History
The meaning of Tre-berfedd
Roughly translated from Welsh Tre means ‘town’ or ‘place’ and berfedd means ‘at the middle’ or ‘the guts’ so together it is taken to mean 'place at the middle' or more poetically 'the heart of the home'. Mrs Jones who lived at Treberfedd in the 1930’s said that one of the fields on the farm represents the exact middle of the county. Indeed Treberfedd Farm lies 7 miles from Aberaeron, 7 miles from Lampeter and 7 miles from Llanybydder!
What we know about the farm….
There is a long history of farming at Treberfedd. A tithe map of c1480 shows a farming settlement at Treberfedd. The map also shows a Treberfedd-Fach (meaning 'little Treberfedd') next to the road. This would have been a farm workers cottage. In those days there would have been many more people working the land and the principle farming type would have been, as it is now, raising cattle and sheep on the lush pastures which grow so well in west Wales. The subsistence lifestyle would also have included small scale production of vegetables, cereals and poultry. The farm’s woodlands would have been very important too, providing the materials to make everything from shoes, tools, furniture and sheep hurdles. They would have provided fuel for cooking and wild foodstuffs too.
The farm was once a tenant farm owned by a large estate. A receipt in the national library of Wales shows that the farm was once lost in a game of cards and its ownership passed from one estate to another.
The farm house which still stands at Treberfedd today was built sometime before the 1650’s. During restoration work on the house in 2002 some wall paintings dating back to c1650 were discovered. The murals are painted using plant derived pigments in a floral motif style which was very fashionable in the 17th century. There are similar examples in church’s in the south and east of England from the same period. The murals may well have been painted by a travelling artist hired to decorate the interiors of people's homes.
In 1802 the single storey farm cottage was extended and improved to create a larger farmhouse with beautifully modelled Georgian frontage, symmetrical chimneys and thatched roof.
In the late 19th century the Vicar of the parish of Dihewyd lived, farmed and prayed at Treberfedd. His study in the farmhouse was where the bathroom now is. It was there that he wrote his sermons. One can still see the hatch which was used by the servants to pass the Vicar his meals from the kitchen into the study.
From the late 1930’s to 1977 the farm was home to the Jenkins brothers. They farmed 140 acres of land producing milk, beef, lamb, pork, vegetables, cereals and eggs. Before the war the Jenkins’ ran a city dairy farm in London. In the summer the cows were allowed to graze on the pitch at White Hart Lane, the home of Tottenham Hotspur football club. During their time in London the brothers learnt jazz music and tap dancing. After their return to Cardiganshire at the outbreak of war the brothers became famous local musicians as well as farmers!
They were well loved characters performing their jazz piano and singing in all the local pubs. Following their retirement the land was used as a dairy farm until in 1999 the farm was sold. The original thatched farmhouse was restored and the traditional stone barns converted into holiday accommodation. Today, Treberfedd is a holiday centre with four star cottages and a rural training venue but it still has a working farm as its roots and an air of its history remains.
Sweet Aeron is Vale unknown song,
Demands the warbling lyre,
Shall silver Aeron glide along
And not a bard inspire?
What bard that Aeron sees can fail,
To sing the charms of Aeron’s Vale
An extract from an ode to the Vale from around 1780 by an unknown Cardiganshire poet