Rhaeadr Tannery

The Rhaeadr Tannery is a building complex dating from the 18th century, constructed of rubble stone and louvred weather boarding with Welsh slate roofs. It forms a roughly L-shape, with a further cross-wing extending north-west to south-east from the south-west end. This cross-wing houses a bark store and a bark mill, the latter powered by water. The northern elevation of the north wing is of stone.

The western portion of the northern wing is entirely stone, incorporating an office, weighing room, and cellar on the lower floor, with part of the drying section above on the first floor. The building is single-storey with a loft throughout. The majority of its features face into the central yard.

The south-west elevation to the yard includes three small two-light openings with heads at eaves level, a door and window with single segmental headed arches, a segmental headed doorway with a half-door, and a cambered headed window leading to a damp cellar that was used for horse hides. The south-west elevation of the eastern part features a first-floor wall of louvred weather boarding supported on timber posts; the first floor contains part of the drying section. An intermediate wing runs north-south. The northern five bays of this wing again have a louvred weather boarding first floor supported on wooden posts, with a drying and currying section above. The ground floor of this section contains twenty-two handler or floater pits used in the second stage of tanning. A removable ladder provides access to the first-floor doorway at the northern end, while a doorway with a stone staircase leading to it is located at the southern end. This staircase abuts the northern wall of a single-storey beam house used for unhairing and fleshing, which has a hipped roof and stone walls, with the west wall weatherboarded and featuring wide shuttered window and door openings.

The yard also includes eight leaching pits for producing tanning liquor, eight suspender pits for tanning, three lime pits, one offal pit, and a water pit located on the south side, to the west of the beam house. The outer facing walls are plain stone with limited detailing, apart from a taking-in door in the north-west gable, ventilation slits on the south-west wall of the grinding mill, and an overshot water wheel within the south-east gable.

The main range, over the drying and currying section, has an eight-bay queen strut roof.