Talhardd

Talhardd is a substantial two-storey farmhouse of L-plan, comprising a main range to the east and a crosswing to the west, constructed in rubble stone and whitewashed. The building has a complex construction history spanning from the medieval period through the 19th century.

The crosswing, which has a farmyard-facing front to the west, was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century. Its front features a two-window elevation with formerly three late 19th-century horned 12-pane sash windows with brick voussoirs and one 2-light casement window to the ground floor left. A boarded door to the right is reached by outside stairs. An adjacent outbuilding has been altered to form a monopitch garage. The crosswing has a massive chimney breast to its south gable-end with two offsets to the west and a modern brick head. The south end contains a large 16th-century fireplace some 2 metres wide with dressed stone voussoirs and a rough stone relieving arch. The north gable-end has a ground floor window with an older, wider timber lintel and one window above. Internal evidence and the fact that the crosswing is not bonded into the main range indicate it is later than the main range's construction.

The main range, set back to the left, originally featured horned 4-pane sash windows, with one each to either side of the first floor and two below, one to the left and one right of centre. The front door stands to the right with a curious rectangular recess above it, said formerly to have had a segmental pointed relieving arch, now boarded over. A tall rubble stone chimney rises from the front wall to the left of centre. A straight joint below this stack may indicate a lost north-east wing, shown on the 1841 Tithe map. The north gable-end has a ground floor window with an older timber lintel and one window above. The broad east gable has a battered base towards the north and a straight joint. The left side has a 20th-century window on each floor to the right of a rubble stone projection bearing traces of a blocked stone voussoir doorway. The south wall shows traces of a former stair light and a doorway, now a window.

Running south from the south-east corner is a later single-storey outbuilding which housed a grain-drying kiln. It features staggered roof slates, a square rubble south-end chimney stack, an offset door to centre, and a window to the right.

The building suffered a fire which destroyed the roofs (dating to around 1900, though remnants of a rich late medieval roof survived until 1855 and 1860), a broad stair possibly of late 17th or early 18th-century date, and the floors and doors. Evidence of an inserted floor dates to around 1600. The fire revealed substantial medieval structural elements.

The main range contains a former cross-passage with medieval origins. The north door opens onto this passage, with two medieval stone doorways to the west into the crossway. Above, mounted on five stone corbels, is a beam beneath a reset moulded medieval beam, possibly originally a gallery frontal. The doorways are finely detailed: the right doorway is of dressed stone with pointed hollow chamfer moulding; the left is much damaged. Each end of the cross-passage wall has rebates for front and rear doors. A vaulted passage runs through the thickness of the south wall at the south end of the cross-passage.

The north wall shows traces of medieval openings. The large lateral fireplace was narrowed when an adjacent window was inserted; it features a narrower fireplace with stone voussoirs. A medieval oriel or bay window may have existed to the right of the fireplace. The east wall contains a post-medieval fireplace, with fragments of a medieval moulded stone fireplace reset below and behind the arch.

The south wall incorporates a thick mural stone stair rising from a broad semi-elliptical arched recess. This recess contained a medieval window (now modern) with a relieving arch probably original. The east and west sides of the recess have fine pointed doorways, possibly 14th century, similar to those in the cross-passage. The west door gives onto the stair; the east door opens onto a vaulted, now-blocked passage through the east wall, perhaps originally leading to a garderobe or privy. At the top of the stairs is a blocked access to the first floor of the crosswing. The stair is vaulted at the base and then slab-roofed.

Substantial stone chimneys are positioned at the south end of the crosswing and on the north wall-face of the main range. A small brick stack stands on the east gable of the main range.