About Us - History of Ty-Mawr Farm

A Brief History of Tŷ-Mawr

It is not known exactly when the current house at ‘Tŷ-Mawr’ was built, it has changed ownership, changed names, changed size and changed function, but what is known is that some very influential people have owned it and lived in it.

 

1090s - The Normans Reginald Walbeoffe

The earliest record of the current house is from the 16th Century, but evidence suggests that a house may have existed much earlier.

Theophilus Jones in his “A History of the County of Brecknock” attributes the manor or lordship of Llangasty Talyllyn, at the time of the Norman Conquest, to Gwgan ap Bleddin ap Maenarch, from whom it was taken by Bernard Newmarch and given to Reginald Walbeoffe, a Norman warlord.

It is unclear whether or not this refers to the actual site of the current house, or to the manorial parish of Llangasty Talyllyn. A motte (an earthen castle mound) is situated very close to the house, showing signs of Norman activity in the area immediately surrounding the current house.

Bernard, half-brother to William the Conqueror, led the Norman army at the Battle of Brecon in 1093, during which Rhys ap Tewdwr was killed which meant that the Kingship in Wales ended, hence Bernard became the first ruler of the Lordship of Brecon. The title and lands would remain in his family’s possession until 1521.

 

1520

There was a memorable trial of Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham and first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII, for High Treason in Westminster Hall in 1520. He was executed and his immense estates in Breconshire including The Manor of Llangasty Talyllyn (Tŷ-Mawr) and ownership of the Lake (Llangors Lake) was seized by the Crown.

 

1536

After the Act of Union in 1536, the administration of Wales was divided into shire counties. The Manor of Llangasty Talyllyn, i.e. Talyllyn House also known as Croft Y Yarll, was like many other manors where the house was the centre for the court where local parish disputes were heard and settled. Court rolls survive from courts of Hugh Powell in the 1580s, and later under Edward Williams in the mid-17th Century.

 

1580s

In the 1580s, Tŷ-Mawr, then called Talyllyn House, was owned by Hugh Powell, Lord of the Manor of Llangasty Talyllyn. At this time Powell also resided at the King’s House, next to Salisbury Cathedral. Hugh Powell was High Sheriff of Brecon in 1581.

 

1584

Hugh Powell

In 1584, Powell was involved in a dispute over fishing rights on the lake. He had illegally built weirs which undercut eel traps owned by the proprietor of the fishing rights, who at the time was a woman called Blanche Parry, Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. Being an important servant to Queen Elizabeth I, the court decided that the traps should be demolished and Powell should pay Ms. Parry £5 in damages.

The map below was drawn up in 1584 as part of the court inquiry over the fishing dispute, and are the first documents relating explicitly to the house. It shows what appears to be a large fine house of Elizabethan style on the site. It is depicted with five bays and three stories, gabled over each bay and with four large chimney stacks rising from the valleys between. An impressive two storied entrance occupies the central bay, flanked by columns or pairs of columns with two or three steps leading up to the entrance. The windows on the facade all appear to be of three lights with stone mullions. Many components of the manor house have been found by the current owners including parts of the stone mullions, windows and decorative plasterwork.

The witnesses interviewed included one gentleman who remembers being a servant in the house under Hugh Powell’s father about 50 years before. This suggests that the house had been there and in the Powell family since 1534. The documents of the hearing are kept in the Public Records Office, and the map is reproduced with their permission.

 

1587

Thomas Powell

In Hugh Powell’s will, 1587, he refers to some specific items at Talyllyn House including some silverware, bed curtains and a quilt of crimson taffeta embroidered with his initials and coat of arms in black silk and silver!

He left the Tŷ-Mawr estate to his nephew Thomas Powell. Hugh Powell died at The King’s House, Cathedral Close, Salisbury and he is buried in Salisbury Cathedral. In his will, he left a sum of money to the cathedral towards the fabric and also paid for his coat of arms to be put in a new stained-glass window.

 

1600’s

In 1610, Thomas Powell (Hugh Powell’s nephew) is listed as High Sheriff of Breconshire. His wife Elizabeth is recorded as dying “without issue”. In 1623 Thomas Williams is recorded as Lord of the Manor in the Court. He had gained the estate by marriage to Thomas Powell’s cousin or niece Margaret (the exact relationship is uncertain). Margaret is recorded as “daughter and co heir of William Powell Esq Lord of Tallyllyn” (Leitch, op cit), so it seems that the latter held the manor for some time between Thomas Powell and Thomas Williams tenures. Thomas Williams was the first of three Williams to hold the manor, William Williams and his son Edward who followed, between them held the manor for just over fifty years until 1695.

