Maesteg House was a manor house built on the south slope of Kilvey Hill, Swansea. It was built in the mid 19th century by the copper and tin industrialist Pascoe St Leger Grenfell. The building is no longer there, as it was demolished shortly after the First World War to make way for new housing development. [1] [2]
The house is described as being an irregularly shaped block 70ft wide by 60ft deep, with a hipped roof. On the front of the house there were two full-height bay windows with peaked slate roofs. A conservatory formed an extension of the eastern side. [2]
There was a tree-lined avenue which was the entrance drive to the house. [3]
The main lodge, with the stables, greenhouses, and Maesteg cottage, stood at what is now the junction of Morris Lane and Grenfell Park Lane. There was a second lodge near the junction of Kinley Street and Port Tennant Road. [2]
Riversdale Grenfell was the first of the Grenfell family to move into an existing property known as "Maesteg" (see local census documents 1841), followed c1845 by his older brother Pascoe St Leger Grenfell. Contrary to what has been written in many texts, there is no record of Pascoe St. Leger having Maesteg House built, and little evidence of him being in Swansea before 1845, although he does appear on the local census documents in 1851. [4]
Pascoe St. Leger took over the copper and tin businesses in the lower Swansea valley from his father Pascoe Grenfell and his older half-brother Charles. The Grenfell family originated from Cornwall, and Pascoe St. Leger Grenfell spent time being educated in England and France, before moving to Swansea to take control of Pascoe Grenfell & Sons smelting business after the death of his father in 1838. After his first wife died in 1843, he married again in 1845, and he and his second wife Frances Madan brought up his nine children from his first marriage at Maesteg House. His youngest son Francis Wallace, often erroneously mentioned as born in Swansea, was born in Lambeth, London in 1841. [5] . [1] [6]
Maesteg House was notable for being the only house built by the Swansea industrialists that lay near the industrial workers and on the east side of the River Tawe, and thus breathing the same toxic air as their workers. [7] [8] [9]
Pascoe Grenfell & Sons went into voluntary liquidation in 1892, and the business was bought by Messrs Williams, Foster & Co. for £40,000. [10]
Elizabeth Mary Grenfell, one of Pascoe St Leger Grenfell's five daughters, lived at the house after the death of her father. She was involved in local philanthropy, aiding the welfare and religious development of the local community. During her time Maesteg House would be sometimes used to help the community. Once a year the railway-men of the district were invited to the House where a large tent was erected on the grounds. [11]
Grenfell's niece Katherine was the last of the Grenfells to live at Maesteg House. She used the house to run a school for local children. [1] [6] Kate Grenfell filed for bankruptcy in 1907, but with only seven years left on the Maesteg House leasehold to the Briton Ferry Estate, when put up for auction, there was no interest shown in the building. [12]
During the First World War the house was used to house at least eighty Belgian refugees. By this point, the house had been uninhabited for some time and was in poor condition. To be able to house the refugees properly the house underwent repairs and maintenance over a period two years and at a cost of £500 [13] (About £41,000 in 2023 value).
Soon after the war in about 1920, the house was demolished, and some of the estate was used to build new council housing immediately in front of the house. [2] [1] The Grenfell Park Estate and several local streets were named after the Grenfell family, rightly regarded as benefactors to the Eastside of Swansea since Pascoe St. Leger Grenfell's arrival in the area.
The house was built on the southern slope of Kilvey Hill, it was facing southwards overlooking Fabian Bay. There are no traces left of the house but Grenfell Park Road follows the line of the drive of the house, with the house itself standing roughly where the junction of Grenfell Park Road and St Leger Crescent is. [2]
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Baron Grenfell, of Kilvey in the County of Glamorgan, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 15 July 1902 for the military commander Sir Francis Grenfell. His eldest son, the second Baron, was Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and Chairman of Committees from 1963 to 1976. As of 2010 the title is held by the latter's son, the third Baron, who succeeded in 1976. He previously worked for the World Bank. Lord Grenfell lost his seat in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. However, in 2000 he was made a life peer as Baron Grenfell of Kilvey, of Kilvey in the County of Swansea, and was able to return to the House of Lords.
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Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot FRS was a Welsh landowner, industrialist and Liberal politician. He developed his estate at Margam near Swansea as an extensive ironworks, served by railways and a port, which was renamed Port Talbot. He served as a Member of Parliament for Glamorgan constituencies from 1830 until his death in 1890, a sixty-year tenure which made him the second longest serving MP in the nineteenth century. He was Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, from 1848 to 1890.
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Julian Pascoe Francis St Leger Grenfell, 3rd Baron Grenfell, Baron Grenfell of Kilvey, is a Labour hereditary peer, life peer, and former member of the House of Lords known for his strong Europhile views.
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Frances Kingsley born Frances Eliza Grenfell was a British biographer of her husband Charles Kingsley.