Ciloerwynt / Cilewent Farm
The remarkable story of a Welsh longhouse, relocated to St Fagans in 1959, told through the photographs and records preserved in this collection.
A home for people and animals
Ciloerwynt was a Welsh long house, originally located in the Claerwen Valley and relocated to St Fagans in 1959. A long house was a building where 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 animals.
The large fireplace was important for cooking and heating. The last inhabitants, in the 1950s, often kept their coats on inside the house during 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 oats 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 have been submerged under Ciloerwynt Reservoir, but Ciloerwynt Dam was never built. A new bungalow was built near the site of Ciloerwynt House.
OS Grid Reference: SN882 630Ciloerwynt in Its Original Location
Photographs courtesy of Syd Meredith.
The Jones Family in 1899
The Jones family outside Ciloerwynt Farm, 1899. Photograph courtesy of Syd Meredith.
Ciloerwynt House at St Fagans
The bed from Ciloerwynt House
The bed originally from Ciloerwynt House, now located at St Fagans but not in Ciloerwynt House, was slept in by James Price. He left an unusual memorial of his death, which occurred 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 the old man finally died. He is said to haunt the house to this day.