The William’s family ownership ended with Edward Williams, he was an MP for Brecknock, was Knighted and was the Lord of the Manor for numerous court hearings from 1669-1695. In 1695, he died without an heir, and so the Manor of Talyllyn was left to his sister Rachel.

Some work has been carried out by the current owners in dating some of the older trees, the two oaks (only one now remains after a storm shortly after the current owners moved in) are estimated to date from around 1600-1650. Two large Spanish chestnut trees surviving on the west side of the entrance drive, and which were probably parts of an avenue, are dated c1650-1700. On balance, it appears that a phase of significant planting took place around this time, 1650.

 

1695

Joshua Parry of Llandefailog Tre Graig, a close neighbour of Llangasty Talyllyn, gained the manor in 1695 through his marriage to Edward Williams’ sister Rachel. He was Lord of the Manor until his death in 1729.

A wine-bottle seal with his name on it was unearthed by the current owners during archaeological investigations on the site during the late 1990s. The current owners also have a copy of his signature from his Last Will and Testament.

 

1745

Mary Parry married Richard Davies

In 1745, Mary Parry (grand-daughter of Joshua) married Richard Davies of Cwrt y Gollen. The current owners also have his bottle seal which was found in the excavation, dated 1749.

 

1792

Richard Davies

The Davies family were from Cwrt Y Gollen, near Crickhowell, Powys. They had amassed a considerable estate by the time Richard Davies became proprietor of Talyllyn House.

According to a sale notice from 1794, and adverts in the Hereford Times from 1792, the house was undergoing some building work, in the form of an extension.

The Davies’ sold the house and land in 1794 at Mr. Christie’s auction house at his Great Room in Pall Mall, London. The estate then totalled over 2000 acres. The current owners have a copy of the Sales Particulars which describe the estate as it was then with “numerous attached and detached offices, kitchens, garden, Most delightfully situate on an Eminence, commanding much envied Prospects, with an extensive lawn in the Front thereof, declining to the margins of a beautiful and much celebrated lake”.

It states, the Offices consist of “Coach Houses, Stabling for twenty Horses, Harness Room, Wash House, Laundry etc. and extensive Kitchen Garden, Large Greenhouse and Gardener’s house”.

The sales particulars also identify the canal being constructed just two miles away giving access to ‘coal and lime’– Tŷ-Mawr now is the home to Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd which makes traditional lime mortars and plasters just like the materials used to construct buildings right up until the 1920’s, this was an industry that encouraged the development of the canal network, along with it’s use in agriculture, and there are still several lime kilns along the canals. Tŷ-Mawr Lime has recently supplied lime mortars to repair many of the kilns along the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal and indeed for canal repairs too.

1794

Philip Champion de Crespigny

The De Crespigny family were active socialites among upper-class circles. Philip purchased the house as part of a larger estate including the manors of Llangasty, Talyllyn and Blaenllynfi in 1794. He and his son Charles were occasionally High Sheriffs of Brecon between 1794-1812 Phillip Champion de Crespigny had been MP for boroughs of Sudbury (1774-75 & 1780-81) and Aldeburgh (1780-90) in Suffolk, and was King’s Proctor (attorney) 1768-84. His obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine says he ‘...was very much a man of fashion in his person and demeanor...’

Although Crespigny purchased the Talyllyn estate in 1795 he appears to have rented the house and sporting rights of the manor prior to this date. In a list of certificates granted to gamekeepers published in The Hereford Journal in October 1792, there is one granted to “Thomas Price, Gamekeeper to Philip Crespigny, Esq. for the manors of Tallyllyn, Blaenllynvy and Trostre.

It is also likely that he was responsible for initiating the rebuilding of the house – he seems to have built everywhere he went. Most of the fine architect designed outbuildings and current house (then the service wing) were built or re-modelled at this time. It is probable, though not certain, that the eminent Pembrokeshire-born architect William Thomas was responsible for this work. In 1792 he had advertised in The Hereford Journal for masons to build 2100 perches of park wall in the parish of Talyllyn.

