Heritage
A future for redundant historic buildings
Deri Odwyn
For centuries the Cambrian Mountains have supported a fascinating pattern of human occupation including sheep-farming and leadworking and with much 18th and 19th century agricultural and landscape improvement carried out by the great estates such as Hafod. These histories are reflected in the surviving buildings and the Cambrian Mountains Initiative aims to protect the legacy and to broaden understanding of its historic environment.
We have begun by characterising the farm buildings of the region as, compared to many other building types they are comparatively poorly understood. The project, managed by The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, takes an overview of the surviving stock of farm buildings and draws out themes and patterns in the built heritage. It seeks to identify the buildings most at risk and those where there might be opportunities for repair or adaptive reuse.
So far we have surveyed over 530 farmsteads, smallholdings and cottages ranging in date from the 1689 barn at Pencefn to the 1924 engine-shed at Cefn Meurig Mawr and including home farms such as that at Derry Ormond and well-preserved corn mills, e.g. Felin yr Aber. The majority of the earlier buildings are in the Aeron Valley which is also where there are the most notable examples of earth-walled buildings e.g. Felin Coed. Cob or clom, as it is known, is made by mixing clay with rushes and fragments of shale.
We hope this characterisation can continue to cover the whole of the Cambrians and be a catalyst to the enhancement of the historic environment and a way of prioritising sustainable new uses.
Edward Holland (The Prince’s Regeneration Trust) 7th April 2009
For a full detailed report click here: CMI Historic Buildings Pilot Project