The Lost Cottages - Ffrith Bulkley, Rowen

There's little information about Ffrith Bulkeley available on the internet, but it's rather an interesting name, considering the importance of the Bulkeley family historically in North Wales. The Bulkeleys are cited as being 'one of the most powerful families in North Wales.' A quite complete history of the family can be read on the site linked above.

Since the Bulkeleys also held importance in Conwy and owned many farms in the old county of Caernarfonshire, it's reasonable to assume it was this family connected both with Bulkeley Mill in Rowen, and Ffrith Bulkeley not far outside the village. Bulkeley Mill possibly dates back in some form to the fifteenth century, but was first recorded in 1684, and a beam inscribed 'R. B. 1689' is believed to date the completion of the work. Perhaps Ffrith Bulkeley has a similar age? It is interesting that the farm bears the name, since farms in the area are more commonly named after landscape features.

The only scrap I can find on the internet mentioning the property is in Welsh language newspaper Baner ac Amserau Cymru, from January 3rd,1894, which lists O. Williams and W. Williams of Ffrith Bulkeley as some of the winners of a Christmas-time competition meeting held in the congregationalist chapel (presumably Seion Chapel in Rowen). The house is considerably closer to Llangelynnin Old Church, but presumably the family, at that time, were Congregationalists - a mostly Calvinist demonination of Christianity with roots in Puritanism.

To reach Ffrith Bulkeley I took the footpath from Llangelynnin Old Church, past Cae Iol. The house is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7538 7322.

The route from Llangelynnin Old Church down towards Ffrith Bulkeley opens up to a beautiful view up the Conwy Valley as you come down towards the property.

The farmhouse is small and quite badly ruined, although apparently it was a lot more complete a few decades ago. 

From the front, some of the roof can be seen, probably lifted off in a complete section by the wind and deposited on the ground in front of the house.

A stone wall runs in front of the house, but it, too, is badly ruined.

To the left of the house a single outbuilding remains, in better condition but slowly deteriorating.

A walled track leads up to the house and outbuilding, terminating in this low wall with a sheep hole built in, presumably so that sheep could be channelled up towards the property then let through one by one for general care.

The outbuilding is made of quite large stones, with a single high window.

In the end wall of the house a tiny window has been neatly blocked up.

Inside the house, looking through from the back, some mortar is still visible in the wall. Presumably this was a two storey building, but there's no sign of joist holes in the end wall.

Under the section of displaced roof you can see the original laths and plaster work.

The fireplace is quite collapsed, with the wooden beam looking very rotten.

 

 

The two following photos, taken in February 2019, show the fireplace a little more clearly, due to the vegetation having died down.

___

 

 

From this angle, the end wall behind the chimney looks very precipitous and about ready to fall down.

 

From outside this corner of the end wall looks a little more solid, but it's only a matter of time before it comes down.

Although the outbuilding is in much better condition, it, too, is deteriorating. The wall at the back shows signs of another building once being attached to this one. 

Inside the outbuilding a rather lovely beam of wood helps to hold up the failing roof. 

I assume this beam was put in later when the roof started to show signs of collapse, due to the cross beam rotting through.

The window of the outbuilding, looking out over the Conwy Valley. 

The door frame is starting to fall away, but the lintel seems relatively sound.

This hole in the roof and complete break in the supporting beam mean it's only a matter of time before the roof falls in.

At the corner of the end wall of the outbuilding a wooden beam in the wall makes it appear as if there had been either another window or a door, although there's no sign of this on the outside.

The 1888-1913 map indicates the presence of another cell behind this one (to the left of the main house building on the map.) Looking at the aerial view there are signs of another cell, of about the same size, but there's little evidence of the bottom projection of this reverse L. A well is also marked, some way from the house. Map sourced from archiuk.com.

 

 

This image, from February 2019, shows the other end of the building, and while there doesn't appear to have been anything built on the end, the remains of the structure behind are quite visible, and quite different in style to the present building, which appears to be a lean-to.
 

In the corner, a huge boulder gives a very organic look to the wall. Perhaps it was already there and the builder thought it easier to build around it.

