Settlement area (NPRN 88009)
The area we have called the settlement (NPRN 88009) is located on the west side of Ffos-y-fran, just east of the new and old A4060. This area was initially identified as an area of potential archaeological interest (Plate 1) and so an evaluation was carried out first, which involved 26 evaluation trenches of varying lengths (between 5m – 20m by 2m wide). These trenches were strategically placed and significant archaeological remains belonging to the Post-medieval period were encountered in half of the trenches evaluated. These include a substantial tramroad/railway over-bridge, four domestic buildings, a possible well, several tramroads, a possible road surface, several ponds, leats and ditches, a quarry and a possible agricultural fieldscape of small regular fields. The trenches that contained archaeology were then expanded by hand to reveal several features.
The first three buildings are clustered together at the southern area of the site located at the corner of several small fields. This area has been partially covered by a significant amount of redeposited natural boulder-clay, which is depicted on the OS 2nd edition map 1901 as a large mound and is presumably a remnant of the construction process of the 19th century GWR Railway from Cwm Bargoed to Dowlais. Two of the buildings are aligned north to south and are parallel to one another, whilst the third is positioned perpendicular to these buildings a short distance to the northeast. A possible tramroad or road has been built through the centre of the former two buildings, utilising much of the stone rubble from these buildings in its construction. The linear feature was first identified from AP evidence and is thought to have been built for access to the early 20th century quarry at the far north of the site. The first two buildings appear to follow the standard layout for post-medieval upland agrarian settlements; these typically consist of a longhouse and (parallel) barn with some smaller ancillary buildings for livestock, usually located in the centre of an irregular, often nucleated and organic, fieldscape. However, it is uncertain at present whether the western building acted as a barn but given the lack of any hearth or chimney it must be considered a likely possibility.
The eastern building (c10m x 5m) appears to be a two roomed structure (plate 2) constructed of large conglomerate cobbles and boulders, held within a weak lime mortar matrix. The walls are c0.7m in width and traces of lime-wash are identifiable on the exterior; the interior walls have a substantial covering of lime-plaster with evidence of a dusky-yellow coloured paint. Of the two rooms the southern room is in the better condition, with little surviving of the northern room. There appears to be a back to back brick-lined hearth/chimney in the dividing wall between the two rooms and a doorway in the western wall. The southern room also contains a brick lined drain, which runs through the middle of the floor and out through the doorway in the western wall. The floor is constructed from two different materials, the northern side of the drain and in from of the fireplace is constructed of brick and the southern side is constructed from flag stones, which continue out of the doorway, to create a paved area to the exterior of the building, and may have continued to completely pave the area between the two buildings. The northern room has the remnants of a flagstone floor and a doorway in the western wall and though it stopped at the doorway it may have continued to the exterior of the building. Apart from the southern wall in which the fireplaces were, only parts of the stone walls are surviving in this part of the building. The interior of this building is full of demolition debris, which contains a burnt layer found uniformly across the interior of the structure, possibly hinting at a catastrophic fire event at some time.
The western building (6.5m x 4.6m) is constructed of neat tabulated sandstone (plate 3), surviving up to fourteen courses on its western wall. The building was flagged but this supposition has only been made on the evidence of a single flagstone found built into the south wall; therefore, the remaining floor is likely to have been robbed out. The interior of the building was filled with demolition material sat directly on top of a cobble and boulder foundation that was positioned directly onto the natural boulder-clay. The purpose of these large cobbles and boulders is unclear but given the volume of water that runs off the hill and through the building it is possible that these large cobbles acted as a simple form of cavity insulation and damp-proofing. This hypothesis is further substantiated by the presence of a fine silt-clay layer, typical of hydrological sedimentation, found at the base of the cobbles. An iron hammer-head and two chisels were found against the western wall in the interior rubble. A substantial midden deposit was found embanked against the building’s western wall. The midden contained bone, ceramics and marine shell all held within a very humic black-brown coloured soil. We believe that the midden was embanked against the wall to insulate it from the weather, given that the building is very exposed to north and west. The eastern wall of the building continues well beyond the northern limits of the structure, where the wall returns towards the west, eventually forming one of the earthwork field boundaries. Here, the wall gradually deteriorates before becoming indistinguishable as a rubble and earth boundary. Located immediately to the west of this wall is a possible well, which may be depicted on an early mineral map dating to 1763, indicating that the settlement could date back to the 18th century, although no buildings are depicted around the well, so this evidence is not conclusive.
Perpendicular to the possible longhouse and barn is a smaller building constructed from rough sandstone blocks. The size of this building suggests that it is either a pig sty or storage shed. The floor was paved with flagstone, which continued outside of the building. This building was on a higher level to the other two buildings and the exterior paved floor was on several different levels. The entrance to this small building was located in the western wall.
On the northern edge of the area adjacent to the railway line cutting was the largely destroyed or robbed rectangular building with only two short lengths of standing walling but its remaining walling was marked by very narrow stone wall foundations possibly to support timber beams (plate 4). Structurally the building, measuring about 8m by 6m, comprised at least two rooms and evidence to support the theory that the superstructure of the building was also probably constructed of timber was a series of seven in-line northeast/southwest aligned shallow post settings discovered at a right angle to the wall alignment. There is a possibility that the western side of the building had open sides, perhaps representative of a covered storage area, as only a post setting was found in the corner position where one might have expected to find a continuation of walling that would form the south western corner of the rectangular shaped building. Thresholds and doorways were not marked particularly well and there was no indication of a hearth. Small surviving fragments of flagstone paving were found within the footprint to suggest that the flooring for both rooms was flagstone. Although pottery was found within the excavation area, at present it is suggested that this building was an outhouse and not a dwelling as there was no indication of a hearth or fireplace.
Four trenches (Trenches 11, 16, 20 and 21) warranted further investigation due to unusual quantities of stone and potential paved areas and these trenches were subsequently opened out to reveal a building under T20 and T21 and a paved surface in T11 and T16. The L-shaped structure aligned northeast/southwest measured about 16.5m by 9m and was built of stone with some walling surviving to a height of around 0.8m (plates 5). Clear evidence for alterations was found with the discovery of blocked doorways and it is likely that the building evolved to become larger with additional building work incorporating what was once external walling. Four rooms were apparent but the northern room was not accessible from the others which may indicate a separate dwelling. All rooms had fireplaces and evidence for interior/exterior decoration was discovered marked by painted render and lime washed walls. Flagged flooring was discovered in one of the rooms but re-use/robbing had probably accounted for the lack of flooring in the other rooms. A sunken brick-lined drainage channel capped by metal plates and/or flagstones was found within the two adjoining central rooms; this channel discharged through a doorway on the western side of the dwelling. To the rear of the building (east, uphill) were paved areas accessed by short flights of steps. On the northern side the flight of steps led to a sub-circular shaped pit that contained two metal pots and at lower level in the same pit a shovel, whilst to the south side of the building the steps led to a series of paved areas with remains of walling bounded the paved areas.
The paving and stone surfaces in T11 and T16 located to the southeast of the building were probably related to the building phases in T20 and T21. These features comprised a small rectangular paved area and associated loose rubble which butted to a 20m long, kerb-like, broadly straight alignment of stone-edged clay mass; the clay was re-deposited natural boulder clay. It is possible that this linear feature was a form of drain or perhaps the foundation for a wall but further evidence to elucidate its purpose was not forthcoming.