Few of us live in locations beyond the sound of traffic or the seep of urban glow that disguises the speckles of the Milky Way across indigo skies. But at this secluded and remarkable Welsh tyddyn (a smallholder’s cottage) it is possible to sense what life was like for our ancestors, far before the advent of electricity or cars.
Situated on the brow of a hill, Bryn Eglur (which translates as ‘Clear Hill’) has an almost 360-degree vista of Carmarthenshire and captures a sense of time that has stood still. Yet its rural charms were very nearly lost to ruin.
When owner Dorian Bowen discovered the 18th-century worker’s cottage in 2004, it had been deserted for more than 40 years. Despite its dilapidated state, it reminded him of the Welsh homes of his childhood. He had been looking to relocate from London to his birthplace and knew that this project would take him back to his roots, in more ways than one.
‘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 houses had vanished,’ says Dorian. ‘This place had remained untouched since it was abandoned. Unusually, most of the interior was intact, including some old, rather rotten pieces of furniture. This was a godsend because the cottage had retained all of its authentic interior charm. It was a sleeping beauty.’
You might also like A medieval Welsh hall house
In his work as a chartered surveyor, Dorian has restored commercial properties of a similar genre and his knowledge was invaluable. He restored and strengthened the hand-built structure, constructed a stone road to the door and converted the cowshed into a kitchen. He also turned the derelict dairy into a bathroom, with water piped from the cottage’s own borehole.
Once architectural restoration was complete, attention could turn to refurbishment. This was the perfect outlet for Dorian’s lifelong passion for primitive antiques. ‘From my childhood I had experience of what these old homes would have looked like and had a set idea of what I wanted to achieve. My intention was to recreate the interiors so that if someone from 100 years ago walked over the threshold they would recognise the setting and feel at home.’
Over the past two decades he has painstakingly sourced authentic items, including primitive chairs, a pig bench and a traditional Welsh pot-board dresser, as well as an array of treen and cawl spoons. Narrow loom blankets dress the bedrooms – one of which also now features a genuine box bed – and period-specific finds, such as Welsh folk art, add yet further character.
When Dorian started searching for furniture, he was fortunate to find pieces that were ‘farm fresh’. ‘These are pieces that go direct and unrestored from a farm to an auction and so feature authentically aged layers of worn-down paint or have been polished and polished over decades,’ he explains.
He says that because primitive furniture is now so collectable, originals are increasingly rare: ‘It’s so precious when you find an early stick-back with pieces of bark retained in the design. Those chairs were created from branches cut from a hedge, which would have been selected for their natural shapes, then hand-assembled by homeowners who had no professional training but understood wood.
You might also like An antiques-filled farmhouse in Sussex
That bark, that primitive look connects you with nature in a way that a precisely made Georgian tilt-top table can’t.’ Something else that he loves about primitive furniture is how it often shows signs of damage and repairs. A split in a dairy bowl might have been pulled and nailed back together with a metal plate, which then wears down and tarnishes with the bowl.
‘Burn marks, wonky joints and splits are all intriguing,’ he says. ‘Texture and colour are so important. I love the patina and build-up of old polishing. All these show the authenticity of the untouched surfaces and that is very appealing to me. Such pieces represent a very different way of life and are a testament to their time.’
Dorian’s collector’s instinct has led him to auctions and antiques shops nationwide, as well as shopping online, but specialists in Wales are a favourite resource. These include dealers such as Tim Bowen in Ferryside and West Wales Antiques in Aberystwyth, as well as Welsh-blanket specialists Jane Beck and Jen Jones.
Even though the cottage now has everything that is required, the temptation of the search remains. A primitive cricket table tops Dorian’s current wishlist, but the perfect piece is yet to be found.