Lamb Hotel, Penderyn

Traditional drinkers’ pub with three simply furnished rooms and an off sales hatch to the passageway. The sliding sashes still work and the off sales is still in use, mainly by children for sweets; also some customers use it for passageway drinking - note the shelves on the walls used by drinkers. In the wake of the 1831 Merthyr Rising, Richard Lewis, known as Dic Penderyn, was incarcerated in the cellar of the Lamb before being hanged at Cardiff for wounding one of the soldiers brought in to suppress the rising. It is now accepted that he was innocent of this crime. His last words from the scaffold were “O Arglwydd, dyma gamwedd” (“O Lord, here is injustice”).

In 1830 the pub was extended and the front door changed to the present one facing the main road. On the left with '1’ on the door is the public bar where the counter has panels added to the front of an old counter in the 1980s and a top with an obvious slope; the red leatherette benches date from the 1960s. The bar back shelves were built in c.1965 by a previous landlord’s son, who was good at woodwork at school! The lounge on the right has '4' on the door, Formica top tables and a bench from the 1960s. A stone flagged corridor runs to the rear with a Victorian service hatch for both off sales and use by lounge customers. Behind the public bar is the snug with '2' on the door, a stone flagged floor, fixed bare benches and a tiny hatch to the servery. Used as an office in recent years, this should be back in pub use by the date of publication. The door with '3' on it at the rear left is now a private room. Outside gents'.

If you are looking for some real ale while in Penderyn then check out the Red Lion, which opens at 7 (1pm Sat, Sun). It is much changed since 1978 when they installed a bar counter for the first time. The only old fittings are the stone fireplace, a high backed settle with iron stay to the ceiling and which forms a short passage from the front door, and a 1920s bentwood bench.