Branas Ucha, 1980

Disgrifiad

Branas Ucha is an important L-plan stone-built gentry house of medieval origin sited on the Dee Valley floor rather than hugging the hillside. There are three major phases:
1. A late-medieval hallhouse of aisle-truss type. The trusses remain largely hidden above the ceiling, although cusping is reported. However Peter Smith has reconstructed the plan. The present principal range preserves the length of a five-bay medieval range with hall and passage dramatised by aisle-posts, and the hall set between inner-room and two outer rooms. The quality of the timberwork is high. Pointed doorways survive at the cross-passage and at the doorway between outer room and (added) kitchen.
2. Hall-house conversion. This may have several phases but it preserves the medieval plan. A large chimney has been inserted against the aisle-posts preserving the passage. The hall has an inserted ceiling of counterchanging joists. The post-and-panel partition between hall and inner room (with added fireplace) has been dismantled and remains loose in the inner-room. The outer-rooms have been converted to a parlour at the entry with a large end fireplace topped by a splendid diagonally-set chimney. Beyond the parlour there is a kitchen wing with a large end fireplace which appears early although is largely concealed. The proximity of parlour and kitchen suggests that the parlour may have functioned as a dining-parlour as at Ucheldre. A single-flight stair with splat balusters has been placed in the passage. The beams are mostly broad chamfered with curved stops and fillets, probably of later C16th date. Much of the detail is C17th, including the ovolo-moulded mullioned windows and the stair.
3. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century alterations include division of the kitchen wing and the addition of a fireplace in the lateral wall. External steps to the upper floor were probably for access to accommodation for farm servants. The farmbuildings suggests that this was a large farmstead in the C19th. (a) Primary phase Felling dates: Summer 1508 and Winter 1508/9 (b) Inserted ceiling Felling date: Spring 1514 (c) Flooring over of ladder stair Felling date range: 1637-59 (d) Later panelling Felling date range: 1661-91 (e) Kitchen wing Felling date: Summer 1764
A detailed survey was carried out in 2010. Commissioned by the Dating Old Welsh Houses community project in partnership with the RCAHMW.
To find out more about the house, see story:http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Story/444-branas-ucha-a-house-history