Whitchurch and Llandaff Living Issue 68

Grand Designs
Scattered across south Wales is a number of historic mansions and
manors that reflect our ever-changing and industrial heritage
Dyffryn House
The present Dyffryn House
was built in 1893–94 under the
ownership of John Cory, the 19th
century coal-owner and shipowner.
Thomas Mawson, a wellknown
landscape architect and
first president of the Institute
of Landscape Architecture,
was commissioned to design a
garden to complement the new
house; landscaping began in
1894 and was completed in 1909.
The National Trust took over
the running of the estate in 2013.
The gardens host a number
of different styles inspired by
countries from all over the
world, from an Italian influence
in the Pompeiian Garden to the
rainforest-like quality of the
plants in the Exotics Garden.
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Photo: Elliott Brown
Llancaiach Fawr
Located just to the north of the
site of the former Llancaiach
Colliery in the heart of the
Rhymney Valley in South Wales,
is Llancaiach Fawr Manor, a Tudor
manor house. It is thought to
have been built around 1530.
The Manor is considered to be
one of the most important gentry
houses to have survived from
the 16th and 17th century period.
It was heavily involved in events
surrounding the English Civil War
and was designed to be a place
of self-contained refuge if it was
attacked.
It was eventually converted into
a farmhouse and in 1990, was
re-opened as a living museum.
Visitors can see the property as
it would have looked in 1642. It is
considered to be haunted.
Tredegar House
Tredegar House is a 17th-century
Charles II-era mansion on the
southwestern edge of Newport.
For over five hundred years it
was home to the Morgan family,
later Lords Tredegar, one of the
most powerful and influential
families in the area.
The earliest part of the building
dates all the way back to the 15th
century. It was originally built
of stone but in the mid 1600s,
William Morgan decided to
rebuild the property using red
brick, giving it the distinctive look
we see today.
Newport County Council took
over the property in 1974 and was
taken over by the National Trust
in 2011.
Photo: Phillip Halling