1810 – 1836:
The following account of the history of Ynys Las has been researched and compiled using a number of resources, such as:- Tithe maps, Journals, newspaper articles and various books, a full list of resources can be seen at the end of the article under References and Resources.
On carrying out the research for the article, I found there was not much information readily available in the resources I used, and I was only able to find a small number of old photos of the house. As the house was not the 2nd Earl of Dunravens main residence and was only used when he went hunting, it can be assumed that there is little evidence of his time in the village existing. It would require a full trawl through all his paperwork to find more information of his time at Ynys Las.
Built high on a plateau above the river Neath, and a few hundred yards behind St Mary’s Church, or Y Capel Bach as it was called then, sits Ynys Las Cottage. This article will look at what was once one of the main residencies in Blaengwrach, being built in 1810 and demolished in the 1950’s.
Many of the residents of the village may not be familiar with Ynys Las, after all, it has now been demolished for over 67 years (2022), way before the majority of the people of the village were born. It was also tucked away at a secluded part of the village, and being guarded by a gate and Gate house meant that even the older generation may not have been familiar with its history.
The cottage was built by Windham Henry Quin, the 2nd Earl of Dunraven in 1810. He also purchased a vast swathe of land in the area. Along with a few other land owners, the land he purchased lay between the river Neath and the base of Craig y Llyn and between the brooks Nant Gwrach and the brook Nant Gwrelych in Pontwalby.
The house started life as a Hunting lodge or Shooting Box for the Earl to pursue his love of hunting. Then in 1839, it was leased by the Williams family of Aberpergwm, and turned into a residential property. We will cover it’s use over its 140 year history, and will explore the life of it’s most famous resident’s, which includes the original owner the 2nd Duke of Dunraven who had the house built, and especially it’s links to Maria Jane Williams the famous musician and author of the collections of local South Wales songs and Airs in 1844 under the title “Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg”.
First a little about the Earl:
Windham Henry Quin the 2nd Earl of Dunraven and Mount Earl was born on the 29th September 1782 and died aged 67 on the 6th August 1850. He was the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Dunraven, Valentine Richard Quin and his wife Lady Frances Muriel Fox-Strangeways. He married his wife Lady Caroline Wyndham, daughter and Heiress of Thomas Wyndham of Dunraven Castle on the 27th December 1810.
The title Earl of Dunraven was chosen by his father the 1st Earl of Dunraven in honour to his sons wife Lady Caroline Wyndham who was the heiress of the Dunraven family..
He was a member of parliament from 1806 to 1820, representing County Limerick in the House of Commons and he also sat in the House of Lords from 1839 until his death in 1850.
His ancestral home was Adare Manor in County Limerick, Ireland. After his marriage he lived at Dunraven castle, which is situated by the coast at Southerndown, close to Bridgend in the Vale of Glamorgan. By the 1830’s the Earl along with his wife were living at Adare House.
It has also been suggested that he also used Ynys Las for more nefarious reasons. It was well known at the time that the 2nd Earl of Dunraven would meet Maria Jane Williams from Aberpergwm manor there for what he called “their blisses”[1]. This is backed up by the fact she spent two months in Ireland at the Earl’s ancestral home Adare Abbey in 1826 and came back at the end of the summer with a newborn baby. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, and will write a more detailed article of the extraordinary life of Maria Jane Williams at a later date.
By the 1830s Windham Henry Quin, the 2nd Earl of Dunraven, had developed a crippling and painful case of gout. Once an active outdoorsman and now largely confined indoors, his time for hunting was over. His wife encouraged him to transform Adare Manor into a spectacular masterpiece, that would be based after the great houses and cathedrals of Europe, in the hopes that working on the plans alongside the architect would take his mind off the Gout he was suffering from.
Out of interest, the house he helped design and had built is called a calendar house, it had 365 leaded windows, 52 ornate chimneys, 7 stone pillars and 4 towers to correspond to the amount of days, weeks, and seasons in a year.
See link below for more information on Adare Manor.
So quite a respected and historical figure to have a connection with our small community, even if it was for only a short time.
With the 2nd Earl of Dunraven move back to Ireland, this left Ynys Las empty.
Ynys Las Cottage design:
A hunting lodge is a small country property specifically used for organising hunting parties. It can also be called a shooting box or shooting lodge. It is where the Earl would have invited his family, friends and acquaintances to join him to enjoy the thrills of the hunt.
