Welsh Journals

oven suggests a later date than the style of the house but it could have been an addition. It is surrounded by several other buildings including a cornbarn. Before 1912 it stood on what road there was, before the new road was laid. Personal observation indicates that the stonework of a building lasts for a very long time if it is not robbed and if it is not split apart by trees growing on it or falling into it. In the forty years I have been studying them I have seen houses reduced from habitations to ruins which are, at first glance, no different from houses that have been empty for 200 years. Folk memory is remarkably long and old people tell me the names and stories of the old houses that were ruins in the time of their grandparents. If a house has no name and no story, then I believe it must be very old indeed. Footnotes 1 National Library of Wales, Gwemyfed Collection. 2 Tipper, David, "Stone and Steam in the Black Mountains". 3 Partrishow Parish Chest, Tithebook.