Researching, Writing & Presenting Welsh Country House Histories Conference

To open the conference, Dr Shaun Evans, Director of ISWE, gave a fascinating overview of how Welsh gentry family histories have been recorded and presented over the centuries. Dr Evans begun by emphasizing the centrality of ancestry in Welsh gentry culture, and how boneddigion in the early modern period displayed their noble pedigree in the form of manuscripts, heraldry, portraiture, and funeral monuments. His paper also covered the new wave of ancestral patriotism in Wales in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when ancient and new families commissioned family history monographs. Moving into the twentieth century, Dr Evans discussed the academic study of country houses in Wales and the general works on Welsh gentry culture and the Welsh country house, including Houses of Welsh Countryside by Peter Smith, published in 1975; the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales’s volume on the greater houses of Glamorgan, published in 1981; and The Lost Houses of Wales by Thomas Lloyd, who was in attendance, published in 1986. And while Wales may not have as many general works on country houses as England, Scotland, Ireland and other parts of Europe, Dr Evans highlighted a recent boom in the production of works centred on individual country houses in Wales, demonstrating that there is a rich literature on the subject.

Next we heard from Dr Elizabeth Siberry from the Brecknock Society and Eliane Wigzell from Crickhowell District Archive, two of the co-authors of Great Houses of Crickhowell. The book tells the stories of five of great country houses and estates in the Crickhowell area - Cwrt y Gollen, Dan y Parc, Glanusk, Gwernvale, and Llangattock Park – and includes a number of illustrations which are being published for the first time. Dr Siberry’s paper discussed the life and career of novelist Julia Stretton (1812-1878), who is linked with Dan y Parc as well as Maesllwch Castle and Brynderwen, and was an excellent demonstration of how research into Welsh country houses can illuminate other aspects of Welsh life and culture such as literature and theatre. Eliane’s paper discussed one of the case studies in the book, Glanusk, focusing on its builder, the ironmaster Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), and the rapid building of what quickly became the largest and most prominent estate in Breconshire. Eliane described one of her main challenges as writing a character assessment of Bailey, as there are so many conflicting contemporary descriptions of him. In order to overcome this challenge, she examined the material culture associated with him, including the roundhouses he built at Nant-y-glo to protect himself and his ironworks from the threat of revolt by his workforce, the enormous house he built and estate he established at Glanusk, the other properties he purchased such as Hay Castle and Llangoed Hall, and the busts and portraits he commissioned of himself and his family, to form a picture of a politically and socially ambitious man; ‘he didn’t want to change the world; he was trying to take his place in an old-world order’ she explained. Glanusk is the only estate in the book which remains in the ownership of the original family, is still intact, and still plays a central role in the local economy, which makes the fact that there are so many misconceptions in the local community about when the house was constructed and demolished all the more interesting.

The third paper of the day was given by Jonathan Williams, a descendant of the Williams family of Penpont who has been researching the house and estate for over thirty years. While Jonathan raised some of the challenges of working on a research project over an extended period, such as changing methodologies, he also highlighted some of the benefits. For example, certain archival materials which appeared to be insignificant on first viewing may become hugely significant years later when considered in conjunction with other documents. Jonathan’s main message was that the vast estates and communities associated with Welsh country houses were equally as important as the houses themselves and the families who owned and occupied them; similarly, that landmark events in its history are ‘not the whole story’ and that ‘the many accumulative, small changes in between are just as important’. Jonathan demonstrated this in his paper by considering how the Penpont estate expanded and shrunk with the purchase and sale of land, often in quick succession.