Theophilus Jones, describing the mansion at Tŷ-Mawr in the first years of the 19th century, states that ‘The late Mr Crespigny intended to have rebuilt it entirely on a grand and extensive plan, but after some progress in the work it was stopped’. Correspondence in 1797 makes it clear that Philip had intended to ‘...finish the Mansion and other offices and outbuildings...when this horrid war [the Napoleonic] is put an end to’ (Maybery 4912).

In July 2018, the current owners had a very special visit by Robert Champion de Crespigny, (descendant of Phillip who owned Tŷ-Mawr in 1794). He was shown some atlases that had been gifted to the current owners by a friend, and they, coincidentally, had a name of their former owner on the inside cover, another de Crespigny – de Crespigny Smiley. Robert knew the atlas owner’s son - Xan de Crespigny Smiley so was able to pass the news on that his father’s atlases had rather extraordinarily ended up at Tŷ-Mawr, home to one of his ancestors!

 

1803

Charles Fox Champion de Crespigny

The houses in Westminster and Bath were still in Phillip’s possession, along with the Talyllyn estate and Cathedine House nearby, when he died in 1803. His heir was his son from his fourth marriage, Charles Fox Champion de Crespigny.

 

1810

Perrott Family (Tenants)

From 1800, the de Crespigny family started to lease the building to farming tenants such as William Perrott (from 1810), and this marked the start of its history as a farm house. The diminished importance of the house was probably due to it now being part of a much larger collection of estates accumulated by de Crespigny.

The house was sold in 1838 to James Holford, head of the Buckland Estate. At this point Talyllyn House becomes known as Ty Mawr or “Great House”. It continued to be leased as a farm house to the Perrott family.

From the census records of 1841, we learn that Rees Perrot (son of William) was farming at Tŷ-Mawr with his wife, children and five servants. Of the servants, the youngest was 14, the oldest was 25.

The 1851 census records Gladis Davies was shown as the tenant farmer of 186 acres. She is Rees Perrott’s remarried widow.

 

1861

William Jones (Tenant)

In 1861 and 1871 William Jones and family are the tenants but by the latter date they are only farming 80 acres. He was a farmer, employing 2 men and 1 boy. He had 5 sons and 4 daughters with just 1 servant.

The maps from 1840 and 1887, show a dramatic change in the structural plan. The second, an Ordnance Survey map, shows the structures to be similar in plan as to the ones still standing today. It seems therefore, that at some time between 1840 and 1887 the main manor house was demolished.

The change of name entered on the census returns, from Tŷ Mawr in 1871 to Tŷ Mawr Farm in 1881, may indicate the main part of the house was demolished, leaving only the service wing which forms the current house.

In 1897, Mr. Jones in a County Times article (1969) referred to a ‘big sports meeting... no doubt a Diamond Jubilee Celebration (22nd June 1897) and people came to it from all over the county and beyond’. He raises this by way of explanation for the ‘interesting features’ at Tŷ-Mawr that are still evident today – “a large rectangular plateau of grass…the ridges are archery butts and the plateau a quoits site…..(played with) heavy iron rings”.

 

1920

Jones Family

The Jones family, who had leased the house and land for farming since 1861, purchased the house in 1922 from the Buckland Estate and it would remain in the family up to the 1990s.

The Sales Particulars are less descriptive and exciting compared to those when sold by Christie’s in 1794 but still fascinating.

1990

Brecon Beacons National Park

On the 25th April 1990, the last member of the Jones family to live at Tŷ-Mawr, Alice Patricia Jones, widow of V.G. Jones a well-known Brecon Auctioneer, passed away, aged 86 years. She was buried on the 1st May in St Gastyn’s Church, Llangasty and in the drawers in the study at Tŷ-Mawr, the current owners found the order of service for her funeral.

In 1991, the farm was purchased by the Brecon Beacons National Park.

They resold the farm in lots in 1993 and only one lot was secured by the current owners, which is the house and 45 acres with a management agreement on a further 45 acres (which the Park retain the ownership of).

 

1993

Nigel Gervis & Joyce Morgan- Gervis

Nigel, originally from Essex and Joyce, a local farmer’s daughter, bought it as a family home and knew it would be a life-time’s restoration project. The listed property however, also proved to be the inspiration for their business Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd. On purchasing the property, it was Nigel and Joyce’s intention to restore the building sympathetically and in-line with its architectural heritage but the couple faced one key problem - they couldn’t source appropriate lime mortars and plasters locally! The initial solution was straightforward, using Nigel’s experience, they began making their own.

