Discovering the Historic Houses of Snowdonia – Darganfod Tai Hanesyddol Eryri

This is a bilingual book.

Welsh dwellings and homes are objects of endless interest and curiosity for owners, residents, travellers and readers, and more recently producers of television series and their viewers. It’s not difficult to understand why this is so. Historic buildings and monuments of all kinds are sturdy material remains of our predecessors’ culture and society from every social class. They are usually built of local materials which are natural resources indigenous to an area or region and as such have become over the centuries part of the built environment of neighbourhood and town, and truly symbolic of that society. Located solidly on a specifically chosen site in the countryside they have become a means of beautifying the natural landscape while at the same time being a visual feature to advertise their owners’ status to others like the colourful arms decorating their walls. Through all reproductions of pictures and descriptions of them in many media over a period, they made a distinctive contribution to create a sense of place and of a location’s amenities. Add to that the names descriptive of their location and ‘greatness’ according to those who built them, designating the houses and the cultural circle is complete.

Contents

• Drawing Conventions
• Foreword: Old New Snowdonian Houses The Rt Hon Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas
• Authors’ Preface

Part I: Contexts

• Houses of Snowdonia: Introduction Richard Suggett
• The Older Houses of Penmachno in Context Frances Richardson

Part II: House Histories
Edited by Margaret Dunn & Richard Suggett

• Site list with maps
• Medieval Houses
• Transitional Houses
• Early Snowdonian Houses
• Later Snowdonian Houses
• Snowdonian Complexes

Part III: Dendrochronology

• Introducing a Community-based Project: ‘Great oaks from little acorns …’ Margaret Dunn
• Background to Dendrochronology Daniel Miles & Martin Bridge
• Summary of Dated Features Richard Suggett
• Tree-ring Dating: List of Sites and Features, compiled by Richard Suggett
• List of Figures
• List of Abbreviations
• Index of Names