There is some thought that Ynys-Las could have been designed by John Nash the famous designer of Rheola House which he built between 1812 and 1814, but to date there is no written evidence to back up this assumption.
Ynys Las was a three story stone built house, it has a veranda to the South of the house, very ornate chimneys, and was set in beautiful gardens. There was a dairy integral to the building and about 100 yards to the North East of the house sat stables and a few cottages. The photo below shows that at some stage the grounds also has two tennis courts.
Peter Ricketts MBE who lived in the new Gate house for many years, and had a close link to Ynys Las, as he used to shelter in its basement during wartime air raid warnings. In his memoirs which you can find on this website he explains the layout of the house. For more of Peter’s memories on the website click here.
Peter explains:
The house consisted of two main structures, the rectangular section across the rear and the semicircular section at the front with the additional square single storey addition to the right hand side of the semicircular part of the building.
The main front door is on the eastern side of the rectangular part of the building with a zinc canopy which can be seen protruding from the main building. A similar pattern canopy was built over the three glass french doors on the semicircular part, two can be seen [n the photo] with the third further around on the left hand side.
The window above the single storey addition, was at the head of a curved stairway, from near the front door to the upper floor. The two windows in the upper curved section were for the main bedroom. The roof projection to the left of the main building was the end of the rectangular part of the main building. The front of the curved part of the building was paved with two flights of steps down to the tennis court.
The basement was used as the servants quarters and kitchen. At the time of Mary Jane Williams and her brother and sister living there, there were 11 servants working at Ynys Las [2], including what was assumed to be her daughter Fanny Baker (b 1826).
The ground floor was made up of living rooms, and as was typical for a hunting lodge, it probably had a room to store the guns and ammunition, and another room for hanging up the game caught whilst hunting.
The first floor would have been given over to bedrooms for the 2nd Earl of Dunraven and his hunting guests.
Ynys Las situation:
Ynys-Las itself sat just a few hundred yards behind St. Mary’s church and was accessed by a gate on the bend going into Church Crescent. There was a Lodge for the gatekeeper to Ynys Las, it sat on the left hand side of the small road leading up to Ynys Las. This Lodge was demolished in 18?? to make way for the new colliery screen and the Railway siding at Glynneath Station and the road that came under the Two Bridges and up into the village.
The original Lodge was replaced by a similarly designed Lodge (Ty Gwyn) built on the right hand side of the road leading up to Ynys Las, which still can be seen to this day, and where the Rickett family lived in the 50’s and 60’s. For many years you could identify the place where the original Lodge and gardens were, from the trees and bushes that used to grow in the garden [3].
Hunting at the time:
In order to hunt you need a lot of open countryside, and Blaengwrach and the surrounding area at this time was very sparsely populated. Blaengwrach was a much more rural area in the early 19th Century.
There were only a small number of farmsteads that clung to the mountain sides with a few larger farms on the valley floor. In 1833 there were only 51 houses in the parish of Blaengwrach [4], and the village of Cwmgwrach had yet to be built.
There was a large expanse of land called Hirwaun Wrgant (the Long Meadow – Y Waun Hir – Hirwaun), laying above the river Neath up to the base of Craig y Llyn, and between the villages of Mountain Ash and Blaengwrach, a distance of approximately ten miles. (Ed. note:This land in earlier times was designated as common land.)
Most of the land between the Nant Gwrach brook and Nant Gwerlich was owned by the 2nd Earl of Dunraven – so there was plenty of room for the Earl to enjoy the hunt.
The 2nd Earl of Dunraven probably joined in the hunting of foxes that took place in the area, where the foxes were a continual nuisance, killing lambs and chickens on the local farms. The other option was to hunt deer which until the early 19th century a few could still be found above the village and on the slopes of Craig Y Llyn.
A few miles from the Ynys-Las there was a famous hunting dog pack based at Beili-Glas farm, which sat above the Nant Gwrerlych brook, and maybe the Earl and his friends joined these hunts. The Master of the Rhigos Foxhounds during this time was a Morgan Philips Rees who later resided at Belli Glas [5]. There was also a dog kennel attached to Clun y Bont farm.
