No. 1, Park Street is situated close to the market square, between the Bull Inn to west and the late C16th Bryn-Y-Parc to the east. In the late C19th it was The Eagles Inn, but is now domestic.

This stone-built 2-storey house retains evidence of a 16th century, 2-unit hall-house plan with cross-passage, collar-truss to open hall, louvre and parlour with post & panel partition. At the rear there are early 19th century, stone-built, storied, kitchen and service wings to each side which form a `U? shape plan with yard.

The main north facade is slate-roofed with rendered walls and a tall, square, stone chimney stack. There is a pair of round-headed sashes over square-headed ones and an off-centre doorway. The right ground-floor window has been enlarged.

The interior is entered through a cross-passage of post & panel partitions, the parlour one being original with plain central flat head opposite a later partition with lintel mortise to doorway (see drawing details). This doorway leads into the hall between a deep stone fireplace, having a modern timber lintel and a stair with carved newel-post. Both hall and parlour have the same early-C17th axial medium chamfered ceiling-beam with double curved stops (see detail) and angle stops to joists. The hall has an early C17th open-well stair with closed-string, square newel-posts, barley-twist balusters and moulded hand-rail. The barley-twist balusters are later C18th, and they cover the moulded design on the mezzanine level newel-post. The carved main newel has an unusual tulip design to front and a series of `S? shapes linked by circles to side. These side designs are also on the mezzanine-level newel-post.
The original central open collar-truss and louvre-truss are seated on stub-tie-beams a type used in stone to spread the load, rather than in timber-framed buildings. Similarly the tie-beam collar and strut end-trusses have peg holes for wattle & daub in-fill, but no mortises or peg holes in their tie-beam sofftts. This suggests the gables were timber-framed with wattle in-fill, seated on stone walls. Their carpenter's marks are chiselled at each joint (see photo), unusually on the internal face. They may have been built against pre-existing buildings, although the lower east-end has raking-struts over the collar suggesting, either it was visible externally, or was floored at this end originally. The central open collar-truss with raking-struts over, has chamfered and run-out stops at intersecting joints, but was later in-filled (peg holes in soffit) perhaps to form a closed-bay, when a timber-frame fireplace was added, prior to the insertion of the stone chimney. The adjacent truss is the only one visible of a louvre-truss, similarly supported on a stub tie-beam and having no collar. It must have simply supported the ridge-purlin at the louvre opening (now stone chimney) and the other purlins which are scarfed at this point.

The first-floor fireplace to the chamber over the hall has a cranked timber lintel with chamfer and similar stop to ceiling-beam, confirming their insertion at the same early-C17th period.

The storied rear wing leading from the hall has a lateral fireplace with range and cupboard to a kitchen with chambers above. From the parlour there is access through a recent doorway to a similar wing of uncertain usage. This is a thick wall indicating a blocked fireplace to parlour with blocked squint window. At first-floor, a later access from the chamber to wing, is by way of an elevated diagonally set brick walled structure, presumably designed to avoid the chimney.

Comment
This stone-built structure has developed from a C16th open hall-house with central cross-passage to a 2-storey house by the early C17th with insertion of floors, stair and fireplace chimney and the added post & panelling on hall side of cross-passage.
It might be compared to the Kings Head public house in Vale Street which has an arch-braced truss to former open hall, central entrance, parlour, cross-passage and inserted floors. It also is a 2-unit stone structure, although with end-chimneys and of a higher status.

Geoff Ward, 27/01/2003.