Ciloerwynt / Cilewent Farm

Ciloerwynt was a welsh long house, originally located in the Clearwen Valley and was relocated to St Fagans in 1959. A long house was people and animals lived under the same roof. The original timber walls were replaced by stone when the house was enlarged in 1734. The cattle and horses were kept in stalls on the left and the family lived on the right. Both animals and people entered through the same door into a central passageway. A servant slept in the hay loft above the the animals. The large fireplace was important for cooking and heating. The last inhabitants, in the 1950's often kept their coats on inside the house during the winter. The single living room was also a kitchen and work room. Rush lights, made of reeds dipped in fat, provided light in the evenings. The family diet was based on oaks and milk, and they turned milk into cheese and butter in the large dairy at the back. Ciloerwynt was just upstream of the proposed Ciloerwynt Dam and would of been submerged under Ciloerwynt Reservoir. Ciloerwynt Dam wasn't built. A new bungalow was built near the site of Ciloerwynt House.
Map Ref SN882 630

Ciloerwynt Farm in it's original location.
Photos courtesy of Syd Meredith.

The Jones family outside Ciloerwynt Farm in 1899.
Photo courtesy of Syd Meredith.

Ciloerwynt House at St Fagans.

The bed orginally from Ciloerwynt House (now located at St Fagans but not in Ciloerwynt House) was a bed slept in by James Price. He had left an odd memorial of his death which occured in 1658. When confined to his death bed, he had a carpenter come in each morning to carve a rosette on the bed head. Also carved was a figure of Death and an inscription telling of the day then the old man finally died. He haunts the house to this day.

View of Ciloerwynt, 2018.

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