A Welsh longhouse beguiling one family for more than half a century is ready for future generations
WORDS ALICE WESTGATE PHOTOGRAPHY FINN BEALES
High in the hills above Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, is a building that has enchanted Clare Purcell since childhood. ‘I have wanted to live in the cottage for as long as I can remember,’ she says.
The Welsh longhouse, built around 1600, was bought by her grandfather in 1967, then passed to her dad in 1972. It had no running water in summer when the spring dried up and was reached by walking over fields, but Clare’s family spent every holiday in the property. There were four living rooms on the ground floor, including a barn, and three interconnecting bedrooms upstairs.
Clare spent her gap year in the cottage, returning after graduating in 1995. ‘The long, dark nights in complete rural isolation were quite scary at first, so I would often go to bed with a torch,’ she recalls.
Some years later the house got connected to the road via a track, and was given to Clare and her brother. But she bought her brother out soon afterwards. ‘It’s lovely that it has stayed in the family so everyone can still come and visit,’ she says.
In the early 2000s Clare, who is the executive director of a visual arts organisation, met director and photographer Finn Beales while they were both working at the Hay Festival. He shares her love of the longhouse, which suited them perfectly when their two children – Harlan, 16, and Seren, 13 – were young. But they began toying with the idea of building an extension to give them more space and light.
Keen not to break its spell, the couple decided to make minimal changes to the cottage by adding a structure inspired by the piecemeal expansion of nearby farm buildings. ‘Above all we wanted it to feel in keeping with the local agricultural style,’ says Finn.
They asked an architectural firm to prepare some drawings and secure planning consent, which was a challenge because, although the property is unlisted, it is in the Brecon Beacons National Park. ‘The authorities were concerned about overdevelopment, but we explained that our proposal was a series of small-scale buildings joined in an ad hoc way,’ says architect Niall Maxwell. To support their case, Clare and Finn collected a series of photographs showing nearby smallholdings that
