Penderi Fawr Farmhouse including attached cowhouse

Penderi Fawr Farmhouse including attached cowhouse

A rubble stone farmhouse with slate roofs, one and a half storeys, formerly whitewashed or colourwashed. The building comprises three ranges of different periods. The earliest range, dating to the 17th century, runs east-west and features a large rendered tapering chimney stack at its east end. A second seventeenth-century range runs south from the west end of the first range, also with a large rendered battered stack positioned at its north end on the ridge and a smaller roughcast stack at the south end. A third range, probably nineteenth century, was added on the north side of the original range and has a brick chimney stack at its north end. A nineteenth-century cowhouse extends eastward from the east end of the original range.

The east-west range has a tiny stair window on its south side to the right, and a large twentieth-century ground floor window at the centre with a concrete lintel set immediately beneath a nineteenth-century casement pair. A step in the masonry occurs to the right of centre. The north side left has a nineteenth-century added wing with brick corners, a north end door to the left and a gable window with timber lintels, the walling mostly brick. A large twentieth-century metal window and door feature on the west side. The north side right displays a narrow window in the angle to the added north range and a square window. The west end gable has twentieth-century windows on each floor; the upper one has a rough dripstone and the lower one has thin stone voussoirs. The original entry was in the east end wall by the chimney, now opening into the cowshed.

The north-south range is attached to the left side of the south wall of the original range, with a portion of the north gable end projecting at right angles to the west end of the original. A small section of roofing links the north end chimney to the original roof ridge to the north. The north end is windowless. The west side has a small square window under the eaves to the left and two large twentieth-century ground floor windows at centre and right. A massive boulder sits at the foot of the northwest corner. The south end wall is roughcast with a twentieth-century attic window to the left with dripstone above. The east side retains a remnant of colourwash, with a long four-pane sash window to the left at ground level sill, and a door at the extreme right in the angle to the original range. The door is set in line with the north end stack and is contained within a lean-to porch with a stone side wall and sheet roof.

The cowshed extends eastward from the east end of the original house beneath a much lower sheet metal roof. A door adjoins the house end wall with a metal glazed window immediately above, and a brick-framed door sits at the centre. Lean-to structures flank the door on the north wall, and some brick-framed openings occur on the rear south wall.

The building was not available for inspection, but as recorded in 1987, the main entry was into the north end of the addition via a door opposite an opening broken through the north wall of the original house just by the original east wall entry. The former hall has a boarded ceiling and chamfered beams. The east wall contains a deep fireplace which is now blocked but retains a seventeenth-century oak fire-bench in front. The original doorway to the left is blocked. A winding stone staircase with corbelled roof sits to the right. The upper floor comprises a three-bay bedroom with boxed-in trusses ceiled at collar level. A two-bay bedroom beyond has a nineteenth-century or later connecting door to another unit. The north-south unit is reached via a doorway in the south wall opening into a lobby accessed from the external door on the east side. The lobby contains a feather stop chamfer beam by the doorway. In the ground floor room, a winding stair with corbelled roof and timber treads occupies the northwest corner. The upstairs bedrooms have thinly ribbed panelled ceilings and panelled casing to boxed purlins, overlapping to one side. The cowhouse has a seven-bay nineteenth-century roof with collar trusses.