Hunting was a popular sport amongst the landed gentry and in the Belcham book “About Aberpergwm” [6] there is mention of one of the son’s hunting hares and woodcocks on the Williams estate and sending them to his father who was resident in London. Another comment from the same book refers to the amount of rabbits caught on the estate over a period of 18 months in 1869/70, where 429 rabbits were accounted for.
There is a story from 1902 of a hunt taking place from Tynewydd in Hirwaun, that rose a fox at Pentyrch farm and chased it for 10 miles until it went to ground near Glynneath railway station. This story was not to have a happy ending, as on their return journey they went close to Carn y Maesau (the highest point in Glamorgan) when the hounds turned off the path and found the body of a small child, William Llewellyn, who had been missing from Aberdare for a few day’s.
Fox hunting was to continue into the mid 20th century and many a resident of the village would have remembered hearing the hunting horn call’s from the hunt into the 1960’s, I certainly remember them well.
Fox hunting in England and Wales was to come to an end on the 18th February 2005.
The Williams family at Ynys Las:
1836 – 1873:
On the marriage of William Williams in 1837, the eldest son of the five siblings of Rhys Williams Snr., the other brothers and sister’s of William had to find new places to live.
To this end, and in preparation for the coming wedding, Ynys Las was leased from the 2nd Earl of Dunraven in 1836. This enabled both the spinster sisters, Maria Jane Williams (1795 – 1873) along with her elder sister Elizabeth Ann (1794 – 1871) to move into Ynys Las together. They were to live there for the rest of their lives.
Thomas Williams (1793 – 1861) the brother of William moved to Somerset in 1837 and became the Stipendiary Curate at Hinton Bluet, but, by 1838, he had moved to a living in Tir y Cwm, Ystradgynlais. In later life he also moved into Ynys Las on the death of his wife in 1859, and passed away there a few years later in 1861.
By all accounts the two sisters played a full and active part in village life, and were known in the village as “Ladis y Cottage”. They both religiously supported the local church of St. Mary’s, (Yr Capel Bach) with Elizabeth Anne becoming the Churchwarden for many years. The Merthyr Telegraph reported on the 13th April 1861, that Miss Williams had been re-appointed Churchwarden, and that, “at her own expense, she had purchase a very handsome iron gate, with pillars, which had, on Saturday, been placed at the entrance into the churchyard” [7].
They were both Welsh speaking, Blaengwrach being a monoglot hamlet at the time, as confirmed in the infamous Blue Books [8]. They also supported Welsh culture through their music, dress code and keeping alive Welsh traditions.
In older age they were increasingly involved with the keeping of a few cows for milk and cheese which they produced in the dairy attached to Ynys Las. They were also to keep a small kitchen garden where they grew their own produce, which made them self sufficient and enabled them to sell any surplus [9].
Elizabeth Anne Williams: (1794 – 1871)
Elizabeth Anne was not as flamboyant as her sister but nevertheless supported her sister in every aspect of her endeavours. She became the Church warden for St. Mary’s for many years. As Churchwarden she supported the upkeep and burial ground of the chapel of Ease from her own purse, and donated many articles to the chapel, such as the gates at the entrance. She also gave charitable donation to the old and infirm of the village.
Elizabeth Anne died on in 1871 and was buried at Aberpergwm Church. (See newspaper clipping below).
Maria Jane Williams: (1795 – 1873)
Maria Jane Williams was an accomplished guitar and harp player and a renowned singer and from her singing she was nicknamed “Llinos”, the Welsh word for Linnet. Ynys Las and Aberpergwm Manor under the guidance of Jane her sister Elizabeth and her brother William of Aberpergwm were a focal point for the Celtic renaissance in the area and fully supported Welsh traditional cultural activities, such as Folklore, collection of local songs, singing, dancing, the Welsh costume, Eisteddfodd and religion. She was a true pioneer in keeping the Welsh traditions and language alive.
She was instrumental in collecting and saving many of the songs of the valley in their wild and original state, which she published in her book “Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg” that won the 1st prize in the 1837 Eisteddfod.
Ynys Las at this time was hot bed of cultural activities with regular celebrations of Dancers and Singers for local people to be held at Ynys Las, along with Eisteddfordd and many carnivals held in the grounds of Ynys Las for the children of the village. (See newspaper cutting below, see if you can spot any of your ancestors.)
