Cae Lleci - Dining Room
This is perhaps one of the cosiest rooms in the house. The old beams in the ceiling are original and date back several hundred years. The fireplace wall has recently been exposed and sandblasted to expose the old welsh stone it was built out of.
You can see just above the fireplace, a small metal rod embedded in the wall. This was for a metal bar, still in the chimney, from which a chain was hung and a copper was used in which to cook food. The fireplace is now fitted with a log burner which is great on those cold evenings and once filled will burn for several hours before needing refilling. Inside the chimney is a small hole which has been now blocked. This used to be connected to the bread oven in the passageway and allowed the heat from the bread oven to rise through the chimney. The chimney was originally fired by peat until the 1930s when coal was able to be delivered.
This was the original kitchen until 1926. Above the log burner you will see the end of a metal rod in amongst the stone. This is where the cooking pots were suspended above the open fire. To the left of the opening, you will see a smaller opening which fed through to the bread over in the adjacent alcove.
Click the images below to see a larger view.
Around the room are old pictures of Dolgellau and the local village of Llanfachreth. They also picture Dr Williams School which was famous throughout the world and which is now a technical college.
You will notice that the walls in some places are over two feet thick. This is due to the type of construction used in the past when the house was built. This is known as ‘rubble fill’. Basically the walls are built up and the cavity is filled with any old rubble left over so that the larger stones have more support. The downside to this is the fact that several of the internal walls have had to be insulated against damp and rain coming from the weather. Years ago the fires would have been lit throughout the winter day and night to keep the damp out.
You will notice the shape of the large stone acting as the mantelpiece. This has been carved by hand to attempt to make it curved to suit the style of the time.
The black iron door on the wall outside the dining room is the door to the bread oven which is now used to store items such as bin liners, torch batteries etc.
The dining room will seat 8 comfortably around the large dining table.
