Newton House | |
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Plas Dinefwr | |
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Type | House |
Location | Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire |
Coordinates | 51°53′03″N4°00′53″W / 51.8841°N 4.0147°W |
Built | 1660 |
Rebuilt | 1850 |
Architectural style(s) | Victorian gothic |
Owner | National Trust, Davies Family |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Plas Dinefwr |
Designated | 1966 |
Reference no. | 11098 [1] |
Newton House is a Grade II* listed country house situated just to the west of the market town of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is partially owned and maintained by the National Trust and lies within Dinefwr Park (sometimes anglicised as "Dynevor") and the grounds of Dinefwr Castle. The park and gardens are listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. The original house was built during the Medieval period on a site which has been occupied for at least two millennia. The current house was built by Edward Rice in the Jacobean style in 1660, though extensive changes were made in the 1850s in the Venetian Gothic style. The house played a role in the Rebecca Riots of 1843, when the occupant of the house at the time, Colonel George Rice, received a death threat with an empty grave dug in the ground. After 1956 the property fell into turbulent times when two owners died within the space of a few years. It was sold in 1974, and later fell into disrepair; it was occupied by squatters and thieves who removed beams and furniture.
The house, along with Dinefwr Castle, have since been restored by the National Trust and Cadw respectively. It is a three-storey castellated structure, built from grey stone, with four tall towers in each corner, with sloping slate roofs. The front features a grand central porch. Two rooms are open to the public, including a tearoom and exhibition in the basement and ground floor which contain numerous displays related to the history of the estate and occupants. The deer park which surrounds the property was landscaped by Capability Brown in 1775. The surrounding woodland consists mainly of oak and wych elm. Newton House is cited as one of the most haunted houses in Wales, noted in particular for its ghost of Walter the Butler, a former employee whose tobacco smoke purportedly wafts through the air.
Dinefwr Park has a history of occupation spanning at least two millennia. [2] A polished stone axe dated to the Neolithic period was unearthed on the site in 1976, [3] and during the Iron Age, a farm existed on the property. [2] The Romans later built a pair of forts here, with one partly overlying the other. [3] There are traces of Roman roads and tracks, some of which may have been part of the Carmarthen–Llandovery Roman road. A Roman milestone and a Roman coin hoard were unearthed near Dinefwr Castle, and pieces of amphorae and Samian items have been excavated near Dinefwr Farm. [4]
During the 12th century, Dinefwr Castle was built by Lord Rhys, Prince of Wales. The castle and grounds were seized by Henry VIII in 1531, and the estate owners, who changed their family surname to Rice, subsequently had to buy back their property from the Crown. [2] The family were elevated to the peerage of Great Britain as Baron Dynevor. [5] Mary I is documented to have restored some of the land back to the Rhys family, but it was not until the reign of Charles I that the family fully regained their properties. [4]
Newton House was originally built during the medieval period at some distance from the castle. [5] It is documented to have been later modified in 1595 and 1603. [4] The current Newton House was completed in 1660 under the command of Edward Rice. [2] [6] In the late 1700s, George Rice and his wife Cecil began the construction of a landscape garden, and hired eminent architect Capability Brown in 1775 to assume responsibility for the development. [2] Turrets and battlements were added between 1760 and 1780, giving the property a more romanticised appearance. [7] During the Rebecca Riots of 1843, Colonel George Rice was awoken one night in September and found an empty grave dug in the grounds, warning him that he would be buried in it by October 10. [8]
Newton House fell into a turbulent period after the death of the 7th Baron Dynevor in 1956. His son Charles Arthur Uryan, the 8th Baron, died just six years later, and most of the estate and a number of family's assets had to be sold off to pay duties. [4] In 1974, the property was sold by the current Baron Dynevor, and later fell into disrepair: it was occupied by squatters and thieves who removed beams and furniture. The house, along with Dinefwr Castle, have since been restored by Cadw and the National Trust respectively. The National Trust acquired the deer park in 1987 and Newton House three years later. [4]