They also supported the wearing of traditional Welsh costume, and the maids employed at Ynys Las wore Red, Black and White checked cloth, a cloth that was woven at the Aberpergwm Mill which was situated at the end of Mill Row in the Lamb and Flag [10]. Unfortunately only a dress front now survives.
In 1871 she was to read her own obituary as they thought it was her who had passed away, but in fact it was her sister who had unfortunately died.
Maria Jane Williams was to live at Ynys Las until her death in the 10th November 1873.
They were to live in the house for the rest of their lives, with Thomas passing away in 1861, ten years later Elizabeth Ann passed away and Maria Jane died there on the 10th November 1873.
In 1841 while the sisters were visiting family in London, their house was burgled by two armed robbers. A shotgun was used to threaten the servants but no one was hurt, but a few items were taken, for the full story click here.
Thomas Williams: (1793 – 1861)
The younger brother of both sisters, Thomas Williams, on the death of his wife in 1859, also moved into Ynys Las from his home in Ystradgynlais in the Swansea valley.
1925 – 1955:
In 1925 Ynys Las was taken over as a colliery office. The photo below shows some of the clerical staff at Ynyslas on the steps from Ynyslas house to tennis court [RHS] probably late 1930’s early 1940’s [11].
The collieries were nationalised under the banner of the National Coal Board (NCB) on the 1st of January 1947.
1939 – 1945 – Ynys Las during the 2nd world war years:
During the war when there was an air raid warning, a young Peter Ricketts and his family would shelter under the stairs of Ynys Las Lodge, but when they realised that the Aberpergwm Power House could potentially become a target, after Lord Haw Haw threatened that Rheola Aluminium works could be a target of the German bombers they decided that their present house was to close for comfort.
Peter explains, “The caretaker of Ynyslas, Mr Godsall, a friend of my father suggested we spend each night at Ynyslas and sleep in one of the spare bedrooms and shelter downstairs in their underground living quarters during any raids. This situation prevailed until air raid warnings became very intermittent and we abandoned sleeping at Ynyslas and returned home to an almost normal life.”
Peter Ricketts MBE.
Ynys Las was also used by the local Home Guard as their main office during this time. Peter’s father was the Quarter Master Sergeant in charge of supplies. When the first delivery of boxed rifles arrived, they were delivered to Ynys Las. Peter, his brother Barrie and Jean Godsall and a number of other local helpers helped to unscrew the lid’s off the boxes and clean off the surface grease, before handing them over to the Home Guard members for their final clean and inspection.
Unfortunately after the war, Ynys Las fell into disrepair and was demolished around 1955 by Tal Williams who employed Emlyn Walters the ex Bradford North rugby player, Will Llewellyn and David Gwyn Hughes to help carry out the demolition, these gentlemen were also to demolish Maes Glyn as well.
Tal then went on to built his own bungalow on what was then the Tennis Courts of the house
Slideshow:
Maria Jane Williams
References and Resources:
There are a number of references to Ynys Las in Elizabeth F. Belcham book, About Aberpergwm, pages 71, 93, 94, 99,102, 110, 167.
National Library of Wales, journals.
Blaengwrach Parish Tithe Map of 1846.
British Newspaper Archive ~ Various Newspaper cuttings, attributed above.
Footnotes:
1 https://journals.library.wales/view/4718179/4751353/18#?xywh=-2291%2C-312%2C7096%2C4378
2 Löffler, M., (2019). WILLIAMS, MARIA JANE (‘Llinos’) (1795 – 1873), folklore collector and musician. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 9 Nov 2022, from https://biography.wales/article/s12-WILL-JAN-1795
3 See Peter Ricketts memories of living in the village.
4 Census data.
5 See Philips book, About Aberpergwm, (page 590 footnote)
6 Elizabeth F. Belcham book, About Aberpergwm, Heritage Ventures
7 See, Merthyr Telegraph 13th April 1861.
8 See, the Blue Books page 342. On the visit to check the state of education in Wales.
9 About Aberpergwm, Elizabeth F. Belcham (page 99)
10 http://welshhat.wordpress.com/influences-on-costume/royalty-nobility-and-gentry/williams-aberpergwm/
11 See Peter Ricketts memories on this website.
12 See Peter Ricketts memories.