Aberbechan Hall | |
---|---|
Location in Montgomeryshire | |
Location | Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn, Montgomeryshire, Wales |
Coordinates | 52°32′21″N3°16′10″W / 52.539041°N 3.269552°W |
Built | 16th Century |
Built for | Blayney family |
Demolished | 1870 |
Architectural style(s) | Timber framed Jettied house |
Aberbechan Hall was a timber framed mansion in the township of Aberbechan within the parish of Llanllwchaearn in the historic county of Montgomeryshire. The township of Aberbechan was transferred to Bettws Cedewain and more recently moved, with the township of Dolforwyn, into the community of Abermule with Llandyssil. [1] The Hall was originally built by the Blayney family, passing to the Price and Lloyd families, before becoming the property of Sir Gervais Clifton. In 1810 it was sold to David Pugh of Llanerchydol near Welshpool. The Hall was demolished in 1870 and replaced by the present Hall.
This was a house that had been built by the senior branch of the Blayney family, but Rhys ap Morris (Blayney) became High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1565, the family name changed to Price (ap Rhys). [2] The house descended to Sir John Price, who swapped sides in the Civil War and became the Parliamentary Commander of Montgomery Castle. The Hall then passed to his son Sir Richard Price. [3] The house passed to the Lloyd family, but in 1766, the heiress Frances Lloyd married Sir Gervais Clifton. This was probably a case of an Englishmen prowling for Welsh heiresses. [4] Sir Gervais Clifton 6th.Baronet was a leading Nottinghamshire landowner and is likely to have been an absentee landlord. The house and its estates were later sold in 1810 to David Pugh, a fabulously wealthy London Tea dealer, who was to build the castellated, gothic revival house at Llanerchydol Hall, on the outskirts of Welshpool.
Not far from Dolforwyn is Abervechan, an old house; which, after being owned by the Blaineys, the Prices, and the Lloyds, is now possesd by Sir Gervase Clifton, Baronet, by virtue of his marriage with the heiress of the place, daughter of Richard, Lloyd, Esq.
Thomas Pennant: A Tour in Wales. Bridge Books reprint, Wrexham, Vol 2, 372
1990
In 1786, Thomas Pennant, who was staying with Arthur Blayney at Gregynog and they passed Aberbechan when visiting Dolforwyn Castle. [5] Pennant in 1796 commissioned John Ingleby to produce two watercolours of Aberbechan Hall, which presumably he intended to use an illustration in a future edition of the Tour in Wales. These watercolours, which are now in the collections of the National Library of Wales, would appear to be the only surviving depictions of the Hall, which must have been an impressive timber-framed building. The Hall, as shown in Ingleby's watercolours is likely to have been built in the earlier years of the 17th century or perhaps slightly earlier.
The Hall must have been one of the grandest in the county, and appears to bear much in common with the Herberts’ house at Lymore on the outskirts of Montgomery. Both houses were built in a combination of brick and timber-framing and both have series of triangular roof gables with windows set in them. More striking is the way in which Aberbechan Hall is jettied out on each floor. The brick chimneys are square sectioned, in contrast to the star sectioned chimney stacks seen on earlier timber-framed houses of the area.
Until 1974, Montgomeryshire was an administrative county in mid Wales, later classed as one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. It was named after its county town, Montgomery, which in turn was named after one of William the Conqueror's main counsellors, Roger de Montgomerie, who was the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury.
Gregynog is a large country mansion in the village of Tregynon, 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Newtown in the old county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys in mid Wales. There has been a settlement on the site since the twelfth century. From the fifteenth to the nineteenth century it was the home of the Blayney and Hanbury-Tracy families. In 1960 it was transferred to the University of Wales as a conference and study centre by Margaret Davies, granddaughter of the nineteenth century industrial magnate and philanthropist, David Davies 'Top Sawyer' of Llandinam.
Abermule is a village lying on the River Severn 6 km northeast of Newtown in Powys, mid Wales. The A483 Swansea to Chester trunk road, the Cambrian Line railway, connecting Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, and the Montgomery Canal, close to the river, all pass through Abermule. The village had a population of 900 as of the 2011 census.
The office of High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire was established in 1541 since then a High Sheriff was appointed annually until 1974 when the office was transformed into that of High Sheriff of Powys as part of the creation of Powys from the amalgamation of Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Brecknockshire. Between the Edwardian Conquest of Wales in 1282 and the establishment of the High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1541 the sheriff's duties were mainly the responsibility of the coroner and the Custos Rotulorum of Montgomeryshire. The Office of High Sheriff remained first in precedence in the County until the reign of Edward VII when an Order in Council in 1908 gave the Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire the prime Office under the Crown as the Sovereign's personal representative.
Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger, was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire, and an innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere.
Aberbechan was formerly a township in the parish of Llanllwchaearn in the historic county of Montgomeryshire. The township of Aberbechan was transferred to Bettws Cedewain and more recently moved, together with the township of Dolforwyn, into the community of Abermule and Llandyssil in Powys, Wales.
David Pugh was a wealthy tea trader, a Welsh landowner and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1832, and again between 1847 and 1861.
Llandyssil is a village in the community of Abermule with Llandyssil, in Powys, Wales, in the traditional county of Montgomeryshire. It is about two miles from the town of Montgomery.
Great Cefnyberen is a Grade II timber framed house in the township of Cefnyberen in the historic parish of Kerry, Montgomeryshire. A date stone on the gable of the projecting wing, indicates that the south frontage of the house was refaced in stone in 1743.
