The Lost Cottages - Tan y Graig, Gyffin Llechan Parish

Tan y Graig is an extremely ruined little house in Gyffin parish - although much closer to Llangelynin Old Church than to the parish church in Gyffin, near Conwy. Since the house was still lived in in 1911, it seems likely that the place has been deliberately demolished, possibly with the stones being reused elsewhere. The house sits in its own enclosure up above the edge of the enclosed land that leads up from the valley. West of the wall behind the ruin is nothing but moorland for some miles.

Tan y Graig, not to be confused with the nearby house of the same name in Llangelynin parish, is at 400 metres, on the east side of a long hill called Cefn Maen Amor, which perhaps protects the house a little from westerly winds. The house is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7407 7358, on private land, and was visited with the owner's permission.

See a short video of the house here.

From a short distance almost nothing can be seen of the house. The wall to the left is the enclosure wall, not part of the house.

I believe that the remains here are what is left of the house. It's impossible to tell anything about where each room was located, or where the fireplace might have been. It's also hard to tell what age this iteration of the building would have been, although the very squared off corner stones at the centre of the picture make it look post-1800.

An image from the 1888-1913 map shows that the house was a fairly small structure at the edge of a small collection of enclosures. Both it and Llwyn Penddu - and perhaps Ffriddlys, although I haven't been able to establish if there were ever a house at Ffriddlys - are actually set higher, and further west, than most of the enclosed land on the slope. I don't know if the small building shown on the other side of the enclosure wall was related to the house or not.

It seems likely, with this orientation, that the front door of the house would have faced roughly south. 

 

It seems that the house always would have been a fairly small place. I haven't yet found it in parish records, but the census suggests it was only a three room house with, in the census period, a small family living in it. In 1841 the house was lived in by William and Elisabeth Williams, 35 and 40, with their daughter Anne, 15. William was an agricultural labourer. By 1851 William had become a quarry man, at 47. Elizabeth was 53 and Anne 24, still unmarried. In 1861 William was 57, a farmer of four acres, Elizabeth was 63, and their grandson William Roberts, 8, was living with them. Anne is not present. In 1871 their grandson has left, William is 68, and Elizabeth 74. 

 The large enclosure around the house curves around to the north and then the east. The wall separating the enclosed land from the moorland is to the left.

 

Interestingly, although in 1881 it looks as if a new family is living in the house, it seems likely this is actually the family of Anne, William and Elizabeth's daughter. The head of the household is John Roberts, 54, with wife Anne, 54, and son Robert, 24. Anne's name and age are correct, and the surname would also be correct for the grandson, William Roberts, who was living with his grandparents previously. John Roberts is an agricultural labourer, while their son Robert, unmarried, is a joiner.

 

It's impossible to know exactly to whom census entries refer, but it seems likely that Anne left home to marry John Roberts at some point after 1851, and for some reason her son William was sent back to live with his grandparents. Records show a John and Anne Roberts, both 34, living in 'Cau Iol,' Llangelynin - the nearby house of Cae Iol - in 1861, with sons Robert, 4, and Owen, 1. John is an agricultural labourer. In 1871 there is a John and Anne Roberts living in Llain in Rowen, both 44. John is an agricultural labourer, son Owen, 11, and daughter Elizabeth, 8, are scholars, and there is a younger son, John, 4.

 

It seems very likely to me that Anne Roberts is the daughter of William and Elizabeth Williams, and this is the same couple who return to live at Tan y Graig once Anne's parents have died or moved on. I haven't been able to find parish records mentioning the family, but it's possible they were chapel goers. There are mentions of 'Tyn y Graig' in the Llangelynin records, but if this were an alternate spelling of Tan y Graig it seems more likely this would be the Tan y Graig in that parish, rather than this one, which is in Gyffin.

In 1891 John and Anne Roberts, both 64, are still in Tan y Graig, John being a farm labourer. They are living with son Robert, 30, a farm labourer, and grandson Robert, 7, a scholar. In 1901 John is now a widower, 74, and a farmer, and William has made a return, a general labourer at the age of 47. The house has three rooms, and both men speak Welsh only. In 1911 William, at 56, is the sole remaining member of the family, an agricultural labourer who speaks both Welsh and English. Perhaps this was the death knell for the house after three generations - and an unknown number before the censuses began.

It seems likely that this would have been the small garden space in front of the house, with a possibly deliberately planted holly to the left. 

Fragments of an old boot were lying on the ground in this space in front of the house. It seems likely this would have belonged to one of the people mentioned earlier who lived in the house.

This bit of the boot has made a good home for slugs and woodlice.

I wondered if this curved piece went around the heel.

Another piece shows small holes for stitching.

Reinforcing the idea that the south face of the building was the front, a low wall and a gatepost survive a few feet south of the south wall.

Turned around and looking north, there appears to be a doorway into a small enclosure or cell to the west of the square house corner. It's hard to tell if this cell has any connecting door between it and the structure on the right, since the wall is so ruined. It looks as if the western wall of the cell were part of the enclosure wall.

