Glanffrwd Mill

Glanffrwd Mill

A tall south-east range built of random local rubble with battered walls featuring finely coursed masonry and thin quoins to the lower storeys, with freestone quoins above. The roof is pitched stone tile with a rubble stack.

The entrance front to the east is three storeys. The ground floor has a replacement boarded door with strapwork hinges set in original chamfered jambs with a replacement 4-centred head. A vertical joint in the masonry to the left indicates a further blocked opening, still evident internally. A modern 2-light casement sits in rebuilt walling to the left. The first floor has three windows, the outer ones with rectangular hoodmoulds, all modern casements. A single window in the attic floor sits under the eaves, also modern. The steeply pitched roof has a rebuilt stack with weathering to the right gable. (A two-storey extension or porch to the entrance front was removed before listing.)

The left return gable has two windows to the ground floor and one to each of the upper floors, all of differing sizes and all modern casements in new openings. The right return has stair windows between each floor, both unusually large with 4-lights. These have timber lintels and pegged arched frames in plain reveals; the diamond mullions have been renewed, but parts of the frames are original. The rear elevation is mostly hidden by a lower attached wing, but there is a large quoined opening with post-and-panel infill cut by the slope of the roof.

An older hall and cross-wing attached to the rear of the tall block has been considerably more extensively rebuilt since 1985. This L-shaped range is built of local rubble stone with a natural slate roof featuring stone slates to the easing courses. It is two storeys only with a single-depth plan and centre hall unit. The south front has rebuilt rubble masonry with a 3-light and a 2-light casement and a plank door under timber lintels. Three gabled dormers with 2-light casements sit above, all late 20th-century joinery. The north front has a partly original 4-light hall window with a door below and two dormers above, plus a third on the L-range, all as before. A blind gable end with rebuilt stack faces the road, which also has new windows.

The interiors retain a remarkable amount of 16th and 17th-century timber work. The south-east cross-range contains three upper cruck trusses with collar beams, through purlins, and post-and-panel partitions, with wall-plates, main joints and panelling featuring finely detailed roll mouldings. Paired 4-centre timber arches, one of them blind, frame the main entrance; these are chamfered and the blind arch shows remarkable bowing in its lower half, suggesting use as a cow door at some period. Paired 4-centre timber arches at the first floor entrance to the solar (or withdrawing chamber) flank a mostly timber turnpike stair within the north-east angle. A chamfered stone chimney piece sits at the first floor (with a timber lintel on the ground floor) to a massive chimney breast in the north-west angle. All oak joinery has been repaired and replaced as necessary since 1985. Quite a number of floor beams are entirely new but have already aged in appearance to match the others, making some difficult to distinguish. The roof of this range was largely replaced except for the main trusses.

The central range retains a single cruck truss (collar beam and trenched purlin are missing), later cross walls and an inserted floor, and reused timbers to the post-and-panel screen. A 4-light mullioned window opens to the rear wall. The roof of this range has been completely replaced.