The potential for expansion was obvious and what started off as a temporary solution for a one-off renovation project soon germinated into a business plan. Utilising Nigel’s background, where he had gained valuable experience of using lime in the eighties and early nineties with Capps and Capps on projects in London and then Wales and then as a self-employed craftsman, and Joyce’s experience in Systems Analysis, project management and rural development, the couple established their own business. In 1995, Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd was born.

 

1995

Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd

Originally, the primary focus was the manufacture of lime-based building materials for the conservation of old and historic buildings. Lime mortars, plasters and paints have subsequently been supplied to some of the most prestigious conservation, restoration and, more laterally new construction projects in Wales and all over the UK. Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd is still the only manufacturer of lime-based products in Wales.

What soon became apparent to Nigel and Joyce was that, just as UK lime production had diminished to almost nothing in the past fifty years, so had the skills and knowledge base required to use such products. With calls coming in on almost a daily basis, asking for advice on product usage and application techniques, Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd established an education arm and in 1996 began offering courses in the use of traditional building materials. These courses have proved to be extremely popular and now attract delegates from all over the world. Concern for the environment, particularly with regards to minimising the impact of buildings on the environment, quickly became an important focus for Nigel and Joyce. It remains one of Tŷ- Mawr Lime Ltd.’s core business principles today. This philosophy is at the heart of the company’s development of an innovative range of environmentally- friendly building materials compatible with ‘breathing building’ principles. The range includes paints and finishes, building boards including woodfibre boards, wood wool boards), as well as insulation products made from Welsh sheep’s wool, hemp and recycled glass. They have developed a number of successful products and systems including the Sublime Insulated Limecrete Floor System, lime hemp plaster and woodfibre plasters, and most recently Tŷ-Bloc, a block made with lime and natural fibres.

The business now operates across three sites and employs 28 people. Nigel and Joyce have received many awards for their work in the traditional and sustainable building fields as well as in their work caring for and restoring Tŷ-Mawr, all of which has attracted Royal attention as well as the interest of politicians and decision makers from across the world. They have exhibited, worked in and even represented Wales at events/undertaking projects in many countries including America, India, Jordan and Italy.

Tŷ-Mawr itself is an on-going restoration project, and provides an excellent example of how Nigel and Joyce practice what they preach. As well as being the couple’s home and business base, the building is also now used extensively as a venue for visits from all sorts of groups concerned with building and the environment.

Nigel and Joyce now have 3 sons, Henry, Harvey and Cai who have spent their whole life growing up helping to repair and care for Tŷ-Mawr and now, they have all left school, they are all working on Ty-Mawr and in the business in various capacities.

Major works have included consolidating and rebuilding parts of the granaries, replacing the entire roof structures using Welsh oak and reclaimed Welsh stone tiles; re-roofing the main house with the reclaimed and painstakingly cleaned Welsh slate (including reinstating the cat slide dormers seen on the photograph below – where they removed the stone tiles – around 1920), installing biomass heating, and the first insulated limecrete floor (under the original flagstones), installing solar thermal panels for hot water, installing a rainwater harvesting system for grey water, as well as replacing modern plaster and paint interventions with the couple’s own plasters, insulating throughout with Welsh Wool Insulation and breathable paints, restoring the buildings health and longevity.

 

The Land

The land is all designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the family work closely with the National Park, Wildlife Trust, Bird Ringers etc. to name a few to ensure that the site is safeguarded, managed and recorded for future generations. Over the last three decades, the meadows in particular, through careful grazing and management have returned to some of the most colourful and diverse in the country, again attracting experts from all over the world who monitor and record the flora, fauna and wildlife. The family take seed annually from the SSSI Meadows which is supplied to local projects and available to buy on line www.lime.org.uk

The family have planted an orchard of 40 plus local apple varieties which they now harvest and juice. The juice is supplied to local pubs and also available to buy on line www.lime.org.uk

Over the last 30 years, the Kitchen Garden has gradually been re-established for small scale food production using organic principles and the no dig method. Growing food now for the family, the many visitors and for delegates who attend the courses.

The family have also established a flock of pedigree Black Welsh Mountain Sheep and a herd of Miniature Shetland Ponies (Llyn Syfaddan Shetland Stud) to help manage the site as conservation grazers and they keep chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and dogs that all play a role in managing and contributing to the sustainability of this special site.