On this day, one hundred years ago, the Daily Express reported that Lord Swansea had decided to sell his ancestral home, Singleton Abbey, Swansea, owing to rates, taxes and the general increase of the cost of upkeep.
During the 19th century, Swansea became a major centre of industry and commerce, its port a gateway to the world. There were opportunities for shrewd-minded entrepreneurs (many from outside Wales) to cash in on the economic boom, among them the Vivian family from Truro in Cornwall. Already with major investments in the Cornish copper trade, in 1809 John Vivian established the Hafod copper works and subsequently created the company Vivian and Sons. Image: The British Newspaper Archive.
The whole estate of 250 acres and the mansion, with its priceless contents of 70 fully furnished rooms was going to auction.
“I don’t want to do it,” said Lord Swansea, “but it is a sad necessity. To keep up the place as I should like would entail £100,000 a year, and I have not the means to do it. That accounts for my living away from Swansea so largely. It will be a great wrench to part with the place, but it is inevitable.”
In 1817, John Henry Vivian, purchased Marino, an octagonal neo-classical villa, and went about enlarging the original house into a mansion befitting his new wealth and growing social status. The house grew over the following two decades into the building in the photograph. “Marino” became “Singleton Abbey” in 1832. Image: Coflein.
The nucleus of the house was built in 1784 by Edward King, a customs official. In 1817 it was bought by the industrialist John Henry Vivian who extended the house and later engaged architect Peter Frederick Robinson to re-model it in neo-gothic style.
Before 1851 the stables and coach house were added and minor works were carried out in 1887 for visit of Prince of Wales. A major fire in 1896 resulted in some rebuilding. Image: Coflein.
Ernest Vivian, 2nd Baron Swansea, sold Singleton Abbey to Swansea Corporation for £115,000 in July 1919, and died three years later.
The council wanted to develop the estate largely for housing purposes and gifted the mansion to the Swansea University College in 1923 – still used today as offices for Swansea University on its Singleton Park campus.
The London architect, P. F. Robinson (1776-1858) was well-known at the time for his ‘Designs for Ornamental Villas’ and other pattern book publications. Image: Coflein.Singleton Abbey, and a portion of the estate, became part of the University College of Swansea during the 1920s. It now houses many of the administrative offices of Swansea University.
“The hall was last occupied by Sir Ernest Tate, who would see to it that the place was left in a good state. The interior is in exceedingly good condition.” Unfortunately, a lot has changed since 1932.
The Pool Park estate was once a deer park belonging to nearby Ruthin Castle. The house was established in the 16th century and later belonged to Thomas Needham. Thereafter the estate became the property of the Salusbury family. JACKSON-STOPS.
In 1932, Mr A.O. Evans of the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital Committee, attempted to calm his colleagues over the potential purchase of Pool Park, near Ruthin, in Denbighshire.
“The hall was last occupied by Sir Ernest Tate who, is one of those gentlemen who, regardless of any obligation, would see to it that the place was left in a good state. The interior is in exceedingly good condition.”
These words might well echo around the empty corridors of Pool Park today. The former country house is up for sale at Jackson-Stops with offers wanted in excess of £1.75 million.
Any buyer is going to get a bit of a shock.
The present house and buildings were laid out between 1826 and 1829 by architect John Buckler for the 2nd Lord Bagot. JACKSON-STOPS.
The property has stood empty since 1989, when it closed as a hospital. It is not surprising that the sales brochure doesn’t include any internal photographs, the external images are concerning enough. However, urban explorers have produced a raft of photographs that can be found across the internet. In short, the interior is in exceedingly bad condition!
Pool Park originally had mock half-timbering to the upper storey. This was removed in the 1930s. NICHOLAS KINGSLEY.The half-timbering was removed and replaced with plain white stucco. RCAHMW WALES.
Pool Park was rebuilt by the William Bagot, 2nd Lord Bagot(1773–1856)) in 1826-29 to the designs of John Buckler, and assisted by local architect Benjamin Gummow. The family chose to live at Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire, often renting Pool Park to tenants. These included George Richards Elkington, a Birmingham electroplater, Robert Blezard, a Liverpool brewer, and Sir Ernest Tate, president of Tate and Lyle, sugar refiners.
William Bagot (1773-1856), the eldest son of 1st Baron Bagot and his second wife Elizabeth Louisa St. John. He died at his home in Blithfield, Staffordshire. Portrait by John Hoppner. BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.In the 17th century, the Salusbury estates were divided between two sons of William Salusbury, with Bachymbyd and Pool Park passing to his daughter, Jane, who married Sir Walter Bagot of Blithfield in 1670. JACKSON-STOPS.Lord Bagot never used Pool Park as a main residence, the house often tenanted. Its last tenant was Sir Ernest Tate who stayed for about twenty years. JACKSON-STOPS.