Llanmerewig is a historic parish in Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, and is situated between Newtown and Welshpool. The church and small village stand on high ground, which overlooks the river Severn, and is close to Abermule; part of which lies within the parish. The river Severn forms the North Western boundary of the parish and the Eastern boundary is the river Mule, which cuts through a steep gorge, before entering the Severn at Abermule. The historic parish covered 1,023 acres.
Ffridd Faldwyn is an Iron Age hillfort in northern Powys, in the former county of Montgomeryshire, It is sited on a prominent hill west of Montgomery, close to but higher than Montgomery Castle, overlooking the River Severn. It is one of the largest hill-forts in Wales.
Poundley and Walker or John Wilkes Poundley and David Walker were a land surveyors and architects’ partnership with offices at Black Hall, Kerry, Montgomeryshire and at Unity Buildings, 22 Lord Street, Liverpool. The partnership was established probably in the mid-1850s and was dissolved in June 1867. The partnership was involved with large country estate building projects, church and civic buildings and some civil engineering. They specialized in building model farms. J. W. Poundley was also the county surveyor for Montgomeryshire from 1861–1872. The architect, canal and railway engineer, T. G. Newnham appears have been associated with the partnership.
Fronfraith Hall is a mid-Victorian house in the historic parish of Llandyssil in the shire area of Montgomeryshire in Powys. Fronfraith also appears in records as Bronfraith and Vronvraith. Fronfraith was also a township within the parish of Llandyssil. The present house was built in 1863 under the supervision of the Shrewsbury architect James Pickard This house replaced a large house, probably a half-timbered Tudor mansion, which had been the home of the Morgan family. In 1966, the west wing of the Fronfraith Hall was badly damaged as the result of a fire, but has now been restored. The Hall is now partly used as a guest house.
Lymore, or Lymore House or Lodge was demolished in 1931. It stood in Lymore Park, one mile ESE of Montgomery, Powys, Wales. The house was a large half-timbered house built by Edward Herbert, 3rd Baron Herbert of Chirbury, c. 1675, to replace the family residences in Montgomery Castle and Black Hall in Montgomery. The house, which had been uninhabited but maintained for many years, was used for an event in 1921, when one of the floors collapsed with disastrous consequences, resulting in demolition in 1931. The Earls of Powis still own and maintain the park. The park includes the grounds of the Montgomery Cricket Club, which is the oldest cricket pitch in Montgomeryshire and Offa's Dyke forms its eastern boundary. It is listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Vaynor Park is a country house in a landscaped park, standing on high ground to the south-west of Berriew village, in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys. The origins of the house date from the mid-15th century, but the house was extensively re-built in brick about 1640. The house was further re-modelled in 1840–1853 by Thomas Penson. The house is listed Grade II* and the garden and park is on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales
Garth was an important early gothic revival house in the township of Garth in Guilsfield in Montgomeryshire. In the 18th century it became the home of the Mytton family who had originally been Shrewsbury drapers, who derived their wealth from the Montgomeryshire woollen industry. They had settled at Pontysgawrhyd in Meifod and at Halston in Shropshire. The most famous members of the family were General Mytton, the Parliamentary Commander in the Civil War in the Marches and “Mad Jack Mytton”, the eccentric 19th-century squire of Halston. In 1809 a grandiose rebuilding scheme was started by Richard Mytton. However, this together with extravagant furnishing of the new house and reckless purchasing of surrounding farms, which culminated in the purchase of the Trefnannau estate in 1812 for £33,625, led to financial problems. The Myttons struggled to afford to live in style in this house, and it is likely that Richard Mytton's outlay on lands, the building of Garth and its furnishing cost nearly £100,000 The family continued to live in the house until it was damaged by fire in 1922. Thereafter, there was a gradual decline, leading to the sale of the remainder of the estate in August 1945 and the demolition of the house for salvage during the winter of 1946–7. The remnants of the garden and park are listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Townships in Montgomeryshire are divisions of the ancient parishes of the county of Montgomery. In 1539 townships were grouped together in Hundreds. The Townships which were recognised were based on the older Welsh divisions of Tref, or plural Trefi, which had formed the Welsh administrative districts of the Commote. Not all of the former Tref were recognised and some smaller trefi were amalgamated into larger townships. A township was allocated to a particular parish—that is, one of the [civil] parishes of Wales, the predecessors to today's communities of Wales. The townships were recognised as administrative districts, rather than the parishes.
St Beuno's Church, Bettws Cedewain lies within the historic county of Montgomeryshire in Powys. The church occupies a prominent position overlooking the village of Bettws Cedewain, on the northern edge of the valley of the Bechan Brook which flows into the River Severn. Bettws is about 9 miles to the south-west of Welshpool. The church is a single-chambered structure with a western tower, set in a near-circular churchyard. A campanile or bellcote was added to the earlier tower in the early 16th century by the vicar, John ap Meredyth, whose memorial brass remains in the church to-day. The church was extensively rebuilt in 1868 under the supervision of the architect William Eden Nesfield. This included a complete rebuild of the upper part of the tower
Plasau Duon or Plasauduon is a timber-framed house, formerly in the parish of Carno, but now within the area of the community council of Caersws in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, and now in Powys, Wales. It is located on a site above the left bank of the Afon Carno, on a farm road leading off the lane from the A.470 to Bwlch-y-garreg. It is a fine example of a ‘’Severn Valley’’ house and has a Grade II* listing. It is likely to have been built in the second half of the 16th. century.
Architecture of Wales is an overview of architecture in Wales from the medieval period to the present day, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.