A ‘HISTORICALLY important’ derelict house near Cilcennin will be rebuilt by a local family.

The Evans family of Blaenberllan want to rebuild Maes Mynach, a former farmhouse last lived in around 30 years ago.

The two-storey, stone building has walls still standing but little else remains.

Ceredigion’s development control committee were told of Maes Mynach’s historical context as a grange farm connected to Strata Florida Abbey.

A report included in the application states: “The importance of Strata Florida and its granges has been the object of the Strata Florida Project founded in 1999 which is researching the historical records of the abbey and its farms and landscape.

“Strata Florida is now regarded as being a very important sacred piece of landscape chosen since the Bronze Age as a place of special veneration and there may have been a monastery here before the Cistercians.”

Speaking to the committee, Emyr Davies highlighted this historic importance and asked for support of his family’s plan for a “sympathetic preservation”.

The committee voted in favour of the application, which includes a one-storey extension and car port, against the planning officer recommendation for refusal.

It was supported by local member Cllr Marc Davies, as well as a number of other councillors on the committee including Cllr Lynford Thomas who called approval a “no-brainer”.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now