Pibwr Lwyd Farmhouse, Llangunnor, Carmarthenshire

History

A house of late medieval origin with historical references suggesting that manorial courts were held here in the medieval period. The present house appears to be of mid C16 origin, a long rectangular house, possibly a storeyed hall with a large lateral chimney on the W wall. The SE gable contains an arched doorway and corbels, also suggesting origins of at least the C16. There are documented references to the house and its owners from 1541 and through the C17 and C18.

The house was substantially modified in Regency style c1820 by William Lewis Evans Esq. who added a rear wing and fashionable tripartite and traceried sashes. The interior is mainly from this phase and the house is remarkable for retaining stencilled decoration schemes from this period. The stencilling appears to have been applied throughout the house, mainly green and black on white plaster and as an alternative to printed wallpaper.

Stencilling was a short lived practice, in use from the medieval period but revived from c1790 to provide colour and pattern where expensive wall paper was not affordable, primarily in the houses of the lesser gentry or more affluent trade classes. It was quickly superseded by wallpaper when the tax on printed wallpaper was abolished in 1836 (in force from 1712). Stencilling was then almost invariably lost to redecoration and altered interiors and it is now extremely rare for it to survive as intact schemes.

Similar decoration, but not as extensive, survives at Southwood Farm, nr Roch in Pembrokeshire, a large lesser gentry type farmhouse built 1822. It is possible that the stencilling at both Pibwr Lwyd and Southwood was carried out by the firm of David Brigstocke & Son of Carmarthen and Haverfordwest, who advertised as ‘House-Painters, Glaziers & Paper-Hangers. Patent Floor Cloths. Plate and Crown Window Glass.’

Pibwr Lwyd is shown with the c1820 extensions on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey. Pibwr Lwyd Farm was sold in 1919 to Carmarthenshire County Council, who established a technical and agricultural college (now Carmarthenshire College of Technology and Art) on the land surrounding the house, during which time the house ceased to be inhabited. The house was used as part of the college campus when a single storey extension was added. Roofs were reslated, guttering replaced and chimneys were reduced c1984. Empty at inspection in 2018.

Exterior

Large house, 2½-storey L-shaped plan with single storey workshop wing to SW. Roughcast rubble stone walls, sash windows, replaced slate roofs and roughcast stacks.

Entrance elevation to the SW, 2-window with openings to the centre and L-hand only. To the R of centre is an external lateral stack obscured by a C19 single-storey wing. The central entrance has a replaced panelled door under an original round-headed radial overlight. Above it is a 9-pane sash window. On the L side are recessed tripartite sash windows beneath blind elliptical arches. The wing R of centre (College workshop extension) is 4-window with replaced segmental-headed 2-light windows, boarded door at the R end and 2-window gable end.

The R (SE) gable end of the main house has a large external stack offset to the R side. To its L is a blocked late medieval pointed doorway, above which is a fragment of a corbel table, possibly for a first-floor stack. The upper storey has a 16-panesash window, the attic a 9-pane sash window. The L (NW) gable end of the main house also has an external stack, to the L of which the upper storey has a pointed small-pane sash window with Gothic glazing, and the attic a 9-pane sash window.

Continuous with the L gable end is the 2-storey rear wing, nearly square in plan with hipped roof. On the NW side are tripartite sash windows in elliptical-headed recesses, while the rear (NE) has a pointed small-pane sash window upper R with Gothic glazing bars. Facing the rear of the main house the SE side of the wing has an inserted boarded door to the L and 12-pane sash window to the R, while the upper storey has two 9-pane sash windows. The rear of the main range has a central tall pointed stair light with small-pane Gothic glazing. To its L is an inserted boarded door and 12-pane sash window; while in the upper storey is a 24-pane sash window.

Interior

Interior of the early C19 retaining plan, fittings and decoration of this period. Entrance hall with moulded ceiling cornice, red wash to the walls under which are traces of grey-blue leaf patterns. The room on the L side (dining room) has elliptical niches flanking a replaced fireplace. Dog-leg stair with spiral newel, stick balusters and turned newels at the landings. First floor landing retains bold floral stencilling and evidence at the base of the top stair wall of a scheme of black letter text arranged in a border. Evidence of an earlier stair in a modern cupboard.

First floor retains early C19 6-panel doors and doorways. Rooms with moulded ceiling cornices, some dado rails. Room to N with wide elliptical niche with panelled pilasters, walls painted with cornice band of leaves and dots and a filling of leaf patterns. Smaller room at stair landing (later bathroom) is painted in a formal leaf pattern. Room to SE has evidence of painting under later wall finish and a running scroll as a cornice. End room (above the med doorway) with formal leaf patterning visible below later finishes. The rear wing is accessed from the stair with a corridor, divided off at its end and with a doorway to a single room. The main room in rear wing has a leaf scroll skirting band with a filling of leaf scrolls.

The upper storey and attic retain painted plaster walls, mainly of stencilled foliage patterns, with 4 panel raised and fielded doors of probable C18 date. In the attic the ceiling has been removed revealing roof trusses which are reused and of an early (C17?) date.

Attic space is divided into rooms by plaster partitions with 4-panel raised and fielded C18 doors. Substantial painted decoration survives in particular in the room to the SE which is entirely painted with a leaf pattern with border of black oak-leaf scrollwork around the doorway, along the skirting and at the former ceiling level. Some traces of painting survive in the next room with traces of a formal border of 4-petal flowers in black possibly on a red background with a yellow filling possibly with black patterning. Closet at stair head is completely painted with a classical border in black around the door frames, outlining the truss-foot and following the ceiling and the skirting. The filling is of red stars. cNext room has a traces of black patterns under a yellow wash with 1910 graffiti. The end room retains an early C19 fireplace surround and 6-panel door has green floral tendrils with black shading and a black border at skirting level. In this room there was (in 1994) a fragment of wallpaper of similar design on the window lintel. A deep cupboard with panelled doors shows the stages of painting, with one wall painted only in green, with the thickening of the paint at the edges of the stencil clearly visible, while the back wall has the black shading of the second stencil added.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a well-preserved late-Georgian house, with earlier origins, remarkable for retaining an important type of interior decoration that was popular for a time but short-lived and quickly superseded by wallpapers.

No other examples of complete stencilling schemes are known of in Wales -, individual rooms or small areas of decoration do survive, but nowhere else has the richness in detail and variety as Pibwr Lwyd and it survives as possibly one of the most intact schemes of late Georgian interior decoration across the UK. It is graded at II* to reflect this extreme rarity and importance.

External Links

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