The Smithy

It is thought that there was a cottage called Yr Efail here. Ellen Evans remembers a small, yellow cottage called Yr Efail, with its gable end, with a large stone in it, to the road. There is no mention of the smithy being operational between 1841 and 1901. According to some, an old, very inconsiderate lady lived here during this period, claiming that she feared neither God nor man. She was later found to have been dragged through the thorns and brambles in Bryn Dirwest’s top field.

According to Ellen Evans, there was a small cottage by Bryn Dirwest named Yr Efail (The Smithy). The present building of Bryn Dirwest as it is today was built and named around 1896. Ellen Evans remembers that a woman lived in the small cottage named Yr Efail with its gable end facing the road. It was always painted yellow. There was a large boulder in its gable end as was the norm in that period. The cottage was later converted into a smithy.

Ellen Evans, Alpha, recalls a story of an old lady who lived in the cottage who was very unsympathetic who feared neither man nor God. She was found in the top field of Bryn Dirwest after being dragged through thorns and brambles. In those days there was a saying by the elderly people ‘the Devil may take you’ if you were in any sort of trouble.

It appears in the tithe map of 1839 that there was a building in field 171 with its gable end facing the lane. The landowner was Thomas Assheton Smith and the inhabitant was Richard Owen. Could this building be Yr Efail? In the catalogue, this field, 171 and fields 172, 173 and 174 all going up towards the mountain under the name of Cae Cribin which in those days extended to the boundaries of Ty’n Cae.