A Welsh country farmhouse lived in every day for more than 500 years is empty for the first time – to have a £4m makeover.

The stone and timber building was one of the longest continuously occupied homes in Britain after being a home since 1480.

Brothers Trevor and Lyndon Powell were the last of generations of famrers to live in the Grade One listed house in the Brecon Beacons near Abergavenny.

They were forced to quit because it had become so run down that it was being held up by scaffolding and a nearby stream flooded through the ground floor in times of heavy rains.

The brothers moved out just six months ago to a modern house leaving the farmhouse to be restored by the Landmark Trust charity.

Conservations say the house called Llwyn Celyn – Hollybush in English – is one of the most remarkable surviving medieval houses in Britain.

It remains a rare example of a complete medieval manor house retaining its original floor plan and much of its medieval joinery and decorative features.

Landmark patron Prince Charles gave his backing for the restoration when he viewed the farmhouse during his recent visit to Wales.

The house was bought by Landmark with a £31,500 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and aim to raise more than £4m in the next two years.

Landmark Trust aim to raise the funds from a variety of sources including grant-making bodies, trusts and foundations, and individual donors with a further grant of £2.5 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Nearly £1m has already been secured and it is holped work can begin on restoring bthe manor house at the beginning of 2016.

The building was built on the edge of the estates of the Augustinian Abbey of Llanthony and with its hall, parlour, kitchen, buttery and pantry it was the house of a person of some importance.

It still has its original floor plan with cross passage and service rooms, central hall and parlour wing.

It retains much of its medieval joinery virtually intact including a finely carved passage screen and doors to service rooms.

A programme of research by a team of experts will now begin to understand still more about the history, development and current state of the building and try to estimate how many families have lived in it..

The manor house has stone walls with a timber framed roof, wattle and daub panels, rare surviving joinery with some finely carved doorheads.

Landmark Director Anna Keay said: “Llwyn Celyn is a fragile treasure, a rare late medieval survival which is at risk of being lost.

“The house is of outstanding importance not just to Welsh and British heritage but also internationally.

“It is a thrilling building full of mystery. It was a sensational building for its time and obviously lived in by someone of great importance but we don’t know who yet.”