Golden Grove (Carmarthenshire)
Golden Grove ( Welsh Gelli Aur ) is a manor house in Wales . Classified as a Grade II * cultural monument, the property is located approximately 4 km southwest of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire .
history
The Welsh nobleman John Vaughan acquired large parts of the estates of the Welsh nobleman Rhys ap Gruffydd FitzUrien , who had been executed in 1531 for high treason in 1541 and 1546 . In the 1550s and 1560s he had a new manor built not far from the old Dinefwr Castle . The Vaughan family became very wealthy in the 17th century, and in 1628 John Vaughan (1572–1634) was made Earl of Carbery . The old mansion burned down in 1729, under John Vaughan (1693-1765) a new mansion was built in the Georgian style from 1754 to 1757 .
His grandson John Vaughan , who had no male descendants, sold the property to John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor . John Campbell's son John Frederick , who inherited the property after his father's death in 1821, was promoted to Earl Cawdor in 1827 . He commissioned Sir Jeffry Wyatville to rebuild the mansion, which was built between 1826 and 1831. Since Wyatville was also rebuilding Windsor Castle for the king at the same time and also accepted other construction contracts, the construction work dragged on for seven years until the stables were completed in 1834. The house remained in the possession of the Campbell family until the 1930s, when they moved back to Nairnshire . During the Second World War, US Air Force units were housed in the house. In 1952 the property was leased to Carmarthen County Council . Until 2003 it served as part of the Gelli Aur Campus of Coleg Sir Gar , a state agricultural school. In 1976, the county council also acquired the adjacent 24 acre park to open it up as a country park. Because of the high maintenance costs, Carmarthen County Council sold the mansion and park again in 2011. The building and park are currently being renovated and the park is only accessible to a limited extent.
investment
The spacious property is located in parkland on a hill north of the Afon Tywi . The main access is from the village of Golden Grove. The mansion was built in neo- Tudor style with influences from the Scottish baronial style, it resembles Lillieshall in Salop , which Wyatville built at the same time for the Duke of Sutherland , who is related to the Earl of Cawdor . The complex consists of the manor house, an adjacent square clock tower, the lower utility wing and the stables around an inner courtyard.
The property is built from dark limestone. The large manor house has two main floors above a high basement. To the north and south it has a double stepped gable, on the other sides the steep slate roof is partially covered by a parapet. On the south side, the house has an open entrance porch with decorative battlements. There is a tall, square clock tower on the southwest corner, otherwise the house is symmetrical. The interior is located around a central, domed staircase with skylights. The representative rooms on the ground floor are paneled with wood and have marble fireplaces and stucco ceilings in Jacobean style . At the time of construction in the 1830s, the house was state-of-the-art and had heating and flush toilets. The mansion is adjoined by a western economic wing, offset by 30 degrees and also built in the Neo-Tudor style. The two-story building is lower than the main building and has a flat slate roof. An originally planned east wing, which would have completed the symmetry, was never built. To the west of the economic wing are the former stables around an inner courtyard in the simple Neo-Tudor style.
The garden south of the house is laid out as a formal terrace garden with a view of the river. The old mansion of the Vaughan family was near the present summer house, about 600 m from the present mansion. Only the garden wall remains of the house. The surrounding park was initially laid out in the 1560s as a deer park measuring over 160 hectares. In the 19th century, the area around the house was converted into a landscaped garden that still contains an 8 hectare deer enclosure . Around 1860 a 4 hectare arboretum was created in the park , including a coastal redwood tree , monterey pines , Lebanon cedars and other trees and shrubs.
literature
- Thomas Lloyd; Julian Orbach; Robert Scourfield: Buildings of Wales. Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Yale University Press, New Haven 2006. ISBN 0-300-10179-1 , pp. 199-201
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ British Listed Buildings: Golden Grove, Llandeilo. Retrieved May 17, 2015 .
- ↑ BBC News Wales: Gelli Aur Country Park reopens to the public. Retrieved November 11, 2015 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 51 ′ 33.1 ″ N , 4 ° 2 ′ 15 ″ W.