Edward Rice ordered the construction of a Jacobean house on the site of an earlier medieval mansion in 1659, [2] and it was completed the following year. [6] Turrets and battlements were added between 1760 and 1780. [7] Though the property remains Jacobean, around 1856, [9] there were significant changes made in the Venetian Gothic style, [10] which today emanate the ambiance of the Victorian period. [2] The tower was added, [7] and alterations were made by R. K. Penson of Oswestry. [11] The National Trust writes of it: "Most of what you see of the grand building today dates back to the 1850s, when it was given a fashionable Gothic facelift, with stone cladding and four impressive turrets". [12] A limestone refacing occurred at the same time. [13] Newton House is a Grade II* listed property, as are its summer house and the inner and outer courtyard ranges. The nearby dairy cottage, ha-ha, dovecote, fountain, deer abattoir, icehouse, home farmhouse, corn barn and byre/stable range are Grade II listed in their own right. [4]
Newton House is a three-storey castellated structure, [11] built from grey stone, with a tall tower in each corner, with sloping slate roofs. [2] The front features a grand central porch. [11] The authors of Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion consider the heavily decorated late 17th-century ceilings of the house to be "the finest single architectural legacy among the country houses of the region". As in Plas Taliaris and several other country houses in the county, the ceilings are panelled, with "thick moulded beams and wreaths in the panels and winged cherubs' heads in the corners". [14] The entrance hall contains a columned Doric screen with a 19th-century ribbed and bossed ceiling. The old dining room to the right of this features a coffered ceiling dated to the 17th century, containing "low plaster relief mouldings including guilloché, acanthus and egg and dart". The chimney piece has been removed. The drawing room to rear of the property also features a richly adorned coffered ceiling with "frieze bearing rosette bands" and a "centre oval with bay leaf design". [11] The 17th-century staircase features thick balusters and prominent finials, [14] with foliage patterns ingrained in the plasterwork of the handrail. A billiard room was added to the house in 1896. [11] A strongroom with 18-inch-thick (46 cm) walls and heavy steel fire-proof doors was added in 1914, for the Dynevors to keep their important documents and valuables. [4] On the upper floors are rooms with 18th-century fittings, including "panelled dados, lugged architraves, low relief plaster ceilings and closets within angled turrets". The bedroom on the northeast of the house features a particularly detailed coffered ceiling with floral patterns. [11]
The house contains several paintings of note, including William Powell Frith's Mary, Queen of Scots Bidding Farewell to France (1561) and Godfrey Kneller's portrait of the Bishop of Salisbury, William Talbot, dated to 1718. [2] Two showrooms at the house are open to the public. Aside from the tearoom, the exhibition in the basement and ground floor contains numerous displays related to the Rhys family, the history of the estate and World War II, and is designed as if the year is 1912. [7] [10]
The house is surrounded by a deer park which was landscaped from 1775, including a winding path through the park and planted deciduous trees in key places to frame the house and castle. [2] [12] The deer park contains notable herds of rare White Park cattle and fallow deer. [10] A small garden behind the house, overlooking the deer park, Moorish in style with a central fountain, has been restored to its former glory. [15] [16] Brown's beech clumps survive in the present day. [17] The park is registered at Grade I on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. [18]
Writing in 1862, Benjamin Clarje considered the park to exhibit "perhaps a richer display of varied landscape than any spot of similar size in the kingdom". He notes that the surface in the upper area of the park is "diversified by gentle undulations and has been planted with great judgment and taste" and that the River Towy flows in the vicinity. [5] The Wildlife Trust West Wales acquired the nearby woodland in 1979.
The BBC's Peter Crawford wrote of it in his book, The Living Isles: "The woodland is primarily oak and wych elm," he writes. "The shrubs and ground cover are outstanding with cherry, holly, spindle, dog violet and the parasitic toothwort. Lichen communities are of importance and include the rare lungwort. Overlooked by the romantic Castle of Dinefwr the fine old parkland has a herd of fallow deer. The mature trees attract woodpecker, common redstarts and pied flycatchers. In winter, the water meadows draw large numbers of ducks". [4]
The National Trust states that Newton House is "thought to be one of the most haunted houses in Britain", [12] and Wales Online cites it as one of the most notable ghostly houses of Wales. [19] Over the years, many ghost sightings or paranormal activity have been allegedly witnessed at the house. The servants' basement is one of the purported centres of activity, with numerous sightings, particularly of a ghost known as Walter the Butler who worked at the house.
