Pen-y-Cwm farm is located approximately a mile north of Penrhyncoch, Aberystwyth. According to heritage consultancy Trysor, a Gogerddan estate map dating to 1790 'shows that Penycwm farm did not exist at that time. The road which now connects Penycwm with Bow Street to the west had also not come into existence by this time. Clearly there were developments around the turn of the century which saw both "Penycwm" and the aforementioned road included on the Ordnance Survey's Original Surveyors Drawings (Aberystwyth sheet), surveyed in 1823. This was the first detailed map series of the whole country. It did not map field boundaries but does differentiate between enclosed and unenclosed land. This map shows "Penycwm" house and farmyard approximately in the position it is found today, but no detail of any associated field system is shown.'
'When the Ordnance Survey published their 1 inch to 1 mile scale First Series map for the area in 1837, based on the 1823 survey, a similar picture is presented.'
'The first detailed map of the field system of the area is the tithe map for the Tirymyneich hamlet of Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn parish, dating to 1847. This shows that the field system has changed little since 1847. The tithe apportionment, which accompanies the map and was preparted in 1845, lists the names of fields within the parish. For Penycwm, these were 'Waun Fach' - pasture; 'Cae bach' - arable; 'Cae corsydd' - arable; 'Cae canol' - arable; 'Cae du' - meadow' 'Cae oddion ty' - arable; 'Cae garreg Lwyd' - arable; 'Cae Mawr' - arable; 'Cae pen rhiw' - pasture; 'cae gwar allt' - pasture; 'Cwm issa' - meadow; 'Cwm ucha' - meadow; and 'Rhyd y maes gwyn' - pasture. The tithe map and apportionment also records that Penycwm was a 77 acre holding occupied by one Richard Hughes and owned by the Earl of Lisburne of the Crosswood Estate.'
'Historic mapping seems to indicate that the house at Penycwm has remained in the same position, to the south of the farmyard and its associated outbuildings throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. By the early 21st century the farmyard building complex has been expanded considerably with the addition of a group of large agricultural sheds to the east, separated from the historic farmyard by a minor country road.'
Source: Trysor report entitled 'Penycwm, Penrhyncoch, Ceredigion Historic Environment Appraisal' by Jenny Hall and Paul Sambrook published in February 2015
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 7th March 2019