The History of Tŷ Mawr Country Hotel
The History of Tŷ Mawr Country Hotel.
Architectural Drawing from the conversion project in 1974
The History of Tŷ Mawr Country Hotel.
One of the oldest buildings in Brechfa is the 17th Century “Tŷ Mawr” (Big House) now the Tŷ Mawr Country Hotel. It probably dates from the 16th Century and is now a Grade 2 listed building, scheduled by the Welsh Office as a building of Historical and Architectural interest. Initially a large L shaped house with a large gable end chimney stack, it has been changed into a hotel and restaurant but still retains many of the original features, including the large steps in the courtyard for horse mounting.
The building changed hands several times but until it was sold by Auction in 1973 it had remained in the ownership of the Tregeyb Estate from the 1800’s when it was the property of Gwynne Hughes (Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire) with the last owner being Shelia Dunsany, the art collector and fashion connoisseur, of Dunsany Castle. In 1822 the Gwynne Hughes family built the first bridge over the River Marlais -known locally as Pont Tymawr, and this was paid for from their own pocket.
The hotel is in the middle of Brechfa village which is hidden in the Cothi valley (famous for the wonderful red kites), north east of Carmarthen. Since the 6th century it has been the heart of the community, becoming wealthy by the noblemen who came to hunt in the Brechfa Forest nearby who were accommodated in the village, and by the collection of tolls on the turnpikes. Brechfa Forest is still a working forest of 18,000 acres. It is excellent for many walks, horse riding and mountain biking, with trails of varying difficulty for visitors to experience.
In 1842 John Williams Gwynne Hughes of Tregeyb became the owner and kept the Tregeyb estate hounds in kennels at the back of the main building.
In 1844 the tenant of Tŷ Mawr was a Thomas Andrews, who also farmed the 48 acres that went with the building. Mr & Mrs Caleb Chivers were the next tenants, and they built the Chemical works near the village (as well as several others) which provided work for many people living at Brechfa from the mid-19th century up to the end of the First World War.
Going through the census returns the figure of Caleb Chivers looms large. He is an interesting character. He was a manufacturing chemist born in Neath in 1819 but living at the time of his marriage in 1842 in Llandybie. Presumably, he moved to Brechfa around that time which is interesting because it was when the Rebecca Riots were active. One of the Rebecca Riots key demands was that the transportation of lime be free from tolls and he may have been manufacturing quicklime by burning limestone (a theory).
His father Samuel was in the same profession. Over a seventy-year period up until the Great War the family company made, amongst other things, gunpowder, acetates, naphita and wood distillation products aswell as the Brechfa Oil and Chemical Works (“the world`s first oil refinery “), it has been referred to as the Texas of Wales.
Samuel ran the Carmarthen Chemical Works which prospered until the 1880’s and had interests in Pontypridd and Ammanford. He was 22 years old when he began his time in Brechfa. The house was very near to his works which were situated at the back of the Forest Arms. In the 1851 census he was still living at Tŷ Mawr with his wife and four children Emily, Mary, Charles and Charlotte, in addition there were two servants and his brother in law.
The Chivers family remained at Ty Mawr until 1861. Whilst they were living there several storms caused severe flooding and a tree stuck in the arch of the Tŷ Mawr bridge flooded the house itself. So much so that the Chivers family almost drowned as the water was almost to ceiling height. During the summer of 1935, another storm and cloud bursts to the North of Brechfa, causing more flooding to the downstairs of the house and completely covered the garden.
In the 1930’s, a camp was built in Brechfa forest for unemployed workers from the South Wales valleys, during the Great Depression. These camps were run by the Ministry of Labour and the workers were sent to build roads for the Forestry Commission. Once unemployment improved and the threat of war became a real concern, the camp was used for Basque refugees from the Spanish Civil War. These refugees were housed in 1937/1938 although the conditions were extremely poor. 76 children were housed at Cynarth camp at Brechfa with only 4 staff-two of them being college graduates. So, you can imagine the shock of these young boys being taken from an industrialized city like Bilbao to a remote camp in the forest with no schooling or planned activities. It is not surprising the feelings of the local people were mixed. Some sympathized with the plight of these refugees and others considered them a menace. On one occasion a visitor from Yorkshire found his car surrounded by these youths and there was a shouting match and a scuffle. Later the boys returned to the village with knifes and sticks and smashed the windows of the Inn where the visitor was staying and stones were thrown at the neighboring thatched cottage-which was Ty Mawr. There was much discussion of what should happen to these children, but things calmed down and from an expected stay of 3 months some stayed over a year or longer. Some of the Brechfa women sent a weekly supply of food and clothing to the camp, the local cinema gave free passes to the refugees to his films, and even the tinplate workers of Llanelli paid one penny of their wages to help the refugees. The camp closed in 1938 and only 416 of the original 4,000 children were still in Britain, as most of the others had returned to Spain. Some of the children remained in Wales for the rest of their lives.
It is hard to imagine but this tiny village was once the home of the oil industry. In 1933 Oil was obtained from the small oaks that grow there and the men and women brought the oak wood into ovens in 2 lengths of one yard each. After 12 hours it came out as charcoal. The vapours from the ovens went through pipes through a pond, acting as a water condenser. The vapours could be condensed into tar, & water & oil, which were put into sumps-then pumped into vats and mixed with lime. After being churned (as one would do butter), it first was allowed to settle, then it was boiled. It then became vapour again and eventually after several more processes, a light oil was produced. Uses for this oil had was in a blow lamp to singe horses and to burn old paint off doors, as well as pitch, which was run out as tar and cooled. During the war, the oil works were valuable to the War Office in the productions of munitions. The power used in these works was water and the big wheel still stands there today. Now there are a variety of shrubs and flowers growing there due to the oil rich soil.
