Rural Isolation

Ty Coll

There are many ruins across the uplands of Pembrokeshire; the remains of small farms and labourers’ cottages.

Ty Col is set high, at 250 metres elevation, by the Dinas-Newport boundary, at OS ref. SN030370. Neighbouring properties include Parke, Penparc, Waunorfa and Parc y Dinas. The 1906 OS map shows ten enclosures totalling 15 acres, a 108 foot longhouse on the east side, a small adjacent building, a stream flowing north towards the house, and a footpath south towards the Gwaun Valley.

Although enjoying panoramic views, it is a bleak place, catching all the winds and lacking any tree-shelter. The sheep-shaven pasture is littered with stones. A government valuation of 1910-15 mentioned “old buildings in poor repair and poor stoney pasture only suitable for sheep. The longhouse comprises a pig-sty, a two-tie cow-house, a two-roomed cottage and a barn.”

B G Charles in his book, “Place names of Pembrokeshire,” has suggested that Ty Col may derive from Tyr y Coll, from the Cole family of Llwngwair. Tyr y Coll appears in the 1584 Bronwydd collection in the National Library.

Census records list the following families living there:
1851. Thomas Evan 84, William 53 & Mary Bevan 29 servant.
1861. Griffith Williams 60, Hannah 50, John 16, William 13 & Stephen 8.
1871. Levi Owens 45, Martha 48, Dinah 11, Mary 8 & Jane James 79 in-law.
1881. Levi Owens 54, Martha 57, Mary 18 & Dinah 3 grand-daughter.
1891. Elizabeth Harries 28, Anne 3, Margaret 1 & John Salmon farm servant,
1901. Joseph James 50, Elizabeth 38, Anne Harries 13 & Margaret Harries 12 (two stepdaughters), Letitia James 5 and Mary James 8 months.
1911. Edwin Howells 24, Martha 23, Mary-Ann 6, William 5, Edith 3 & David- John 9 months.

Hearsay has it that the Howells children were often reprimanded for being late to Newport school, until the headmaster walked their route and realised how far it was.
Ty Col was finally abandoned in the late 1930s and is currently grazed by a Gwaun Valley farmer’s sheep.