A rare and remote 18th-century Carmarthenshire cottage restored to its authentic form

Nestled deep in the hills of rural Carmarthenshire, under skies unsullied by light pollution and buffered from the ingress of global news in its WIFI-free location, this diminutive Welsh cottage is an atmospheric example of the homesteads hand-built by rural farm workers in the 18^th century. Created from hand-hewn branches and scavenged coarse rubble, few properties exist in such an authentic form and those that remain are mostly in terminal decay. A family home until 1965 when it was abandoned, along with most of its original furnishings, the dwelling stood unoccupied and therefore preserved from unsympathetic restoration for almost 40 years until current owner Dorian Bowen discovered it and sensitively brought it back to life. The former chartered surveyor was looking to move from London back to the locality of his birth, seeking reconnection and a slower pace of life. In many ways the cottage's remote location, rudimentary structure and lack of modern essentials, including electricity and plumbing, were its saving grace.

‘I grew up on a farm in the area and every time I came back to visit family over the course of my 20-year-career in London I would see that a few more bolt holes from my childhood had vanished. I was aware of a rapid decline in vernacular architecture as original farmstead cottages across Wales disappeared,’ Dorian explains. ‘This property was almost derelict when I acquired it in 2004 but strangely that was what made it a bit of gem. In this very rural community, properties were often retained by the owners well into their 80s and 90s. When they passed away and the houses went onto the market, original interiors were commonly ripped out because many new owners felt that a parlour and other such features of the original layout didn’t lend themselves easily to modern life.’

Dorian’s approach was entirely different. He wanted to safeguard and restore a time-capsule of a farmstead. It was the most serendipitous match. ‘Having been abandoned for four decades the cottage suffered from many rotten joists – especially on the ground floor - but all were original and even the bressumer beam above the inglenook fireplace was still in place. On my first visit I was astonished to discover that all of the original furniture and the kitchen utensils had been left behind – even the knives and forks – and that evoked such a nostalgic feeling; it really spoke to me,’ he says. ‘After I bought the cottage, I went on to discover old photographs and I was able to meet some of the former inhabitants – a family of five – which further solidified my sense of connection.’

Dorian gently and lovingly resuscitated the two-up-two-down property; conserving its original features and calling upon memories of the houses of his childhood to reintroduce authentic details. He converted the former cowshed into the current kitchen, adding a Rayburn stove for cooking and warmth, and turned the dilapidated dairy into a rustic bathroom. Bar these two concessions to modernity the rest of the house is largely unchanged. Painstaking redecoration involved the time-consuming but pleasurable process of sourcing period-specific fittings from auctions, eBay and antique shops.