2025
Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust are very grateful to OCU for supporting our third year of archaeological excavation on the site of an early farmhouse in rural Powys, Wales (Cwmffwrn Platform IV).
The site is at Cwmffwrn Farm, near Abbey Cwmhir, Powys. Since 2023 ACHT have worked with archaeologists Trysor on trying to discover the origins of the farmhouse, which was abandoned in the 1840s.
There is nothing left above ground of the old house, but our dig has started to reveal evidence that it was a timber-framed house with daub and wattle walls. We have pieces of medieval pottery coming from the site which may tell us that it was originally a farm on the home estate of the Cistercian abbey nearby at Abbey Cwmhir. This is an important excavation as few rural medieval farmhouses ever get studied in this way. We know that we will need to return to Cwmffwrn to dig deeper and hopefully learn a lot more about the building that stood here and the people that lived in it.
It is the first year that Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust has run a trainee week. We had five participants all from different backgrounds and ages. We couldn’t have been more pleased with how they gelled and worked together from day one. They learnt so much from Jenny and Paul from Trysor.
A couple of feedback comments from participants :
“Thank you all for the weekend experience, I’ll say again how valuable it was for me, I will definitely be looking for more opportunities to participate in the future.”
“A huge thank you. I’ve had a wonderful week. It really has been a dream come true. I will treasure the memories. Thank you my archaeology family!”
OCU’s support was invaluable to make this a successful season with local participants and archaeological trainees working alongside archaeologists through rain and hot sunshine!
The support was also given in memory of Mabli Cariad Hall, baby daughter of former OCU employee Rob Hall, who has family links with Trysor. The family also extend huge thanks and appreciation to OCU Group for their support over the past two years.
Click for a short series of clips from our 2025 excavation.
2024
The results of our 2024 excavation have now been reported in the Archaeology of Wales gazetteer. The report is available here.
Our excavation this year was supported by a Shared Prosperity Fund grant.
*** Video of our excavation is now available here ***
Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust have been very fortunate to be able to investigate one of these ancient farmsteads first hand and look for evidence of how our ancestors lived. A grant from the Shared Prosperity Fund allowed us to use the help of professional archaeologists Jenny Hall and Paul Sambrook of Trysor to dig for the second year at a site called Cwmffwrn near the Cistercian Abbey of Cwmhir in Radnorshire. Prior to our excavations, the site was simply a few humps and bumps on a hillside – but when our earlier surveys in the area suggested that the site might have been an ancient habitation we were keen to investigate!
After site clearance and preparation last year, we held a four-day excavation in July 2024 with public participation on two days. Over the course of the dig, we explored an earthwork site which has two distinct platforms or levels. To either side of the upper platform was a drainage ditch. Water management around the platform was obviously important and there was great excitement when a shallow stone-built drain was unearthed on the upper platform itself designed to help keep the platform dry. When cleared, remarkably, it still functioned!
The upper platform has all the characteristics of an earthwork platform of medieval or early post medieval date. Platforms of this type are commonly found on the hills of Radnorshire, cut into the slope at right-angles to the hillside, with a slightly sloping platform surface, and often with drainage gullies around the sides to keep it dry.
There was no evidence for a stone building on the platform. Possible post-holes and a sill beam slot, suggest that a timber framed building may have stood on the platform. Clay patches may have derived from the walls of such a building. There was no evidence of slate, stone or tile roofing suggesting a building may have had a thatched roof.
Platform houses of this type do not usually have an additional platform and therefore our lower platform may have been added later – maybe as a storage area or to house an ancillary structure. A small amount of charcoal was found within the make-up of the lower platform and this has been analysed to give a radiocarbon date between 1510 – 1668 AD, i.e. probably early post-medieval. (16th or 17th century).
So what have we learnt so far about how our ancestors lived at this mountainous location?
- Our site is may be medieval or early post-medieval, so we are looking at how our ancestors lived at least 400 years ago.
- Although undoubtedly a common occurrence, there is surprisingly little written about farmsteads like this, as most research has concentrated in the houses of the rich and powerful, that were usually built on favourable lowland sites.
- Our ancestors chose a site where they could build into the hillside, to give some weather protection. And we witnessed during our dig that the location that they chose was brilliant! – as we watched storm clouds pass over the area, but we remained dry. Its also sheltered from the prevailing winds.
- Building a drain at the back of the platform would have kept the floor of the platform dry and diverted any spring flows from the hillside around the building. Remarkable that it still functioned. The slight slope of the upper platform surface would have further helped to keep this area dry.
- Building in timber made good sense. Old maps show extensive old woodland nearby, and we know that good building stone is scarce in this valley.
But when was the site first inhabited and what was the purpose of the lower platform? To answer these questions, we must resume our excavation next year, and by digging deeper that the site, we hope to find pottery or further charcoal remains that would give us even more information about the occupancy of the site. It is close to the abbey and also on to a route that the monks would have taken to travel to their distant granges and other abbeys such as Strata Florida on the far side of the Cambrian mountains – and there is even the possibility that the Abbey lay-brothers farmed this land.
Jenny and Paul delivering an on-line talk about the finding of the excavation and this can be viewed here.
Images from our 2024 excavation
2023
We have begun to excavate a house platform at Cwmffwrn. We held a public weekend on 24/25th June 2023 and had the pleasure of the company of members of the public, Trust volunteers, our professional supervisors – Jenny Hall and Martin Locock, and farmers Angela and Ian Lewis. It was an excellent social occasion and we all learned so much from Jenny and Paul.
The focus of attention was the excavation of a house platform which had been identified by members of the Trust at Cwmffwrn Farm. The earthwork platform is thought to represent the site of a medieval or early post-medieval house and is considered to be of importance in understanding the settlement history of the area.
Trysor supervised members of the Trust and volunteers over a weekend’s excavation, stripping the topsoil off parts of the platform to reveal the archaeology beneath the surface. Evidence of a possible floor was revealed, and a posthole.
Here are some photos and videos of the 2023 weekend.
Short video clips here:
