Cilwendeg SN22223879 OS 25” 1st edition VII.10 Capel Colman

Cadw listing of house, pigeon house and shell grotto. Cadw register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Retirement home owned and run by County Council. Farm, entrances, woodland etc privately owned with council right of way.

Early 16C Llewelyn family. 17C Very modest house. Complicated mortgages leading to possession by Jacob Morgan of Vaynor, Manordeifi, attorney at law by the early 18C. 1732/33 Death of Jacob Morgan leaving estate among three disagreeing daughters. The youngest, who married John Jones of Llanbadarn, succeeded to Cilwendeg. 1801 Morgan Jones, son of above, HS. He married Jane Bevan of H’west and they died without issue. 1826 Morgan Jones, nephew of above succeeded. He was HS in 1831. Died 1840 with no issue. His income from the Skerries lighthouse had been about £20,000 a year. 1841 Lighthouse purchase from family for £444,984/11/3d. About one third of this fortune is thought to have been invested for his sister Jane Martha Jones who lived at Cilwendeg until 1864 and the remainder to the family of the Rev. John Jones of Penylan who spent alot on remodelling that house and puchasing Llanmiloe. 1864 Death of Jane Martha Jones. Cilwendeg inherited by John Jones’ daughter Margaretta Sutton Jones. (1844 Mark Anthony Saurin, youngest son of the bishop of Dromore, had married Margaretta Sutton Jones (niece of Morgan Jones of Cilwendeg as described) whose heir she became. They purchased Orielton Orielton in 1857. HS 1867 he died 1885, she 1870) 1867 W.A.Saurin, Cilwendeg, subscribed to R.Phillips’s History of Cilgerran. 1872 (County Families - Nicholas) M. A. Saurin The Saurins continued to live at Orielton and installed an agent, Thomas Dix, at Llwynbedw, nearby, which remained the agents’ house until 1936. 1884 Estate sold to Saunders Davies family of Pentre for £46,742. Mrs Fanny Saunders Davies built the expensive chapel at Pentre and remodelled the house, built a terrace of eleven houses in Boncath for estate workers, a mission church in Abercych, Capel Colman vicarage and remodelled Cilwendeg. 1885 Advertised for letting “undergoing renovations”. From Georgian to Victorian mansion! 1898 After some letting Arthur married and came to live here. 1902 Death of Fanny. Arthur and family move back to Pentre. 1906/7 Let to Colby family while Ffynone was remodelled. 1907 Advertised for sale (Mr Bowen, Cilwendeg farm has the illustrated brochure with map). Home farm rented to Bowen family. 1920 (Kelly’s) Unoccupied. 1923 (Kelly’s) Unoccupied Owner Owen Picton Saunders Davies. 1922 Arthur Saunders Davies died. Owen S-D the noted racing driver moves into Cilwendeg for a few years. The fields used for horse racing. 1936 Sale of mansion £1,500, farm and 303 acres £5,750 to Daniel Daniel JP DL , coal owner, who had already bought Ffynone in 1927. Farm now sold to the Bowen family. 2

Mansion requisitioned in World War II. 1947 Mansion bought by Bowen family. 1952 Mansion bought by PCC for retirement home. (Much of the above history is taken from “Cilwendeg” by Julian Orbach 1995 - see attached)

To the east of the present entrance is a pair of earlier lodges, which were later raised by the addition of a first floor earlier this century ( and iron gate piers and railings?)

(Visit 11th September 1999) Capel Colman church, once within the estate and part of the vista from the house. Extensive use of Cilgerran slate. (1 and 2). Morgan Jones family enclosure with very few, small, headstones. (3) The iron railings were removed in WW II. Farm buildings, once the very latest and very large. (4,5,6,7,7b and 7c) Coach-house and stables; ground floor used for modern garages. (8 and 9). Wrought iron farm gate marked in the frame, near the handle, T. Lloyd, Cardigan. (10). Architect designed “pigeon house”, also for larger domestic birds, with extensive use of slate. (11,12 and 12b) Slate arch over farm doorway. (14).

Laundry. (13).

“Grotto” (shell house) with extensive use of “quartz”stone and with external columns and edging of slate. (15a,b,and c). Internal surfaces with shells, the floor with lamb bones. (16a,b and c). (see below)

Walled kitchen garden not seen but said to exist, out of sight, to the SE.

Mansion with restored conservatories facing terraced lawns.(17a and b).

Photograph taken in the 1970’s (?) of some of the plantings, probably to the south west of the house and south of the drive as it swings eastwards.

