Llanvair Farmhouse

Llanvair Farmhouse

This is a cement-rendered farmhouse, presumably built over conglomerate rubble in the local tradition. The roofs are Welsh slate with lower courses of stone slates and ridge tiles; the chimney shafts are partly built in red brick. The building comprises two distinct phases of construction, representing an upgrading of facilities in the mid-17th century from what was originally a single-fireplace house.

The entrance elevation faces into the farmyard. The entrance leads to a porch within the building and a plank door (not 17th century) set in a chamfered timber surround. The outer entrance also has a timber surround, though the post bases have rotted and been replaced in stone. The head is slightly cambered and nicked in the centre; the lintel is chamfered. The porch has narrow benches to either side. Above the porch entry is a 19th-century three-light timber mullioned casement. To the right, the wall is dominated by the kitchen fireplace with a large tall shafted stack rising from the eaves. To the left of the entrance is the original build, now with a modern three-light casement lighting the hall. The inner room wall is now blank, but Fox and Raglan's records show it once had a blocked window that would have lit the unheated dairy. Above are two three-light stone mullioned windows with dripmoulds; the casements are 19th century but the frames are 17th century. The gable end is blind but has a 20th-century plank door with a gabled hood into the inner room. This door represents an alteration made when the inner room was closed off and converted to a farm office; it appears in Fox and Raglan's photograph but not on their plan.

The attic originally contained a dove house with two tiers of ledges on either side of the chimney, visible in Fox and Raglan's photograph, but these were removed during cement rendering. The gable carries a diamond-set stack heating the bedroom, suggesting the upper walls were heightened in the second building phase, as this chimney matches the three-flue stack on the other gable (now in the centre of the house backing onto the cross-passage), which heats the hall and the bedrooms on either side.

The road elevation shows the older right-hand section with a 19th-century three-light mullion-and-transom window to the hall and a 20th-century two-light window to the inner room (the latter post-dating Fox and Raglan). Above is a three-light stone mullioned window with dripmould. The projecting gabled stair wing has a two-by-two-pane window below; Fox and Raglan show a larger casement and dovehole in the gable above, now blank. To the left, walling at the end of the cross-passage is hidden behind a bush, and Fox and Raglan suggest a doorway here. A modern three-light casement stands beyond, with a small two-pane window above. The gable end has a lean-to entrance with door and window, post-dating Fox and Raglan, who record a window beyond that was not observed at resurvey. A three-light mullion-and-transom casement sits on the first floor with a small three-light casement in the attic.

The cross-passage contains the main living room (hall) on the left, which is part of the original house. The cross-passage features a spine beam, chamfered joists, and a 19th-century coat peg rack. The living room is entered through the original external gable entry. The room contains three chamfered beams with lambstongue ogee stops, though the fireplace has been blocked in. In the rear corner is the stair entry through a doorway with chamfered jambs and a shaped head. To the right is a cupboard, probably the original firestair entry. The inner room is now accessed only from the outside gable. The stair is a stone dog-leg with a shaped head doorway onto the first-floor landing, which has a post-and-panel partition to the bedrooms (not seen at resurvey). The stair divides to reach the attics on either side of the main stack, which have principal rafter roofs with two tiers of purlins, only partly visible. The later ground-floor section was only partly seen, but the kitchen fireplace retains its bread oven.