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.