Porth y Dŵr

The talk tonight on Porth y Dŵr was one of the Ruthin Local History Society's most interesting. And, in a rather unlikely way, possibly its most contentious. For it wasn't just the expected documentary on the restoration of Porth y Dŵr. The owner Carol Smith used her skills as a conservation architect to postulate that Porth y Dŵr was actually a very important building in a very important location. And, judging by the way local historian Roger Edwards firmly clasped his hand over his mouth throughout her hypothesis, she courted controversy among the historians there present. Edwards's continuous mouth guard gesture suggested that he didn't quite believe her exposition.

Porth y Dŵr's location was at an important entry into town, where tradesmen and farmers would arrive. The original gate may have been part of the de Grey's town defences. It was a place where tolls were taken. It was by water, first a fording point and secondly an original bridge point. Its position meant that from the gable end's upper floor projected window you had a commanding view up Clwyd Street and that you could see Porth y Dŵr from as far as the junction of Clwyd & Upper Clwyd Streets. It held a commanding position. It was adjacent to where tanners and skinners worked (at Crispin Yard). It was by the town mill, a key building, where the neighbourhood would grind its corn. In short, the area, according to Smith, at the time of the building's construction in the 15th century, was nothing short of the economic powerhouse of Rhuthun/Ruthin .

As further evidence of its importance, Smith put forward that Rhuthun never had a traditional market hall. A market hall was usually a two-storey building, either fully or partly open at the bottom, where the shambles or meat and other markets were held. Market halls were very common across much of the country, in England and even in Ireland. Why none in Rhuthun? There was certainly no evidence of one. Smith showed that the original Porth y Dŵr was neither house nor great hall and unlikely to be a single shop. In which case, what was it? She contended that in light of its position at the "powerhouse" and because of its original design, it acted as the pentis, shambles or arcade under which goods including meat were sold. According to Smith, the place was in fact the market hall. Why skin a carcass at Crispin Yard and then bother to cart a whole cow towards the top of town? This before the market itself moved up into town.

Conservation of Porth y Dŵr   

John & Carol Smith purchased Porth y Dŵr in 2012 but it was some months before they began to restore it. The exterior of the building is relatively modern and it contradicted what was behind it. It was also a detached property when first built.

It was widely felt that Porth y Dŵr dated from 1586 but Smith was able to disprove this as a myth. Dating of the wood suggested that the timber used was felled in 1455 or 1456. It had also been described as of cruck-framed construction. This was not so. Part of the original wood was leaning and Smith felt that this resulted in a lazy commentator making the wrong assumption.

The interior's Gothic-style wooden arch was possibly the main entrance on an exterior wall. The now enclosed ground floor bay was once open there was evidence that the first floor jettied out.

In 2000, the building, then an antique store, was badly flooded, with water ingress as high as 2'6" to 3'. The resultant plasterboard was applied in something of a hurry and these needed taking off. The flooring in one bay was stoned but of clay in the next. In the clay was a line of limestone slabs beneath which were a long culvert, wide enough for a coffin, which Smith wondered might have been attached to a sump from which water drained away. In another bay, the Smiths found the remains of a cat's skeleton which, she said, was a good luck token of its time.

The upper storey had a beautiful roofline that would originally have been open to the rafters. The upper flooring had sunken one side by about 15".

On the outside, there was evidence of a second open bay at the rear, possibly constructed later. It was no doubt the front and rear open bays that gave some evidence that the building was perhaps a market hall.

It was in 1586 that the building was converted into a house. It was presumably from this point, if you believed Smith's hypothesis, that the market migrated up town.

Smith felt that the owner of the house was a bailiff who would have collected tolls, castle rents, dues for use of the corn mill, and stallage fees for the market. She even wondered whether the town pillory, always in a public place, would have been here.

Why did the Market Move?  

Let's assume that Smith was right in that Porth y Dŵr was an original market hall. If so, why would it have moved? This may have been a result of flooding or a desire to move away from the smells associated with the tanners and skinners at Crispin Yard.

If Smith was right, the unanswered question was, why in the first place did the business centre of the town move from defensive position at the top of town? After all, the church and castle were the two limits of the town's centre and both were established well before Porth y Dŵr.