After lunch, we heard from ISWE doctoral researcher Bethan Scorey, whose main research interest is architectural history and how Welsh gentry culture and the Welsh consciousness manifested itself in the design of gentry houses in the early modern period. Bethan presented her research on the early history of St Fagans Castle, which is the most obscure part of the Elizabethan house in Cardiff’s history. Though there is very limited archival material relating to the builder of St Fagans Castle, lawyer Dr John Gibbon (d.1581), Bethan demonstrated how she combined insights from this material with primary analysis of the house, as well as putting the building in its local and national design context, to suggest some encoded meanings in its design. Rather than attempting to ‘read’ the building and find the ‘correct’ interpretation, which can never be retrieved, Bethan suggested a number of possible ‘translations’. For example, the lack of heraldry and defensive elements, and the fact that the Elizabethan house was divorced from the ruins of the thirteenth century castle on which it stood, may be an attempt by Gibbon to emphasise that he was removed from the feudal past and to present ‘an alternative image of gentility’. Meanwhile, the lack of Classical ornament may have been an attempt by Gibbon not to ‘build above his station’ as a newly-wealthy lawyer.

Fellow ISWE doctoral researcher Sara Fox gave an insightful paper on the process of creating Middleton Hall: A History, the monograph produced by the National Botanic Garden of Wales as part of their Regency Restoration grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Sara described her contribution as editor and the process of working with a team of volunteer researchers, as well as practical considerations such as obtaining images and the design of the book, and language considerations such as using correct and current terminology and incorporating the Welsh translation. One of Sara’s main concerns was being transparent about the Middleton, Adams and Paxton families’ links to colonization and the Atlantic slave trade, and putting the house in its global context.

The final paper of the second session was delivered by Dr Martin Cherry from Discovering Old Welsh Houses. Dr Cherry explained how the group run targeted tree-ring dating programmes, supplementing their scientific findings with historical research to place early Welsh vernacular houses in their broader context, and how this offers a different entry point for studying the early houses of the uchelwyr. Dr Cherry described the potential of tree-ring dating to reveal housebuilding trends in Wales in the late-medieval and early modern periods if sufficient numbers of houses are dated, making a plea for greater investment in such large-scale projects. He also discussed how tree-ring dating is helping to identify a new house type distinct from the open hall with cruck truss, houses of prosperous yeomen farmers where a ceiling was inserted in the open hall during construction or shortly afterwards.

Dr Mary Oldham, who recently completed her PhD at ISWE, sadly couldn’t be with us at the conference, but Dr Shaun Evans gave an excellent summary of her doctoral project on the Gregynog estate in Montgomeryshire. Dr Oldham, who recently retired as Gregynog’s Librarian, was motivated to undertake her project by the fact that the earlier history of the hall and estate has been somewhat eclipsed by twentieth century events, namely the arrival of the remarkable sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies who established Gregynog as a cultural centre in Wales. Resident in Montgomeryshire, Dr Oldham noticed that local people still felt a strong attachment to Gregynog, and her project explored this relationship between community and estate. She deliberately interrogated the narrative of tenants and landowners in conflict in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, demonstrating that Gregynog doesn’t fit neatly into this pattern. Moreover, she used archival material such as estate rent and cashbooks to highlight the contribution of people who are usually overlooked in country house histories, including female agricultural labourers and carriers, as well as tracing families who remained tenants of the estate over several generations. Afterwards, Dr Siberry, Trustee of the Gregynog Charitable Trust who took over the management of the hall and estate in 2019, discussed the futureof Gregynog. She emphasised the scale and complexity of the 750-acre estate, which is national nature reserve and a site of special scientific interest, and possesses a Grade II*-listed house, Grade I-listed gardens, a reservoir, and ancient oaks. The Trust’s main goal is to ensure that Gregynog remains a cultural centre for arts, music and education in Wales; they have already received grants for the restoration of the walled garden and for improving signage in the grounds, and have submitted a bid for a grant to repair the roof. ‘Building the history of the past has been key to planning for the future’ explained Dr Siberry, crediting Dr Oldham for her significant contribution.

