Homes&Interiors
STATELY HOMES WITH HIDDEN HISTORIES A new project is uncovering the secrets of some of our best-loved stately homes and revealing links to everything from royalty and pilgrims to slavery
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team led by experts from Bangor University is to chart the development of four parishes on the borders of Flintshire, Wrexham and Denbighshire through the historic homes and estates of its landed gentry. It will be the first time any area of the UK has been examined in such detail, and its aim is to produce a special online “deep” map that shows Dr Shaun Evans of ISWE the stories not just of the people but also of the landscape from 1500 to 1930 as the homes and ways of life changed. The two-year project is being led by Dr Shaun Evans of the Institute for the Study of Welsh “It will be Estates (ISWE), based at Bangor University. the first Alongside him are Dr Julie Mathias from time any Aberystwyth University and Scott Lloyd and area of the Jon Dollery from the Royal Commission on the UK has been Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales. examined in such detail” Small but significant “This area has an amazing number of these rather fine, relatively small yet longstanding landed estates, the likes of Bodidris, Colomendy, Gelli Gynan, Gwysaney, Nercwys, Rhual and Pentrehobyn,” says Shaun. “There is an immense amount of archive material from these estates, much of it housed in the North East Wales Archives in Hawarden and Ruthin and in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The Grosvenor family, who became the Dukes of Westminster, made much of their early wealth through lead mining in Flintshire, while others earned their fortunes elsewhere and brought back influences.” One of the first homes to be investigated is Pentrehobyn Hall, on the outskirts of Mold. 16th-century Pentrehobyn Hall
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It was built in 1550 by the Lloyd family with the proceeds of mining, textiles and farming – as well as the slave trade. Current owner Teddy Clarke can trace his ancestry back to the Lloyd family, who claimed descent from the legendary Edwin ap Gronwy, Lord of Tegeingl (which includes much of modern Flintshire) in the 11th century. The house still has its original great hall and oak screen partition with the marks of the carpenters’ tools on the wood, although extensions and upper storeys were added later.
Inside Pentrehobyn Hall
Family fortunes
“The family probably made their money through lead mining but the main income now is through letting the land and cottages, and as a wedding venue,” Teddy says. “One of the early owners of The house was built by the Lloyd family the house built a long range of llettau, little rooms where pilgrims on the way to St Winefride’s Well in Holywell could stay the night. The main road from Wrexham to Mold, which was a pilgrim route, ran right past the front door then. There is also a legend that a monk fell asleep beside the driveway and woke up 100 years later – a sort of Welsh Rip Van Winkle.” The project aims to create a Geographical Information System (GIS) on which historic records can be digitised and mapped. The map will incorporate these records and enable information from different archives to be viewed instantly and in combination. Dr Shaun Evans adds: “At the click of a button it will be possible to view and move through a full recorded history of the landscape and its individual features, built up through a layering of records from across the post-medieval period.” November/December 2020 | SHIRE MAGAZINE 51
22/10/2020 21:27