History

Former Royal Oak Inn, built c1900 in unusual Arts and Crafts style. Photographs in the D Harries collection show that it was built before the church lychgate which is dated 1903. Built for the Bishop family of Dolgarreg, Myddfai. An inn of the same name is marked on the 1837 Tithe Map, owned by Charles Bishop, occupied by William Howells. Said to have closed as inn after 1939-45 war.

Exterior

House, former inn, roughcast with jettied half-timbered gables, red plain tile roofs and roughcast stacks. Overall V-plan: two-storey main range facing W over road with canted NW corner block possibly an altered entrance. Low single storey service range behind this facing N over side lane. Arts and Crafts style with some characteristic play of balanced asymmetry. W front range has upper floor jettied over two canted bays with door between, the upper floor roughcast also apart from right end which has black and white half timbering and bargeboarded gable, the first floor carried on curved brackets from red sandstone shield corbels at corners. Eaves to left of gable have white painted flat boarding between rafter ends, and there is a similar short eave treatment to right of gable at higher level to give varied roof edge and this line is carried across S end gable end as flat soffit to swept-out red tiling in gable apex.
Deep verges to S gable and rear roof is carried down low. S end has similar canted bay but with hipped tile roof and one window to first floor left. Sloping buttresses to S wall at angles.
Bay windows are 2-3-2 light with 4-pane top-lights, on battered roughcast bases. Windows are all small paned. To first floor W is a triple casement to left, a tiny casement pair to centre, both under eaves and two casement pairs to half-timber gable. Double half-glazed oak doors under pointed double-chamfered red sandstone arch, with roughcast chamfered jambs. S end first floor window has casement with top-light. To left of main W front is projecting roughcast section with big roughcast chimney to right, triple casement to ground floor left and casement pair above. Gutter is carried across chimney which then rises through tiled gable.
Canted NW front is roughcast with ornate half-timbered jettied gabled centrepiece. Ground floor square bay on battered roughcast base. Front 2-4-2-light small-paned window with top-lights and similar single lights to sides. Middle 4 lights have depressed arched head. Upper floor is broader, jettied, with angle brackets on red stone corbels. Square angles flank canted oriel corresponding to bay below, 2-3-2 small-paned casements above half timber and carried on timber brackets beneath. Overall half-timbered gable. NE end gable similar to S gable with tiled apex and deep verges. Roughcast stack on gable, one 5-light ground floor casement and similar raking buttresses at angles.
Single storey range facing NE to churchyard has 3 casement pair windows, the left pair smaller, and hipped E gable.
Rear of main range has big roughcast gable, roughcast stack on ridge, triple casement to first floor right, tall battered wall-face stack to left. Flat-roofed piece between main range and rear of canted NW block.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a well-designed example of Arts and Crafts architecture of about 1900, very unusual in the area.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29499271

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey