Building rear of Bwthyn Bach, Knapwell

History of timber framed building at rear of Bwthyn Bach

Listed Building

The timber-framed building, to the rear of Bwthyn Bach, probably built in the late C16/early C17 as an agricultural or ancillary building, remodelled as a cottage in the later C17 and converted to a doctor’s surgery in around 1953 … Little is subsequently known about the cottage until it was purchased, along with the surrounding plot, by Dr Thomas Meurig Owen (1918-2002). In 1950, Dr Owen had become the physician in charge of the neighbouring Papworth Village Settlement, a centre for the treatment and aftercare of people with tuberculosis, with the work being part general practice, part occupational and rehabilitative health. In 1953, Dr Owen extended the general practice part of his work by joining with a single-handed doctor in Knapwell. In the same year, he built a house, which he called Bwthyn Bach (Welsh for Small Cottage), immediately to the south of the existing timber-framed cottage. The cottage itself was subsequently converted into a doctor’s surgery and used as such until Dr Owen retired in 1979. (Historic England)