Former cruck house with C17/C18 rebuilding phases. One-and-a-half storeys sited downslope with wash-house/dairy extension at lower end. Rubble stone, overpainted, slate roof, rubble porch to left of centre. Four small eaves dormers, brick stacks to ridge and upper end. C19/C20 small-paned casement windows under timber lintels.
Source: Cadw Listed Building ALH 07/12/2011

Site description:
Upper Llandewi is a multi-period vernacular house of considerable interest. It is of medieval origin, like many Radnorshire farmhouses, and retains the footprint of the medieval plan as well as evidence for cruck construction. Several building phases can be identified, representing several phases of investment in the buildings of the farmstead between the 16th and 18th/19th centuries. The farm buildings are sited to the S. of the house and include a substantial but truncated barn-byre combination range with the cowhouse set under part of the timber-framed barn.
1. circa 1550. A downhill-sited cruck-framed hall-house of the type described in Houses and History in the March of Wales as `peasant halls?. The rear elevation of the house retainss the marked downslope siting of the house. The baying of the medieval house has been preserved with clearly defined inner bay ? single-bay hall ? wide passage bay ? and (probably) outer bay. Cruck blades (T1) cut off at tie-beam level survive at the upper end of the house. Evidence for another cruck-truss (T2) may survive in the upper-end partition. The profile of a removed cruck blade (T3) at the entry to the hall is visible from the fireplace stair. There is not enough evidence to demonstrate that Upper Llandewi was timber framed, but it is likely that it was. The plan is almost certainly that of a four-bay peasant hall, and the present plan corresponds to the medieval plan with the entrance into the house still into the passage bay. The presumed outer bay has been completely reconstructed.
2. circa 1600-50. Hearth-passage house. The open-hall house was adapted as a storeyed house following a characteristic programme of modernisation. A fireplace was constructed in the hall (superseding the open fire) and built against the truss at the entrance to the hall. The `shadow? of the cruck visible from the stair at the side of the fireplace. The fireplace is unusual in that the lintel as well as the jambs are large, chamfered, single pieces of stone. The spine beams are ovolo moulded, a moulding which indicates conversion in the first half of the C17th. Inner room and outer room ceilings are unchamfered joist beams. The somewhat blackened outer room ceiling is of considerable interest as the joist beams are stop-chamfered over the cross-passage. This feature, which seems to belong to the storeyed house phase, has not been noted before. The joist beams have been disturbed but one retains a mortice for a stair trimmer. The principal stair was constructed at the side of the fireplace. The new first-floor chambers were lit by dormers set at a lower level (as straight joints show) than the present dormers.
3. Modernisation in the C18th/C19th century (several phases). This has included: (1) raising the roof level with new trusses and setting the dormers at a higher level; introducing a first-floor gable-end chamber fireplace; the construction of a back kitchen fireplace in the passage bay; the rebuilding of the outer bay as a carthouse. The carthouse has subsequently been converted to domestic use. Subsequent first-floor modifications include the use of part of the chamber over the passage bay as a corn-drying kiln.
Visited 2nd February 2012
Richard Suggett