Finally, Gerald Morgan was invited to give closing remarks and recommendations for future directions. Dr Evans introduced Gerald by emphasising the significant contribution he has made to the study of Welsh country houses, especially through his three landmark publications: A Welsh House and its Family: The Vaughans of Trawsgoed; Nanteos: House of History; and Dinefwr: A Phoenix in Wales. Gerald gave a fascinating overview of the research and writing process of each, highlighting challenges such as the disappearance of knowledge and artefacts with the passing of family members and the dispersal of country house collections all over the world. Moving on to recommendations for future directions, Gerald identified the loss and revival of the Welsh language among gentry families as a subject which required attention, as well as religious rifts between gentry families and their tenants.

One of the recurring themes throughout the day was the importance of pedigree in Welsh gentry culture. Following Dr Shaun Evans’s opening paper, an interesting conversation took place on the subject of ‘invented’ pedigrees. Dr Evans emphasised that ‘it didn’t matter whether parts of the pedigree were subject to creative fashioning’ and that what mattered was that the families wholeheartedly believed they were descended from heroic Welsh figures, while some audience members stressed that the extent to which these pedigrees were invented has probably been overexaggerated anyway. How these pedigrees manifested themselves in material culture which provided tangible links to the past was another recurring theme – for example, Dr Siberry discussed how Henry Hanbury Tracy (1801-1889) rebuilt Gregynog in its present form in the 1840s, but retained the Jacobean Blayney room full of heraldic carvings. This highlights how interesting it was that a newly-wealthy gentleman like Dr John Gibbon chose not to incorporate heraldry in the design of his house at St Fagans, as discussed in Bethan’s paper, and how ironic it was that the traditional uchelwr family who purchased the house in the Jacobean period, the Lewises of Y Fan, proceeded to fill it with heraldic ornament.

The conference also emphasised how country houses and their collections provide gateways to other aspects of Welsh history, and how they can reveal more about the lives of ordinary Welsh people, not just the families who owned and occupied them, as emphasised by Dr Oldham, Jonathan Williams and Gerald Morgan in their respective papers.  Eliane Wigzell’s study of the Glanusk estate is impossible to separate out from the industrial history of the Nant-y-glo ironworks; Jonathan Williams pointed out that the use of archives relating to the history of land management provides essential insights into the environmental history of Wales; and Dr Martin Cherry’s study of timber-framed buildings offered perspectives on the traditional management of trees and woodlands.  The papers also highlighted the fact that material culture associated with country houses can be found beyond the estate boundaries, from memorials and stained-glass windows in parish churches, to clock towers and fountains in town squares.

Several speakers stressed the importance of not looking at country houses in isolation but as part of a network. For example, Eliane Wigzell was able to demonstrate how large and elaborate Glanusk House was by comparing it with other country houses in the area, while Dr Martin Cherry demonstrated the potential of tree-ring dating a large cross-sample of houses to reveal key regional building trends. Similarly, Gerald Morgan stressed that when researching a Welsh country house, it is important to look at the archives of neighbouring or associated estates. There are certainly links between Welsh country houses which have yet to be made.

The popularity of country houses in Wales as heritage attractions and event venues, and their prominence in popular culture, including books, podcasts, and television shows, demonstrates that they still have a strong emotional pull in our culture. Dr Shaun Evans observed that there is often somewhat of a disconnect between this public appreciation of country houses and the lack of political support and strategic heritage policy centred on their preservation and cultural prospering for the benefit of future generations, giving Llancaiach Fawr and Plas Tan y Bwlch as current examples. When asked how we can endeavour to ensure sustainable futures for these buildings and their associated landscapes and collections, Dr Evans emphasised the importance of building coalitions of academic institutions, custodians, owners, and local and national organisations who can work together to make the case for these sites.

We would like to extend  our thanks to the Brecknock Society and Crickhowell District Archive for their role in organising the conference and our congratulations on the publication of Great Houses of Crickhowell. We would also like to thank our speakers for such enlightening talks and attendees for their enthusiasm and their questions throughout the day. 

(Authored by Bethan Scorey)