YR EFAIL
Yr Efail is one of the oldest houses in Esgairgeiliog, certainly seventeenth century, possibly older. The left hand side of the house was the original, very small cottage. Later, an outbuilding - a cowshed perhaps - was added and after that a low, single story blacksmith's forge was tacked on to the end. In the 1880's the house was occupied by Evan and Ann Davies with their five year old son, Evan. Mr Davies was a blacksmith and he employed two apprentices, Evan Jones and Peter Peters.
At some time during the nineteenth century, the cowshed was converted to human living quarters. The wall between it and the smithy was taken out and rebuilt entirely, with the addition of two chimney flues and fireplaces, one upstairs and one downstairs. After 150 years, that wall is still freestanding with no foundations whatsoever and nothing tying it to its neighbouring walls, front and back. The smithy, also, has been extended a couple of times, but only upwards. The last extension, carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century, the whole length of the building was raised to a single roof level, giving eight foot high ceilings throughout the upper floor, a common standard at the time.
In 1990, Ray and Julia Gunn bought the property and changed the existing name from 'Awelon' to 'Yr Efail' to remind people of its history. They also carried out extensive renovation work, which involved digging up all of the floors downstairs and some of the floors upstairs, stripping all the plaster off the walls and replacing all the old wooden lintels over all the doors and windows with new concrete lintels. Whilst carrying out renovations to the old forge, Ray discovered the foundations and even the ash pit of the forge under the floor. The original floor of the forge had been of simple bare beaten earth, undulating unevenly where the most wear had occurred. The coal had been stored in the corner to the left of the fire place under the bellows. The pulleys from which the bellows hung are still there today, under the ceiling. Whilst renovating the old open inglenook fireplace they also came across the old bread oven and its ash pit underneath.
As Julia and Ray explain in their book, 'Esgairgeiliog, Ceinws in Pictures and Words, Past and Present': "If the house would have been left another year it would have been almost beyond repair. ... We considered it all well worth while however, as the house has now been saved for a few more generations to enjoy."
