Site Record

Late 16th or early 17th century, 2-storey, rubble construction with slate roof. 17th century end chimney, cross passage, stopped-chamfered beamed ceilings. Rendered whitened facade with later irregular fenestration. Gable parapets

H.C. Vieth, RCAHMW, 22 December 2004


[Additional:] Tree-ring dating commissioned by RCAHMW in association with Adnabod Ardudwy reported in vernacular Architecture, vol. 39 (2008), p. 142:

MERIONETH
2. LLANABER, Llwyn-du
(a) Principal House (SH 6001 1855) Felling date: Summer 1581
(b) Dower-House (SH 5999 1854) Felling date: Winter 1592/3
(a) High end first floor cross-beam 1557(6+22C NM); Low end first floor cross-beam 1580(26?C); Principal rafters (1/2) 1523; Upper purlin (0/1); Passage partition beam (0/1). (b) Principal rafters 1592(24C), 1535, 1503; Window lintel (0/1). Site Master 1404-1592 LLWYNDO (t = 9.4 BDGLRT14; .9.3 BDGLRT22; 8.7 WALES97)
(a) Llwyn-du has a classic Snowdonian unit system arrangement with the subsidiary house flanking the lower end of the principal house. The principal house is substantial, fully storeyed with collar-beam trusses and habitable attics. The plan is of Snowdonian type with parlour and hall on either side of a cross-passage, and fireplace stairs alongside both end chimneys. Llwyn-du was associated with a prominent gentry family, and the tree-ring date establishes the identity of the builder of the house as Robert Edwards (d. 1616), clerk of the peace for Merioneth (ex inf. Peter Thompson). Plans in P. Smith, Houses of the Welsh Countryside (2nd edition, 1986), fig. 221a-f. (b) The subsidiary house in a classic Snowdonian unit-system arrangement, converted to a bakehouse in the 19th century. The two-unit dower-house is storeyed with ground- and first-floor fireplaces. The tree ring dates show that principal and subsidiary houses are broadly contemporary. However, both buildings had possible heartwood/sapwood boundaries without sapwood which produced estimated felling date ranges which are significantly earlier than the associated precise felling dates. It is not know whether these were stock-piled timbers, or had unusual amounts of sapwood. Plan and discussion in VA 38, 22.

Richard Suggett/RCAHMW/January 2009