A still from my video of the place shows the south wall of this cell apparently built into the enclosure wall to the west. Perhaps it was never higher than the third course of stone to the left here.

In the mound of infill over the house remains was this piece of glass, probably the bottom of a bottle.

The bottom of the glass in the previous photo.

A small, ruined enclosure sits just to the north of the house. It looks as if there was another structure, perhaps a pen, just to the north east.

Looking back over the mound of the demolished house.

Looking south at the highest surviving part of the house wall. It seems likely to me that the dwelling was to the left with only a small enclosure to the right.

There may be another enclosure to the south east of the house, but the stones are covered in moss and grass.

Looking west across the extent of the house remains, with the single gatepost to the left.

Outside the enclosure around the house the land is rather more wild and moorlike. This view is looking down towards the Conwy Valley.

The Lost Cottages - Cae'r Llin, Llanbedr y Cennin Parish

Cae’r Llin is a very ruined and overgrown little cottage high up on the edge of the Afon Dulyn, the river which flows down from Dulyn to the Afon Conwy in the valley below. On a calm day all that can be heard is the calling of birds and the hiss of the river fifty metres below. The house sits at 200 metres above sea level, surrounded by brambles and bracken and not on the public footpath. The house shows habitation from at least 1700, but occupation dies out after the 1861 census, and the place doesn’t seem to have retained any used trackways or paths as many of these places do. The name is mentioned in an estate sale of 1920, but likely simply as a piece of land.

The house would have had a few relatively close neighbours when it was inhabited; Pennant further down the river, as well as Cae Ithel Ucha and Cae Ithel Isa, Onen Ebryd on the hill above, and Llwyn Onn further up the river.

This post is made up of photographs from October 2020, and from May 2021.

See a video of the house here.

 

Approaching from the river below makes for a very steep climb up a slope which is carpeted in clawing brambles and tangled bracken, although the place sits relatively near to open farmland at the top of the slope. It seems to consist of a single detached outbuilding, with a long east facing cottage to the south with one outbuilding on the end.

 

 The gable end of the attached northern outbuilding seems relatively intact.

 

 

The stonework is still quite tight, and doesn't show obvious working to face the stones. It's hard to tell if the ridge was always at this height, or if the wall might have collapsed a little at the top.

There are good large cornerstones on this north-eastern corner of the little outbuilding, which is only a few yards across.

There was probably a door into the outbuilding in the centre of the photograph.

 

Just to the north of the house is the detached outbuilding, with only one wall still standing on the west side.

 

 

 

A long, slim stone stands about five feet from the wall, which looks as if it may have formed a low partition in the building. I've seen similar arrangements dividing one pigsty from another, so it's possible that this building was a pigsty. If there were walls on the other sides of the building they seem to have almost entirely disappeared. There are some slates leaning up against this large upright stone, so perhaps this little outbuilding had a slate roof at one time.

 The only remaining part of the south wall of this detached outbuilding is made from one very large stone.

 

 

Between the detached outbuilding and the house, on the east side, is what seems to be a single tall gatepost.

 

 A number of quite thick slates are lying on the ground, up on edge as if this is where they fell from the collapsing roof. Such coarse, thick slates point to this being a fairly early roof in the history of using slate.

 

 

The slate is very roughly split, and many of the slabs are about half an inch thick.

 

 A large tree has grown up on the back wall of the outbuilding attached to the house, which has probably displaced a lot of the stones.

 

 

A view of the gable end of this attached outbuilding from the inside.

The corner of the main house looks rather rougher than the outbuilding, and this gable end is certainly more ruined. It looks as if it were built separately from, so probably earlier than, the outbuilding.

The first evidence of occupation I have found is a baptism in the Llanbedr y Cennin parish records, when Anne, daughter of John ab Ewan and Grace ach Robert Parry was baptised in September 1700. Grace must have died at some point in the next few years, because the next entry is in 1707, when John ab Ewan's wife is called Gwenna Owen, and their son Owen is baptised on the 6th of April. They go on to have Elizabeth baptised on the 6th of January 1709, and Margaret on the 6th of April, 1715.

The next entry I have found is a burial in 1747, when Ellis Thomas of Cae'r Llin, widower, was buried on March the 15th.

There is a baptism for Anne, the daughter of Richard Roberts of Cae llin by his wife Jane on April 3rd, 1778, but Anne was buried on the 20th of the same month. Another burial occurs, perhaps with another new family in the house, in 1813, when labourer Hugh Hughes, 22, is buried on September 11th. It's unknown if Hugh Hughes was related to the next occupants, but at least from 1819 until the house's last appearance in the census in 1861, the place is lived in by Thomas Hughes, a farmer, and wife Margaret Hughes.

 

Baptisms seem limited to the church in Llanbedr y Cennin - perhaps the sensible choice for a fragile infant, because it's much closer than Caerhun church. There are a number of burials in Caerhun, though. In 1817 Ellin Hughes was buried at Caerhun, aged 15 months. I can't find a baptism record for her in Caerhun or Llanbedr. It is possible that she was the child of Thomas and Margaret Hughes. I can't find a marriage reference for the couple after 1813, either, and a period of a few decades before that is missing from the marriage records.

