Moel Ddu (Aberglaslyn) - Royal Commission on the Ancient and ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Figure 14. Fireplace at Pen-y-Gaer (nprn 532901).In the majority of cases the outlying farm building is a traditional cattle shed, orbeudy, a building type found throughout the survey area. Such buildings date at leastfrom the mid eighteenth century, were common in North Wales by the nineteenthcentury and were described by Thomas Rowlandson in 1847: ‘the cattle are not allbrought to the homestead during the winter, but are housed in detached buildings atsome distance from each other, with a herdsman to look after each lot’ (quoted inWiliam 1986, 89-90). According to Rowlandson they should be large enough toaccommodate up to eight cattle, and each has a small attached yard. The yardcontained the haystack that was fed to the animals inside. Examples recorded in thesurvey area are similar in size, construction and layout to other cow houses found inNorth Wales (Wiliam 1986, fig 75a). In plan they measure up to 11 metres by 6metres with walls standing up to 1.8 metres to the eaves, and some of them mayhave had lofts as there are openings in the gables. The entrance was normally in thedownhill gable end, which facilitated mucking out. An opening was made to connectwith the haystack yard. While the beudy is well built, the attached yard walls are notintegrated and are of much rougher construction.On Muriau Gleision is a ruined beudy in which the gable profile indicates a steeplypitched roof, which is probably of eighteenth-century date (nprn 532609, fig 15).Most of these cattle sheds, however, belong to the nineteenth century. Examplessuch as Weirglodd beudy (nprn 532526) of Cefn Bifor farm and others nearGorllwyn Uchaf (nprn 532790), near Gorllwyn Isaf (nprn 532819), near Llys (nprn532833) and near Plas Oerddwr (nprn 532893) can be linked with individual farms.Others, such as Llaeth Fynydd (nprn 532702, fig 10), cannot with certainty be linkedto a specific farm. The beudy at Gorllwyn Isaf may be eighteenth-century in origin,but in the nineteenth century it was extended to form three parallel ranges. It was,therefore, by far the largest of the cattle sheds.13
Figure 15. Eighteenth-century beudy at Muriau Gleision (nprn 532609).Most of the other evidence of agriculture is related to sheep farming. Management ofsheep is by sheepfolds, the latest of which are multi-cell, often integral with fieldwalls (nprn 532548, 532661), or beside a stream, by which means the sheep can begathered for washing (e.g. nprn 288236, 532547, fig 16). They may be as late as thenineteenth century. Most of them are shown on the 1891 Ordnance Survey map.There is also an earlier generation of smaller sheepfolds, much more roughly built,often against natural outcrops and invariably of a single unit (e.g. 532557, 532679, fig17).Figure 16. Sheepfold beside a stream, Ffridd Isaf (nprn 288236).14
Page 1: The Uplands InitiativeMoel<
Page 5: Figure 5 Hut circle settlement, Lly
Page 9 and 10: medieval periods, and account for m
Page 12 and 13: Figure 6. Distribution of Iron Age
Page 14 and 15: Other medieval settlements were fou
Page 16 and 17: 3.4 Post medieval settlement and ag
Page 20 and 21: Figure17 . Sheepfold built against
Page 22 and 23: Figure 19. Mine entrance at Parc-y-
Page 24 and 25: Ffridd Isaf at approximately SH 566
Page 26 and 27: 5.0 References5.1 Documentary and c
Page 31 and 32: Appendix 1Table of sites by period,
Page 33 and 34: CEFN BIFOR, HUT CIRCLE II 532524 SH
Page 35 and 36: YNYS WEN, HUT CIRCLE II 532705 SH56
Page 37 and 38: MOEL DDU, ENCLOSURE I 532668 SH5752
Page 39 and 40: CEFN BIFOR, FARM BUILDING 532526 SH
Page 41 and 42: GORSEDDAU SLATE QUARRY, SHELTER II
Page 43 and 44: MOEL DDU, SHEEPFOLD III 532650 SH57
Page 45 and 46: LLYN CWMYSTRADLLYN, LONG HUT IV 532
Page 47 and 48: TAI COCHION, FIELD SYSTEM 532826 SH
Page 49: YNYS WEN, QUARRY I 532692 SH5618543

Moel Ddu (Aberglaslyn) - Royal Commission on the Ancient and ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?