The gate to front of house at Hafodgynfor. Still there when Gwyneth Wexler visited the house in 198?. At that time, she had some cuttings of Hen Wr (artemisia abrotanum) propagated from cuttings taken from Hafodgynfor when the family left in 1922. Auntie Kate took the original cuttings and grew them. On the back of the photo, "Yr hen lidiart wyrdd" - the old green gate.

Hafodgynfor was empty in 1968 and beginning to leak and fall apart, when William Wexler visited the house. He discovered a thick layer of ancient walnut shells between the ceiling of the ground floor and the floorboards above - presumably for sound/heat insulation.

However, it was far from derelict throughout. It had the remains of a nice tiled bathroom with fittings of the 1930s or later, presumably fitted at a time when the outside privy and the tin bath were still prevalent in more remote farms. Hafodgynfor had evidently kept up with the times.

That suggests that it was not abandoned because the farm or the owners failed. Perhaps they simply built themselves a modern convenient house, and moved out of the old one.

Subsequently, the house has been lavishly refurbished, and it is (2000) a large and desirable property. The old gates are still there, though, and looking as solid as ever.

Across the road from the house is a modern house called Buarth Hafodgynfor (Hafodgynfor yard). I imagine this stands in what used to be the farmyard when Hafodgynfor was a working farm.

Click here for a full-sized image, or here for the unretouched original scan.