The Lost Cottages - Onen-Ebryd Mill, Llanbedr-y-Cennin

Onin-Ebryd is a lovely little abandoned farm and mill (at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7541 6861) set on the route of a footpath and disused track leading from the road through Llanbedr y Cennin in the Conwy Valley. To all appearances, the track exists almost exclusively to access the mill, since it rather peters out after this little settlement. The road from Llanbedr, at SH 7572 6968, is probably the easiest way to reach the mill. As it was more convenient for us and also avoided walking right past inhabited properties during coronavirus, we parked at the foot of Pen y Gaer and took the footpath from the abandoned farmhouse of Tan y Gaer, at SH 7495 6959. 

It's probably been twenty years or more since I last visited this little ruined mill, even though it's not that far from my house. Then, the mill building still had a roof and the waterwheel was still visible in the wheel pit. This visit made me rather sad, partly because of the wailing ten year old we had in tow, but mostly because the deterioration had gone so far. All roofing was gone and the wheel wasn't visible at all. In fact, I spent some time wandering about wondering if I had the right place. Eventually I discovered the remains of a wheel inside the mill, and, from that, was finally able to recognise the wheel pit outside.

There's very little to find out about this mill online, beyond a few references to documents and photos relating to the Roberts family, who lived there during the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century. It seems that a visit to the archives could be rewarding for anyone who wants to find out more. Speaking to a neighbour about it, he referred to it as a 'chaffing mill,' which I assume is another name for a threshing mill.

The track running to the mill. Presumably, in the past, most of our lanes were like this, just with more visible stones and mud. 

A venerable old larch tree guards the entrance to the farmyard. 

The stile beside the rusty gate, upon a plinth of stones. 

A view of the farmyard, with the farmhouse and barns to the right of the track, and mill and barns to the left.

A small barn, this one with stone steps up the outside, only just visible here on the right, to a loft above. A common feature of barns around here.

 

One of the barn buildings shows signs of being relatively recently roofed. 

 

Looking over at the front garden and gateposts of the cottage. 

A roof ridge tile, manufactured in Hawarden, some 35 miles away in North East Wales. 

Roof ridge tile lying on scattered stones. 

An old washtub being destroyed by rust. 

The old front door and gateposts with the garden between. The garden is overrun with soapwort, a spreading plant that can be used in place of soap and is still used for washing delicate fabrics. Our own garden is full of this. It's a sign of a long inhabited cottage. 

In June, 1950, Onen-Ebryd was already beginning to go into ruin, but then it was still an impressive two storey building. See an image from then on the Coflein site, which shows the main house roofed, with first floor windows still partly intact under gables. 

One of the beams in the old cottage. The survival of these beams for so long indicates these buildings were roofed for longer than a lot of the abandoned cottages around here. 

This big beam is almost the only surviving remnant of the fireplace, and is very like the beam in our own 350 year old cottage. 

 

Luckily the front door lintel is made of slate, as well as having this rotten wooden lintel. 

Joist holes for first floor beams.

A crabapple tree grows wild behind the barns, another sign of old habitation. 

The door into the mill itself, with a well preserved wooden lintel.

The stone step up into the mill shows a very evocative patch of wear from the many feet that must have gone in and out every day. 

Inside the mill, the A frame holding the roof has fallen, turning 180° in the process. 

The joists are held together by wooden pegs, but also by this hefty bit of ironwork. 

Inside the mill building I found the first sign I was in the right place - a wheel on the inside of the wall that would have been attached to the water wheel outside. It almost looks as if the wheel is holding up the wall! I lack the technical knowledge of mills to know the correct term for this wheel. 

The shaft from this small wheel appears to enter the wall here. 

I'm not sure if the horizontal metal band is part of the arrangement, or later debris. Similarly, are the slates near the floor original? It looks as if a little maintenance has been done to stop the wall collapsing. 

