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TY JOHN MORGAN AND ITS ROOF: THE MEDIEVAL KING-POST IN CARDIGANSHIRE An unpublished history of Cenarth, compiled by D. Pryse Williams ('Brythonydd') c. 1902, has a drawing of a dilapidated but remarkable roof-truss which was to be seen, rather incongruously, in a humble cottage called Ty John Morgan. Medieval roofs are very rare in Cardiganshire, but this particular form of truss-a cusped king-post-is rare throughout Wales, and the discovery of a new example provides the opportunity for an assessment of the distribution and significance of this type of truss. Tyjohn Morgan, Cenarth Ty John Morgan y Saer, to give the cottage its full name, stood at the north end of Cenarth bridge, on the Cardiganshire side of the Teifi, in the parish of Llandygwydd. It was built next to the old toll-house, now the Salmon Leap, at the west end of a little row of cottages, locally called Fish Street, which ran down to the Falls and which can sometimes be glimpsed in old photographs and drawings of Cenarth bridge. An excellent drawing of the bridge, dated 1822, shows that there was nothing to distinguish Ty John Morgan externally from countless other single-storey cottages with a gable-end chimney and a centrally-placed doorway between two windows. The tithe map and schedule (1844) of Llandygwydd show that the row of cottages belonged to the neighbouring farm of Pen-y-graig, but Fig. XI. 18 The cusped king-post in John Morgan's cottage. (Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Wales).