During the Rebecca Riots in 1843, when the workers regaled against rising tolls and taxes, the Dragoons were brought to West Wales to quell the rioters, and they were stationed here at Tŷ Mawr. The chief in charge of the Dragoon’s was the Welsh lord Rhys who lived at Dryslwyn castle. at Sadly the same Light Dragoons, in 1854, eleven years later, rode to their deaths at Balaclava during the Crimean War.
During 1857 to 1868, Tŷ Mawr was opened as a grammar school but by 1871 the census shows 4 families were living here and in the 19th century it showed as three families living at Tŷ Mawr. There is also information showing between at least 1861 and 1911 Tŷ Mawr Cottage was occupied by two generations of the Jones family. First by William Jones, his wife Hester and their son Seimon (Simon). He worked as a labourer in the Chemical works as did his son. By 1881 William aged 80 was a widower, still described as a labourer in the works, and living with his son and Hannah his daughter in law in Tŷ Mawr. The 1911 census, completed entirely in Welsh, gives the number of rooms in the house as four, so much of the present building must have been used for other purposes or perhaps was made up of several different cottages (another theory).
During the time of the Industrial Revolution in South Wales, a lot of timber was removed from Tŷ Mawr to provide fuel and materials for the revolution.
Several famous people have been born or lived at Brechfa including Thomas Evans Jeremy (Welsh Mormon history), Kare Baille (writer & travel guide author), Richard Boothby (musician)and Lynne Denman (singer with Ffynnon rock group). Tŷ Mawr has housed a number of gentries from many areas of the United Kingdom who come for the fishing on the Cothi river and the game shooting in Brechfa Forest. More recently other guests that stayed at Tŷ Mawr included Imelda Staunton and partner Jim Carter from Downton Abbey, Port Talbot-born comic Rob Brydon, Men Behaving Badly star Caroline Quentin and former BBC newsreader Sara Edwards.
In 1970 Tŷ Mawr was deemed as unsuitable for habitation and the tenants left due to poor sanitation and bad state of repair. In 1973 the property was sold at the Church Hall for £10,000 to Mr & Mrs C. D. Ross of Camberley, Surrey.
In 1974 plans were submitted to change the use into a Residential Hotel & Restaurant with bars, and this was approved. The Ross’ rebuilt Tŷ Mawr -invoice of all the works agreed on which reached a total of £42,560.00.
In 1976 Tŷ Mawr opened and an advert was put in the Sunday Times
It is interesting to see an invoice dated 30/04/1976 from the second people to stay at Tŷ Mawr, dinner, bed and breakfast including wine & early morning tea for 2 nights at a total cost of £50.79. Note VAT was only 8% then.
It was known as quite the place to be with people travelling from all over South Wales to come and enjoy lunch, dinner and a stay. There was one businessman who used to frequent with his chauffeur who enjoyed lunch while his chauffeur sat waiting in the car!
After 10 years, in 1986, Tŷ Mawr was sold to Mr & Mrs Flaherty, and in 1987 they changed the stables bar to a commercial kitchen.
Room 1 of Tŷ Mawr at one time was used by a weaver, one of the residents of Brechfa Village, and the beam and fixings are still visible in that room. The descendants of that weaver still live in Brechfa village including an old team member; Sophie Davies.
There was a time when a few rooms were rented to one of the villagers and was a bakery. The baker applied for planning permission to change the use of the corrugated building next door to Ty Mawr from residential to bakery (in 1999) but this was refused. In 2000 Tŷ Mawr applied for planning permission for a car park at the rear of the property, but this was refused due to poor visibility for traffic joining the main road. Also, in 2000 the baker applied to use the Villa (corrugated structure) as a wholesale bakery and permission was granted as long as there were no direct sales as there was no room for cars to pull in. The agreement was that the baker would take the bread to the village shop to be sold from there. However, although permission was granted-the proposal was never carried forward and completed.
There was a small brewery installed and people were able to buy the local brew rather like at a gentleman’s club and was served through a window at the front of the property.
In 2005 the old stables became a new addition of rooms 5 & 6 with the removal of the downstairs ladies and gents’ toilets, and more parking at the front.
Brechfa village has an active community with a good mix of Welsh/English inhabitants. The community shop is excellent and well supported with a wide range of goods and produce.
The beef used here is the Welsh Black from Fferm Tyllwyd just 3 miles away, which is one of the oldest breeds in Britain. They were here having inhabited the hills of Wales since pre-Roman and pre-Christian times. When the ancient Britons were retreating from Saxon invaders, the most valuable item was the Welsh Black. In the 18th century to get the best price for them, the Welsh Black had to be transported far away to London. As there were no railways yet, the cattle had to walk.
Things have moved on from there, but the Welsh Black are still here along with other local producers providing local honey, jams, marmalades and chutneys, various pottery items, silk scarves, hand made metal objects and wonderful hand painted chocolates.
All available at Tŷ Mawr during your stay, with first class service and wonderful food.