DescriptionThe farmstead known as Frongoch Fach, is depicted on an c.1830 survey of the Nanteos Estate (National Library Wales: Manuscript Maps v.14). On the 1843 tithe, it was still in the ownership of the Nanteos Estate (Colonel William Powell) and tenanted by David Roberts, the farmsteads landholdings comprising some 216 acres. Whilst the farmhouse no longer survives on the ground, having been destroyed to make way for a new outbuilding associated with the adjacent Frongoch farmstead (NPRN: 405543), some of the stone field boundaries associated with the farm survive.
Some 50m to the east of the site of Frongoch Fach is the farmhouse of Frongoch (NPRN: 405543). Frongoch is also noted on the tithe map of 1843, and was part of the Crosswood (Trawsgoed) estate associated with the Vaughan family (later Earls of Lisburne). Like Frongoch Fach this farm was tenanted by David Roberts and comprised of buildings (no house) and land comprising some 2145 acres.
It seems likely therefore that Frongoch Fach and Frongoch functioned as one farm, being classified differently due to there being two landowners. The original farmhouse was Frongoch Fach, with Frongoch simply a series of out buildings. At some point after the 1843 tithe, the homestead moved to Frongoch with the original farmhouse being subsequently destroyed. By the time of the 1st edition 6-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1891, the farm is known as Frongoch.
Louise Barker, RCAHMW, July 2007.