It was sold in 1928, no doubt anticipating the purchase by the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital Committee, who were looking for an overflow for the Denbigh Mental Asylum. It wasn’t until 1937 that the hospital actually opened, but it would serve its purpose until 1989.
Pool Park was sold to the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital for £12,000 in the early 1930s. At the time it was a controversial decision and it didn’t open until 1937. JACKSON-STOPS.
It was sold by the National Health Service (NHS) in 1992, but very little has happened to it since. In 2012, planning permission was submitted to turn it into a care village with 38 homes and 60 apartments. This came to nothing and the house has deteriorated since.
According to the estate agent, this property is perfect for further redevelopment, subject to planning permission, but requires major renovation.
The interiors of Pool Park are not shown in the sales brochure. However, the current state of the house can be found on various urban explorer sites. CATHERINE JACKSON PHOTOGRAPHY.The Imperial staircase is thought to be from the early 20th century. Some of the wood was said to have come from another house called Clocaenog. ROLFEY/DERELICT PLACES.Dark and decaying. Pool Park still contains original features, but painstaking work will be needed to restore them. ROLFEY/DERELICT PLACES.The staircase contains fine case-shaped oak-carved balusters and figurative panels. ROLFEY/DERELICT PLACES.Pool Park continued as an hospital until 1989. It was sold to a developer, but has been empty ever since. JACKSON-STOPS.
John Lloyd Davies inherited one of Wales’ largest estates when he was ten-years-old. He died at 28, having squandered his fortune, and leaving behind a series of ‘dubious’ wills
Image: Savills.
On the market at Savills with a guide price of £800,000 is Alltyrodyn Mansion, a substantial three storey late Georgian Grade II* listed country house. It is thought to date from about 1827, built in the style of the architect John Nash and retaining many of the original features throughout including decorative plasterwork.
The house, at Capel Dewi, near Llandysul in Ceredigion, was rebuilt for the Lloyd family, owners since the early 17th century, either for David Lloyd (1748-1822) or John Lloyd (d. 1841). According to the 1873 return of owners of land, this estate was once the sixth largest in the county, part of an estimated 6,877 acres of land owned by John Lloyd Davies (1850-1878) in Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire.
And it is to this person that we focus on the house’s most infamous years, a young man whose eventual death caused scandal and turmoil in the courts.
Image: Savills.
John Lloyd Davies was born in October 1850 and married in July 1872, shortly after reaching his majority. He became a rich man, possessing real estate in Cardiganshire and other Welsh counties, yielding a rental income of about £4,000 a year. The property he inherited at Alltyrodyn was derived through the old Welsh Lloyd family, long settled in Cardiganshire. The last of the line, John Lloyd, died unmarried and devised the estates to a female cousin, Anne Stewart, who survived her husband. After his death she married a man called John Davies (later called Lloyd Davies), a servant at a hotel in the neighbourhood in which she resided. He was her junior and considered to be illiterate, but before marrying him she had him educated.
The issue of this marriage was one child, a son, Arthur Lloyd Davies. He married Adelaide Lacy, the daughter of a publican, and he died in 1852, leaving surviving him his widow (who subsequently remarried) and two children, John Lloyd Davies and Ann Justina Lloyd, later Mrs Massey. John Lloyd Davies Sr survived his wife. He re-married and died in 1860, leaving surviving him two young sons – Hardwick Lloyd Davies and Powell Lloyd Davies. Though having only a life interest in the Alltyodyn estates, he dealt with them as if he were the owner in fee and disposed of them by will.
The consequence was a suit in Chancery in which 10-year-old John Lloyd Davies Jr inherited his estate, but managed by trustees until the child reached his majority. He became acquainted with James Allen, then a Chancery managing clerk and later a member of a firm of solicitors called Eyre and Co, of Bedford Row, London, who acted in his interest.
Image: Savills.
Lloyd Davies Jr gained full control of his estate at the age of 21, but was of an obstinate and intractable disposition and though gifted, with considerable intellectual power, had little inclination to study. When aged 20 he formed a relationship with Miss Susannah Crowhurst, a ballet-dancer at the Alhambra Theatre, and in April 1872, shortly after reaching 21, made provision for her in the first of a series of wills he executed. He gave her a legacy of £1,000 and an annuity of the same as well as a legacy of £5,000 to Mr Allen. He devised his real estates to his uncles by half-blood, Powell Lloyd Davies and Hardwick Lloyd Davies, in succession.
He married Miss Crowhurst the following July, and the will having been revoked, was revived by codicil, in which the gifts to her were made as to his wife. In June 1873, he executed a second will, and by it he increased the annuity to his wife to £2,000 and the legacy to Mr Allen to £10,000, leaving the remaining parts of the will unaltered. Lloyd Davies subsequently added further codicils, including adding a further £10,000 to Mr Allen’s legacy.
