NAR SO22SE13

A cruciform house of two storeys with attics, built on ground falling to the south. The walls are of limewashed rubble, battered with a plinth on the south, under stone-tiled gabled roofs, with diagonal chimneys.
It is thought that this was originally a longhouse, rebuilt from the late sixteenth century. The earliest section is the upper end. This comprises a hall with two inner rooms. At the lower end of the hall is a large fireplace with a turning stair rising beside it. There are indications of a contemporary, lower range below the hall, probably a cross passage and byre. In the mid seventeenth century these were replaced by the present cross passage and kitchen block. The kitchen chimney has a datestone of 1649. Small two storey wings were added at either end of the cross passage probably in the later seventeenth century. On the ground floor these were a dairy on the west and a porch to the east. The interior retains much original details and some mullioned windows remain.
The house ceased to be a gentry seat after 1703. It was restored in the middle years of the twentieth century.
A terraced seventeenth century garden has been identified to the east (NPRN 86132).
The farm buildings on the south and east include: a stable, probably sixteenth century; a cowhouse, probably seventeenth century, and an eighteenth century barn.

Sources: Jones and Smith 'Houses of Breconshire IV' in Brycheiniog XII (1966-7)1-90 [34-6]

John Wiles 03.04.07

[Additional:]
Tree-ring dating commissioned by the RCAHMW in 2010. A number of potential phases were assessed. The front [parlour] range of the house is dated by a carved lintel and was not thought to be contentious. A total of only five samples were taken from the rear [hall] wing, the other timbers not having insufficient rings to warrant sampling, and cross-matching was found between two of the samples, resulting in a 70-year series. This failed to give consistent matches to dated reference material, and the timbers remain undated.

Full report available in NMRW. NJR 08/04/2011

[Additional:] Tyn-y-llwyn has a hearth-passage plan plan with the outer range, possibly a former cowhouse, reconstructed as a parlour wing in 1649, the date on the base of the diagonally-set parlour chimney shafts. The marked downslope siting suggests that Tyn-y-llwyn has a late-medieval origin but the observable detail is of C17th date, including the trusses with lapped collars. The wide cross-passage has draw-bar sockets at each doorway. These doorways are now within small wings of uncertain date which give the house a cruciform plan. The house is full of C17th period detail. The quasi armorial parlour fireplace with two fleurs de lys set point to point flanked by gryphons is particularly notable.

A remarkable history of Tyn-y-llwyn by Pamela Redwood, with photographs, was published in Brycheiniog XXVI. An album of the photographs taken by Jenny Barnes in 1987, including several not published in Brycheiniog, was presented to RCAHMW by Pamela Redwood.

R.F. Suggett/RCAHMW/October 2015.