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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2015
The Admiralty, having purchased in 1937 an extensive area of land in Llanychaer and adjacent parishes five miles SSE of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, kindly permitted the National Museum of Wales to examine and make records of any sites or buildings of interest therein.
I visited the local headquarters at Trecŵn in June 1937 for this purpose. The site consists of a narrow valley—at one point a gorge with rocky scarps—and its flanking uplands. The western half is occupied by Trecŵn House, its parkland and village, an estate developed in the English manner and providing little of antiquarian interest. The remainder was largely under different ownership, and, apart from Llanychaer church and farm, both of which are modernized, more primitive conditions survive in it. This portion of the area, which includes the picturesque rock-wall of Graig Lwyd, is shown in FIG. I. Each rectangle on the map represents a dwelling; and it will be seen that settlement is now confined to the floor and eastern side of the valley. It is of the diffuse type, which contrasts so strongly with the nucleated villages characteristic of England and met with in south Pembrokeshire and other anglicized parts of Wales. If the parish boundaries be examined (shown by a line of dots on the map) it will be seen that most of the houses are in Llanychaer parish, the ancient centre of which, the church, has only one farmstead near it. The shaded (red) portion of the map represents part of the common land (rough mountain pasture) of this and the adjacent parish. The dwellings within the area controlled by the Admiralty are overprinted in red.
Page 428 of note * Mr Morse remarks that the older method, liming, is preferred to cement, though it is not so weatherproof; for while a gale may loosen half-a-dozen slates on a limewashed roof, a square yard or more of cement roof may under similar conditions be carried clean away.
1 See Peate, T.B.L. in ANTIQUITY 1936, p. 458,Google Scholar for an interesting comment on this practice.
2 In this, the northern part of Pembrokeshire, Welsh is universally spoken, and the place-names are, for the most part, compounds of known Welsh words. Llain-wen-isaf for example means the Lower white strip (of land) ; its neighbour is the Upper white strip. Cwm-ceiliog is the valley or hollow of the cockerel ; Cwm-giâr, the valley of the hen.
3 This is not a normal feature of the houses ; like the porch it was probably put up by the tenant to keep out the southwest wind driving up the cwm.
4 In the Sections (FIGS. 3 and 4) a measured drawing of a typical original roof has been inserted, since the existing roof at Llain-wen-isaf is modern.
5 This pair of houses is on level ground, and the variation from the normal may not have much significance. The occurrence of paired houses represents, I think, a definite intrusion of urban ideas into this countryside, probably in the 18th century ; rows of two-roomed cottages are not uncommon in the older parts of Pembrokeshire townships.
6 Dr F. J. North points out to me that in Owen’s, George ‘Description of Pembrokeshire’ (1603),Google Scholar there is a reference to the contemporary scarcity of lime in North Pembrokeshire-‘ in Kemes, Killgarran, & Dewisland where the lyme wanteth, . . . . they vse morter of Clay or erth to make their stone walles . . . . (ed. H. Owen, 1892, P. 78).
7 There is one large farmhouse in the neighbourhood of the cottages, Garn, in Llanychaer parish. It is round-chimneyed, a (medieval?) structure of the type described b Allen, Romilly (Arch. Cumb., 1902, p. I ff.)Google Scholar. Its arrangement is essentially that of the cots ; the accommodation is on two floors at one end, at the other is a living room open to the roof. The entrance passage is in the middle.
8 It survives today, I think, only in the ‘Welsh pigsty’.
9 See his paper ‘Some Welsh Houses’, ANTIQUIT1Y9 36, x, 448 ff.
Page 440 of note * In these buildings lime mortar was used only for the hearth and chimney construction.
Page 440 of note † Loft recently boarded up, with hole for entry.
Page 440 of note ‡ Higher walls : heavier overhang to eaves (common rafters project) ; window to loft (in gable). Carn-deifog-isaf has also a small lean-to.