People have reported smelling his tobacco smoke in the room, muffled voices and lights eerily turning on and off on their own accord. [9] [12] Visitors have reported feeling as if they are being choked when walking up and down the cantilever staircase; this is believed to be related to the strangling of Lady Elinor Cavendish, the cousin of the lady of Newton House in the 1720s, [19] by a lover whom she had rejected. [12]
The alleged hauntings at the property began to be investigated by television journalists in the 1980s, and on one occasion crewmen mysteriously fell ill one after the other while shooting there. During one investigation, the spectre of a young, beautiful girl was said to have glided across the room and disappeared through the cupboard door. [20] The house was later the subject of an investigation in the 11th [21] and 15th [22] [23] series of the Most Haunted programme. [24]
Carmarthenshire is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as the "Garden of Wales" and is also home to the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
Llandeilo is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated at the crossing of the River Towy by the A483 on a 19th-century stone bridge. Its population was 1,795 at the 2011 Census. It is adjacent to the westernmost point of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The town is served by Llandeilo railway station on the Heart of Wales Line.
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Dinefwr was one of six local government districts of the county of Dyfed, Wales from 1974 to 1996. It was named after Dinefwr Castle which in the Middle Ages had been the court of the House of Dinefwr and one of the three principal royal courts of Wales with Aberffraw and Shrewsbury.
Walter FitzUryan Rice, 7th Baron Dynevor was a British military officer, civil servant and Conservative politician. He was the only son and heir of the 6th Baron Dynevor.
George Talbot Rice, 3rd Baron Dynevor (Dinefwr) was a British peer and politician. He was the son of Cecil de Cardonnel, 2nd Baroness Dynevor and George Rice. He was educated at Westminster School and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford on 1 February 1783, where he was awarded a Master of Arts degree on 30 May 1786.
Richard Charles Uryan Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor was a British peer.
Dinefwr Castle is a ruined castle overlooking the River Towy near the town of Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It lies on a ridge on the northern bank of the Towy, with a steep drop of one hundred feet to the river. Dinefwr was the chief seat of the Dinefwr dynasty of the Kingdom of Deheubarth. The castle is a Grade I listed building.
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The Royal House of Dinefwr was a cadet branch of the Royal House of Gwynedd, founded by King Cadell ap Rhodri, son of Rhodri the Great. Their ancestor, Cunedda Wledig, born in late Roman Britain, was a Sub-Roman warlord who founded the Kingdom of Gwynedd during the 5th century, following the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. As Celtic Britons, the House of Dinefwr was ruling before the Norman conquest, having to fight with their neighbors such as the Celtics, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, before struggling with the Normans afterwards. Many members of this family were influential in Welsh history, such as Hywel Dda, who codified Welsh law under his rule, and achieved the important title of King of the Britons, or Lord Rhys, Prince of Wales, who rebelled against Richard the Lionheart, and became one of the most powerful Welsh leaders of the Middle Ages.
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Dinefwr Park National Nature Reserve is an 800 acres (320 ha) estate about a mile from the centre of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire owned by the National Trust, with a mansion in the centre. The highest point is occupied by the ruined Dinefwr Castle, ancient castle of the Deheubarth kingdom. It is a grade I Historic Park and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Castle House in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, is a Grade II*–listed Georgian mansion. Described by Dylan Thomas as “the best of houses in the best of places”, it is one of many buildings of note in the medieval township.
George Rice was a Welsh politician and courtier. He became Vice-Admiral of Carmarthen, Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire, and Lord Commissioner of the board of trade under the Duke of Newcastle.
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Portland Place, in the centre of Aberaeron, Ceredigion, Wales is a terrace of mid-19th century townhouses. The town of Aberaeron was developed around 1810 as a port by the Rev. Alban Thomas Jones Gwynne, a local landowner. After his father's death in 1819, Colonel A.T.J. Gwynne engaged Edward Haycock Sr. to plan a major expansion. Leases were sold in the early 1830s and development continued for much of the rest of the 19th century, the town growing as a centre for shipbuilding and commerce. The expansion of the railways, and their arrival in Aberaeron in 1909 brought these commercial endeavours to an end and the town became a seaside resort and a centre for local government. No.s 1-7 inclusive on Portland Place are Grade II* listed buildings, forming "the finest single terrace" in Aberaeron.
Carmarthenshire is a county in the south-west of Wales. It covers an area of 2,370 km2 (920 sq mi). In 2021 the population was approximately 188,200.