Image: Savills.
Shortly after the marriage Lloyd Davies needed money and mortgaged his estates to pay succession duties and supply his extravagances. He made a trip to South Africa to hunt ‘big game’ and visit the diamond fields. He sailed, leaving behind James Allen as power of attorney. He returned in 1874, but during absence had written several interesting letters of his adventure to Mr Allen, signing himself ‘your sincere and affectionate friend’.
On his return he went to live with Mr and Mrs Dewdney in Regent’s Park (and would later include them in his wills). Lloyd Davies needed more money and sold a portion of his landed property raising about £75,000.
About this time, James Allen’s relationship with his wife had deteriorated, and he thought it necessary to leave London for a considerable time. He was still a clerk, though admitted an attorney at Eyre and Co, of which he didn’t become a member until 1877. He made known his difficulties to John Lloyd Davies, who placed at his disposal a gift of £10,000. The marriage subsequently collapsed, and Allen stayed away from London.
Image: Savills.
In the meantime, John Lloyd Davies had stretched himself financially after dealings with a man named Morgan, a horse dealer, with whom he had entered into partnership. In 1875, he left his wife for America, visiting New York, and the Niagara Falls. He then journeyed into the far West, hunting in the Rocky Mountains, visiting the gold digging sites in California, and finally San Francisco.
On his return to Alltyrodyn he communicated for the first time with his sister, Ann, who visited his wife and became very friendly with her. A codicil was made by which she and her children were benefited to the extent of £300 a year. However, John Lloyd Davies developed pulmonary consumption and sought medical advice in London. His sister, perhaps sensing what might lay ahead, suggested that the estates, upon his death, go to her children, also his wife’s diamonds and jewellery. This so enraged him that he made another codicil, leaving her nothing. In the final will all the estates were given to James Allen, his most intimate friend, a legacy of £1,000 to his wife, in addition to an annuity of £2,500 per year during widowhood. By now, he had strained relationships with his family – particularly from his uncles, because their guardian would not allow them to associate with him.
He died in May 1878 aged 28. In opposition to the claim for probate, his sister and brother-in-law, Mr and Mrs Massey, alleged that the execution of the final will had been obtained by the undue influence and fraud of Mr Allen, and that at the date of the execution of the wills and codicils, John Lloyd Davies was not of sound mind.
Image: Savills.Image: Savills.
In the end, James Allen’s name was struck out of the will of 1858, by which all other wills were revoked, and was instead given the sum of £5,000, presumably in aid of legal expenses. John Lloyd Davies’ sister, Ann Massey, became the possessor of the Alltyrodyn estates, a situation that caused bemusing celebrations at Llandysul. ‘The brass band marched through the town, followed by the drum and fife band in uniform; The Church bells rang, and bonfires, illuminations and other signs of rejoicings were prominent objects at night’.
However, in 1881, the former estates of John Lloyd Davies – Alltyrodyn, Blaendyffryn and Heolddu -were put up for sale by Ann Massey to settle outstanding debts. The mansion was later bought by Captain James Stewart (1830-1908), JP, DL, the second son of Mr Alexander Stewart, of Woodford Hall, Essex. He was a captain in the Royal Madras Horse Artillery and served in the Indian Mutiny. He married Louisa Charlotte Butler, a daughter of James Butler of the Indian Army. His son, Douglas Dormer Stewart, inherited the estate and the house remained with the family until the mid-20th century.
Sale of the Alltyrodyn estates. From Baner ac Amserau Cymru. 3 August 1881. Image: The British Newspaper Archive.Image: Savills.Image: Savills.Image: Savills.Image: Savills.Image: Savills.
These days, events at Alltryodyn are much quieter and has been home to the current owner for many years.
A stunning portico entrance leads through double doors into the grand reception hall with exposed floorboards and a fireplace providing a warm focal point. A door leads off to the left and dining room with fireplace, and views across the front of the house. On the right of the reception hall is the drawing room again with fireplace, full-length mirror in frame and views across the front gardens. A doorway with fan lights over leads through from the hall to the inner hall with moulded stair hall cornice and staircase. On the right of the inner hall is a small reception room/extra bedroom. Beyond is the impressive ball room with cornice, arched recesses each end, flanked by matching display alcoves and built in cupboards and views across the side gardens. On the opposite side of the floor, the inner hall leads past the pantry, a cosy snug/office with fireplace, access to the wine cellar and through to the kitchen breakfast room with white Aga set in stone surround. A scullery and larder are situated off the kitchen together with a side entrance leading to the rear courtyard.
There are fourteen bedrooms in total, offering purchasers an opportunity to acquire one of the famous houses of Wales either as a home and/or to explore other commercial avenues including boutique B&B, hotel, wedding venue etc (of course, subject to planning permission).
HOUSE AND HERITAGE 