane window (12-pane sash in old photographs) with a slab lintel below. At the base of the chimney is a small attached outbuilding running eastward, with a door and tiny window facing north, two tiny windows in the east wall, all with single stone lintels. To the left of the stack is a 20th-century window with stone lintel in the lateral outshut of the hall. The upper end to the left has one 20th-century 2-light window. The south end wall is rebuilt with two long 20th-century windows with triangular heads: one at ground floor right lighting the stair, one at first floor left. The rear is substantially altered; there was originally a central outshut incorporating both the original west outshut and an added dairy, now continued leftward to include a kitchen extension. The rear of the south end room has eaves sloping upward and one 2-light window. The original hall outshut has a new 3-light window; to its right in the present outshut are a new back door and further windows. The north end gable has a small first-floor window and a window in the side of the kitchen addition.

The northern range shows no clear masonry break from the original house, indicating an ancient origin. Its east front has a doorway just in from the party wall with a 19th-century brick cambered head and double glass doors (an old photograph shows a small-paned 2-light casement here originally). A large 20th-century opening to the right contains a pair of windows. A straight joint marks the extreme right section, two storeys each with a 20th-century window. The north end gable shows evidence of roof raising and alterations. The rear has three rooflights to the main roof and five to the outshut, glazed doors to the left serving a lower bedroom, and a 20th-century oak and glass front to a garden room to the right.

Interior

The entrance is through a stone-flagged passage with late 20th-century stairs at the far end (a small square light discovered during restoration may challenge the theory that the cross passage originally ended in a front door here). A rebuilt partition to the right leads into the kitchen; a rebuilt stone wall leads into the hall.

The hall is a single space spanned by three large oak collar trusses with curved principals resting on the tops of walls, except the south pair which rest on renewed cross beams over the outshuts. There are three purlins on each side. The north truss was concealed by a plaster partition with bramble laths but has been exposed by setting the partition back just behind it. The east wall has an exceptionally deep square fireplace with a massive timber lintel and stone jambs. The outshut to the right is of similar depth and fully open into the hall. The opposite outshut is of greater depth with two niches on the south wall. A door to the right gives access to a rear room and back door; formerly there was a dairy at the back of the house with no door and stairs in the northwest corner of the hall. The south end wall has a pointed door to the left with thin stone voussoirs, a square niche to the left, another smaller niche above the door, and a third to the right just left of a blocked door with plain timber lintel. The north end wall is rebuilt in late 20th-century stone with niches to first-floor level and a partition with boarded loft door above.

The south end room is mostly rebuilt. A pointed doorway has a plain timber lintel on the inside; a blocked doorway is also apparent with a thin timber lintel. A niche lies between the doors. The room contains 20th-century oak beams and stairs in the southeast corner to a loft bedroom. The kitchen north of the cross passage has been extended westward to form a continuous outshut along the west side, with a fireplace on the north wall. The two rooms above the passage and kitchen have late 20th-century oak trusses. A heavy stone lintel originally in the north end wall has been removed and reused in the lower end range.

The lower end range is much rebuilt. The sitting room has three 19th-century pine stapled collar trusses and a massive late 20th-century fireplace with a reused lintel. A garden room has been added to the west. The south end of the garden room has exposed masonry, apparently the corner of the main house, with a hand-narrow recess to the right before a piece of battered masonry of unknown purpose. The original outside west wall of the sitting room, now in the garden room, has brick heads to the windows. Two modernised bedrooms occupy the north end of this range.