In 1819 Thomas and Margaret have another child Ellin, born on March 17th and baptised on the 21st. In 1821 their daughter Margaret is born, followed by Jane in 1824, and son John in 1827. Jane dies in 1832 at the age of seven, and is buried in Caerhun. Thomas Hughes of Caellin is buried in Caerhun at the age of 8, in 1849, but I can't find a baptism record for him. Catherine Hughes of Caer llin is buried in 1851 in Caerhun, aged 21, but I can't find a baptism record for her, either. She is mentioned in the census, though.

 

Curiously, although the census shows Thomas and Margaret continuing to live in Cae'r Llin up until 1861, in November 1835 Ellin, daughter of John Hughes, a farmer, and Anne Hughes is baptised. Perhaps there were more members of the Hughes family living in this small house.

 

 The inside of the cottage itself is full of undergrowth and trees, making it very hard to make out details.

The censuses for the cottage only show occupation until 1861, and through that time the house is lived in by the Hughes family. In 1841 Thomas Hughes is a farmer of 50, married to Margaret who is also 50, and living with children Margaret, 20, John, 15, and Catherine, 11. In 1851 Thomas is 58, a farmer of 35 acres - this differs from the 1846 tithe and the later census which show he has 50 acres. His wife Margaret is 62, son John 24, and Catherine 21; Catherine will die only a few months later. In 1861 the family no longer have children at home. Thomas is 69, a farmer of 50 acres, and Margaret is 73. They are living with a servant, Jane Jones, 13, and also have a visitor, 10 year old Margaret Jones who was born in Llangwstennin. The only record I can find subsequent to this is when Margaret Hughes dies at the age of 83 in May 1866, and is buried in Caerhun. This is quite an age difference to her age of 73 in the 1861 census.

It's unknown where the missing family members were baptised or buried. Perhaps they were occasional chapel goers, or sometimes used another church further afield.

 

 

The cottage disappears into the growth and it's impossible, without cutting back a huge amount of vegetation, to see the extent of the place.

 

 A wide angle shot inside the house, facing north, shows the ruin of the fireplace in the wall dividing the house from the northern outbuilding. It is relatively easy to make out the two thick walls to either side of the fireplace, with the slew of collapsed stone in the middle. It seems likely the fireplace had a wooden beam rather than a stone lintel, given this amount of collapse.

 

 

 

 The eastern end of the fireplace, with its thick wall.

 

 

 

 The western end of the fireplace is of a similar width, and has violets growing on the top. It's impossible to tell if the place ever had a bread oven, but given the early date that it went out of use, it's possible that it never did.

 

 

 

 There is a lot of rubble in the centre, which is typical of the sudden collapse of an entire chimney when the beam finally rots.

 

 

The western wall of the house has survived to about three feet high.

 

 The slope up to the house, an absolute tangle of bracken and bramble. It's hard to imagine quite how it would have looked in the past, or where any paths might have gone. There are a couple of tracks marked on the 1888-1913 Ordnance Survey map, though.

 

The 1888-1913 map, showing Cae'r Llin to the right, and Onen Ebryd to the top left. The Afon Dulyn flows through the valley below. Cae'r Llin is right on the edge of the treeline, with a few small enclosures to the north-west, and tracks leading north and then east towards Pennant further down the river, and north and then west to Onen Ebryd. The map shows a small enclosed space in front of the house, which is quite common in these cottages.

 

 The land just to the west of the house is a rather beautiful, spreading pasture, and is part of the field farmed by the occupant of Cae'r Llin in the 1846 tithe map.

 

 

 A little to the north west of the house is a number of small enclosures, on the land included in the tithe entry for the house, which were probably used by the farmer. In 1846 Thomas Hughes was farming two large parcels of land of a total of just over 50 acres, one centring on the house, and one up on the eastern slopes of Pen y Gaer.

 

 

 

 It's hard to make out exactly what the configuration of these pens might have been, but it seems likely they would have been used for sheep.

 

 

 

 This broad, spreading land is rather a surprise after fighting through the undergrowth from the river. Since the land is described in the tithe as arable, woods, and pasture, it seems likely the family were growing some crops up here as well as grazing livestock. Oats may have been grown, but the name 'Cae'r Llin' means 'Field of the flax,' and is mentioned in A Study of the Place Names of Montgomeryshire, in the journal 'Collections, historical & archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire' ('Cae'r Llin, The Field of the Flax," in Caernarvonshire'). It seems likely in that case that flax was grown here at some point.

 

 

 A little further from the pens and the house is what appears to be the remains of a walled trackway. On the 1888-1913 map a trackway is shown leading up to the farm and mill of Onen Ebryd, higher up the slope. If at one point Cae'r Llin produced flax, I wonder if it's possible that Onen Ebryd ever processed the crop. It has been mentioned that the place may have been a chaff mill, but I'm not sure what that involves.