17th century, rubble, 2 storey, gabled bay sides, 4 original tall stacks; 17th century oak panelled hall and two staircases.

[Additional:] A multi-period county house with associated walks and gardens (NPRN 265130). The house has a central hall range set between cross-wings, and is distinguished by its very tall chimneys. Repair work in progress (July 2002) has exposed the roof timbers of the E. range identified as medieval by Peter Smith in Houses of the Welsh Countryside, fig. 146. The range is a heavily smoke-blackened box-framed cross-wing of four bays, possibly originally open to the roof, set on a high plinth and serving as a solar or parlour wing to a lost hall, probably also timber framed. The timber origin of this Snowdonian house, now stone walled, is of considerable interest. The house, including the medieval phase, is fully discussed in a report by Peter Welford. RCAHMW field observation and record photography July 2002. (2002.07.25/RCAHMW/RFS) Cores taken for tree-ring dating by the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory 8 Aug. 2002. (RFS/2002)

Additional: Tree-ring dating

FFESTINIOG, Plas Pengwern (Pengwern Old Hall) (SH 6993 4304)

(a) Cross-wing primary phase

Felling dates: Spring 1478, Winter 1478/9 and Spring 1479

(b) Cross-wing roof repairs/alterations

Felling date / date ranges: Spring 1493, 1517-47, 1526-56

(c) Kitchen range primary phase

Felling date range: After 1483

(a) Tiebeams 1478(21C, 21?C), Posts 1469(5), 1460(2); Transverse beams 1477(30?C), 1467(17), 1395; Purlins 1458(6), 1458, 1416, Purlin re-used in Kitchen range 1455; Rafter re-used in kitchen range 1465(18). (b) Inserted purlin 1492(19?C); Cross-beam 1506(h/s); Purlin repair 1521(6). (c) Ex situ floor joist 1472. Site Master 1353-1521 PENGWERN (t = 6.3 WALES97; 5.8 PENIARTH; 5.7 HEREFC)

Plas Pengwern is a large roughly H-plan stone-built house with a central hall set between wings, one medieval in origin. Recent repairs to the upper wing have revealed that it retains a largely complete and partly smoke-blackened medieval roof of four bays with tenoned ridge and purlins and two tiers of cusped windbraces. The range appears to have been an elaborate timber-framed cross-wing whose hall has been rebuilt. As well as the primary date for the trusses of the medieval wing, various phases of rebuilding and repair have been dated. Dating commissioned by Gwilym Jones/Peter Crew for the Snowdonia National Park in association with a survey by RCAHMW. Plan in Smith, Houses of the Welsh Countryside, fig. 146a, with additional survey notes in NMRW. (Miles and Worthington 2003, VA 34, list 144). R.F. Suggett