Visit 30th November 1999. Speak to Mr Bowen who owns most of the estate. He drained the pond in front of the fowl house, he says, because the Health and Safety Inspectors demanded it. The yard abutting it has been concreted with a slope that drains water and slurry into the pond; cattle are wintered here and their droppings are scraped into the pond which is now more than half full of dung. The eastern edge of the pond is retained by a finely built wall against which there was once a toilet under which a pipe led down to the walled gardens in the valley below. It is not clear to GH where the water comes from or how the outflow was controlled. There is an oddly shaped area (new to half moon) with high walls and a wide entrance opposite the stables; the entrance has finely built piers (17). Did it contain the spoil heap from the stables? Why this shape? A track goes NE through woodland to meet the original carriage drive. A further track goes down a slope towards the SW corner of the walled garden and then veres left along the outside of the garden wall (18). A blocked-up arched pedestrian entrance can be seen in this stretch. 3

One can turn right, along the wall and contour, through a gateway and past the end of the wall. This track continues in a southerly direction A steep path with steps descends down the valley with the garden wall on one’s left. Before the descent a path doubles back behind a low wall, ten paces to a formal, pedestrian entrance flanked with dressed slate piers (19). Entering the walled garden a path continues straight ahead along the west wall. A high south wall descends the valley with a parallel one about 50m ahead. One can make out the ivy- covered east wall in the bottom of the valley and hear the stream beyond. This area is now self-seeded woodland. Passing through a pedestrian gap (20) into the northern two thirds - the garden proper - the land slopes down and away to the right (east) and the path, continuing along the west wall, slopes gently downwards towards the gardener’s cottage near the north end (21 and 22). One can see that there was once a long glasshouse along the eastern half of the north wall - it is cement rendered and has two doors. A strong stone wall running north-south divides this garden; it is high for the south half of its length and abruptly low for the north half. Closer examination was not possible and a map is/was not to hand but one wonders whether the large glasshouses mentioned in the literature were built against these walls. GH hopes that this garden is better described in the Cadw survey. The odd thing is that Mr Bowen, on whose land most of the garden and other features lie, cannot recall meeting the Cadw surveyor!

Documents in file: Text Photograph of OS 25” second edition map (2) and copy/enlargement Cadw listings (12 pages inc 4 of poultry house) B&W photograph of mansion (Baker Jones) Colour photograph of mansion 1993 (GH) Two colour photographs of mansion 1999 (GH) Five colour photographs of entrances Two 1906 B&W photographs enlarged Six ditto walled garden and surrounds Colour photograph informal gardens 1993 Four ditto coach-house Colour photograph of laundry house (“villa”) Four ditto model farm buildings Five ditto buildings, plaque and gate Colour photograph of gate pier Three ditto poultry house and enlargement Two ditto poltry house interior Six ditto shell grotto Two ditto church Colour photograph Morgan enclosure in churchyard Two colour ditto Llanmielo Brochure/History 1995 Correspondence re conservation of poultry house and shell grotto Cadw listing of church 4

(Two photographs of Llanmilo dated March 1994 when it was offered for sale by MOD. Llanmilo was purchased by the Morgan Jones family.) Eight colour photographs by Charles Hawes, Vedw, Monmouthshire in whose copyright they are

Farm Owner/Occupier Mr Alan Bowen, Cilwendeg Farm 01239 814224

Western Telegraph 29th September 2004 Planning application to convert outbuilding (which?) into a dwelling by farmer/owner Mr Bowen

Visit 8th February 2005 to the shell grotto: Restoration/recreation of inside virtually complete. Very impressive and beautiful wall and ceiling pannels. Exterior incomplete – scaffolding in place and no proper door. Nothing has been done to the approach; nor has the builder’s clutter been removed further than a skip. Photographs attempted but difficult

A small carpark has been made to the south (right hand) of the main drive but it is not yet clear how the visitor will walk to the site.

Mid 2005? (date not recorded). Telephone call from Charles Hawes who, with his wife, runs the garden at Vedw, Monmouthshire asking advice about historic buildings in Pembrokeshire which he could photograph. He later sent eight prints by way of thankyou. See folder Cilwendig – CH – 2005

21st June 2006 Visit by Pembrokeshire branch members guided by Julien Orbach. The completed shell house impressed everyone. The poultry house was impossible to approach because of the wind and the loose slates. We walked to the farthest point of the lawns and through the hedge onto a graveled track which runs around the perimeter of the demesne inside the ha- ha. The track is flanked with native trees and miscellaneous shrubs. Almost opposite our access is a length of low, pointed arch fencing. The 1906 sale brochure mentions a summer house near this point.

Gerddi IV (Winter 2006/7) Gwilym Hughes An archaeological excavation and survey at the shell house, Cilwendeg, Pembrokeshire