The wheel pit outside the mill barely resembles a pit at all. There was a metal wheel here. I don't know if any remains under the brambles. The curious thing about this wheel is there's no sign of a watercourse anywhere nearby. The course of streams has been brutally altered by the building of a leat which runs across the hillside a few hundred yards above the mill, but there's still no sign in the land of there ever being a stream. The local consensus is that the water was brought in by a wooden aquaduct.

There is an image of the rusting water wheel and also of some of the gearing at the Heritage Photo Archive.

A small, high up window in the end gable of the mill building. 

The land just above the mill. A small single room ruin can be seen near a stunted tree. The leat is just out of sight further up the slope. 

The leat where it runs under the small mountain of Pen y Gaer, emerging on the other side near Bron y Gadair. 

Bwlch y Ddeufaen, Conwy Valley

Well, this one is a couple of weeks old. Just after Christmas, while the internet was out and during a time when the snow was low over the mountains, we decided to take the children up the hill to Bwlch y Ddeufaen (the pass of the two stones), in the hope of finding enough snow for them to play with. It's a tricky business getting up there with the wrong car. Too much snow and you can't drive up, not enough, and there's no fun snow to play with. Tractors had no problems and four wheel drives were fine, but our car is neither. Lots of other people had had the same idea, so parking was tough, and we didn't get to walk off to some of the more amazing sights up there - the two standing stones towards the west that the pass is named for, or the burial chambers and standing stones to the east. Instead we just had fun walking on the part-melted and refrozen snow.

In good weather access is no problem, with a small gravel carpark at the west end of the road for those who want to cross the pass and see the two big standing stones, and a wide verge for parking at the east end if you want to go towards the burial chambers, Maen y Bardd and, as I've heard it referred to, the witch's or bitch's kennel, and a few more standing stones. A Roman road crosses the pass too, and I believe there are remains of mediaeval hut platforms. There's a very low stone circle off to the south side of the road, as well, so this place is packed with history. People have been using the pass for thousands of years, from the neolithic inhabitants, through the Romans and the mediaeval era, drovers in more recent times, and nowadays mountain bikers, walkers, and the majestic span of electricity pylons which also use this natural gap in the mountains. There was a brief proposal to run the A55 Expressway through this pass, so complain as people may about the pylons, they can be grateful the place hasn't been devastated by a three lane highway.

Exploring the standing stones and burial chambers (through this blog - I've been many, many times before, because this beautiful place is right in home territory for me) will have to wait for better weather or a time without children, but it was still pretty up there for the short walk that we managed.

First little dodgy bit is driving down the hill to Roman Bridge, but we didn't crash. I'm not sure why it's known as Roman Bridge, because the bridge isn't Roman. (In the wall beneath the hedge on the right down here is a stone shaped just like the sole of a shoe, which tends to be kept clear so you can see it.)

Up near Cae Coch (a house, now a holiday cottage) where the road turns sharp left towards the Bwlch and the track goes sharp right along the Roman road towards the burial chambers. There's a little parking here at the edge of the road. The children who lived here used to walk to school every day. I suppose it's not so far down the Roman road, but still, it's rather extreme.

The remains of a building. So often up here where you see a small stand of trees a house or ruin is associated with them. If I had a house this high up I'd plant some trees round it too.

Looking back towards Pen-y-Gaer (left, site of a hill fort) and Pen-y-Gadair (right), my home mountains.

On up the road, where the snow was very icy, melted a little and refrozen so there was a hard carapace over everything. The wheel tracks were more treacherous than the snow in most places.

Snow, footprints, ruin, wall, mountains.

They like doing this to the footpath signs around here.

Dog vs Snow.

A pretty view of Pen-y-Gaer and the valley beyond.

I'm not sure what this peak is, but it's at the end of Tal-y-Fan.

Sheep footprints, perhaps?

As the light starts to go it's time to head home.

And we found a small traffic jam on the road as everyone else headed home too...