The front wall of the outbuilding shows massive damage, not evident from outside.

Outside, on the other side of the house, an old apple or crabapple tree still grows.

Another wall, near the apple tree, indicates the site of another outbuilding, although none are marked on the old map. They could have become ruins by the time the 1888-1913 map was drawn up, or perhaps this was just an unusually high wall.

The two photos below were taken in February, 2019, when the bracken has died down, and a lot more wall structures can be seen to the right of the house as you face up the hill. The map indicates two converging walls, but three are clear here, so perhaps there were some farm buildings which made up some of the back and middle wall remains.

___

The view from the house is unparalleled, and much more impressive in person, with the layered side of the valley stretching away, framed by trees. It seems sad that no one wakes up to this view any more. 

The Lost Cottages - Cae Iol, Llangelynnin

This is an intriguing little cottage, tucked away under the trees, with a marsh spreading out in front of the building. It sits very close to Llangelynnin Old Church, which is just a few hundred yards away across the fields. Coflein has very little to say about the place, but the wellhopper.wales site tells the story that Cae Iol was used as a resting place for sick children who had come to visit the holy well at the church, which had a reputation for curing children. The children would be bathed in the well in the early morning or evening, then wrapped in a blanket and taken to sleep at Cae Iol. Meanwhile, their clothes were washed in the well water. If the clothes floated, the child would be cured, but if they sank, the treatment would not work. The wellhopper site points out it may not have been this house that the children were taken to, but an earlier mediaeval platform house recorded briefly on Coflein. The current house is post-mediaeval, and presumably was a farmhouse.

The house can be found at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7509 7348.

  

The house is almost hidden by the trees which overhang it, and the thick band of rushes that cover this edge of the field. Perhaps when the house was inhabited the water was managed better, and the land more drained.

The first real glimpse of the ruins. There are a lot of rushes and nettles to get through.

It's unclear if this end cell was part of the house, or an outbuilding. It seems almost certain that it was built at a different time to the other part. Looking more closely at the photo, it looks as if this end cell was built onto the pre-existing house.

A glimpse over the tumbled wall into the first cell.

 

This low down little niche was built into the end wall. There's a bit of a hole through to the other side, but it's hard to tell if this is because it was a tiny window which has been blocked up, or simply that some of the stones have fallen out. This wall is much more roughly built than the main building.

This is why I think the two cells were built at different times. These two windows are in the wall between the two cells. One has been blocked up but the other is still open. Whether this end cell was part of the house or an outbuilding, it seems odd to only block up one of the windows on what became an interior wall.

The doorway out of the first cell.

The building has a narrow walkway or garden bounded by a wall to the left - something often seen along the long sides (usually the front) of these cottages.

 

Looking into the second cell over the tumbled down wall.

 

There's a very small fireplace in the centre of this wall, with the blocked up window to the right and the unblocked one to its left. It's an unusual arrangement, to have windows like this either side of the fireplace.

Above the small fireplace the wall is ruined enough to expose the inside of the chimney.

I wasn't sure whether this piece of timber on the floor of the second cell was the remains of a joist, or just a rotting piece of tree.

 

Looking into the next cell, with the remains of a window just visible on the right.

 

I think this is where the big fireplace must have been, at the west end of the room. It's almost totally collapsed, though.

 

The fireplace, if this is what it was, is more evident by absences - by this wide space without so much stone in it.

 

Looking along the length of the building, from behind the tumbled fireplace, there's possibly another cell on this end.

To the back of the building, low ruined walls and great trees.

 

Looking down the side of the building.

The single piece of rubbish I saw was this little piece of glazed pot with a few tantalising letters on it.

More low walls making up the yards or gardens around the building.

This little stream runs right past the side of the house, past the front door.

 

Looking back towards the house from the south side. It's almost lost in the greenery.

The view from the house would have been rather closed in, with these little humps of land rising up on the other side of the flat field. The far side of the Conwy Valley can be seen in the distance. Perhaps it was well sheltered, though, sitting in this shallow bowl high on the hillside.