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![Ffair Rhos](webphotos/ffairrhos.jpg)
FFAIR RHOS
GRID REFERENCE: SN 745678
AREA IN HECTARES: 165.5
Historic Background
Ffair Rhos lay within Strata Florida Abbey’s Mefenydd
Grange, and was granted a fair by the Abbey. Post-Dissolution, Ffair Rhos’s
fairs were the greatest in Ceredigion. Fair days were 25 July, 15 August
and 14 September, and in James I’s time were said to attract 5000-6000
people (Howells 1974/75, 270). Jones (1974, 17) states that one fair was
still held in 1974. One of the attractions of the fairs was the transport
links; Ffair Rhos is located at the junction of a major north-south route
and an east-west route that passes over the mountains giving access to
the towns of east Wales and England. The settlement pattern and land-use
in the Medieval period is unknown. At the Dissolution of the Abbey its
former lands were granted to the Earl of Essex, and in 1630 the Crosswood
estate purchased most of them. A map drawn up for the Crosswood estate
in 1815 (NLW Crosswood 347), which seems to have been for an enclosure
act that was never awarded, shows a scatter of smallholdings across Ffair
Rhos. No schedule accompanies the map, but it would seem that these were
squatter settlements on common land, with perhaps some difference shown
between those that had been established for 20 years or more, and so were
to be granted legal title to the land, and those of less than 20 years.
In the absence of an enclosure award, squatter settlement and small-scale
enclosure seems to have continued apace in the first half of the 19th
century, as the tithe map of 1847 (Gwnnws Tithe Map and Apportionment,
1847) records more cottages and smallholdings. Settlement reached its
peak in the mid 19th century. Two chapels were constructed here, one in
1905 (Percival 1998, 523). It is now redundant. Many of the 19th century
dwellings have been recently modernised, or are undergoing modernisation.
Description and essential historic landscape
components
This area consists of an open upland valley or hollow
between 240m to 400m centred on the hamlet of Ffair Rhos. Ffair Rhos is
a small linear settlement on either side of a minor road surrounded by
numerous dispersed farmsteads, cottages and smallholdings. Local stone
is the traditional building material with slate (north Wales slate) used
for roofs. Walls are usually cement rendered on houses and bare on traditional
farm buildings. Older houses that almost all entirely date to the mid-to-late
19th century, are relatively small, and of two storeys or one-and-a-half
storeys (although at least one single storey cottage is present). They
are built in the typical Georgian vernacular style, with gable end chimneys,
a central front door, and two windows either side of the door and one
above, but with stronger vernacular traits such as low eaves and small
windows on most houses rather than Georgian elements. Many of these houses
have been recently modernised and extended. A short terrace of worker
houses lies in Ffair Rhos, but most houses have (or had) an agricultural
function, with stone-built outbuildings, generally confined to one or
two small ranges, sometimes attached and in-line to the house. Several
farms are not now working and outbuildings are not used or have been converted.
Working farms have small ranges of modern steel and concrete agricultural
buildings. There are a few modern houses/bungalows close to Ffair Rhos.
Two small, disused chapels are present.
Land-use is rough pasture, tending towards ungrazed
moor. Peaty deposits are common. Some improved pasture is present on lower
ground towards the east end of the area. There are no significant stands
of trees. The whole area has been parcelled up into an irregular field
system. The boundaries to this system comprise earth banks or earth and
stone banks. Hedges are not generally present except on the lower ground
close to Ffair Rhos hamlet, but even here they are derelict and no longer
stock-proof. Wire fences now top most of the older bank boundaries, and
some new wire boundaries have been created. Many of the older enclosures
on the higher slopes no longer function and have been merged into larger
units. Williams (1990, 59) records a Medieval perimeter boundary to Ffair
Rhos, but this has not been seen by the present author.
Apart from a minor metal a redundant chapel and mine;
the recorded archaeology comprises several deserted cottages.
The boundaries of this landscape area are not particularly
well defined. To the north, east and west it fades into unenclosed moorland
or land that has now mostly reverted to moor. To the west lies land consisting
of large enclosures of improved and unimproved ground.
Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission
of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright
and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD272221 |