WELSH CASTLE SOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1933, Page 10

WELSH CASTLE SOLD

FIRST WITH GLASS WINDOWS

Gwydyr Castle, Llaurwst, the historic Tudor mansion in the Conway Valley, has been purchased by Mr. D. Baugn, an American, who will restore it for occupation.

In 1929, when the castle -was previously on the market, it was purchased by Dr. G. H. B. Kenrick, of Maenau Abbey, a, retired Indian judge, so that it should not pass from British ownership. Dr. Kenrick, who belong to the old Welsh family of the Kenrick,s of Nantllwyd, was at one time AdvocateGeneral for Bengal and Principal Adviser to the Government of India from 1906-1916, and a member of the Legislative Council under Lord Harding. Dr. Kenrick -was then perturbed lest, should the castle fall into American hands, some of the ancient stonework should lie removed, and that the castle, associated as it is with local history and tradition, should be impaired. It is believed that a, condition of the present sale is that the castle shall be occupied. The original castle dates back to the fourteenth century, and its first known owner was Howell Coetmor, who fought with the Black Prince at Poictiers. In 1480 it was rebuilt and enlarged, and became the property of the Wynn family between 1525 and 1553. In 1678 Mary Wyn, the sole heiress to the estates, married Lord Willoughby de Eresby, first Duke of Ancaster, and the castle remained in the possession of the family until 1921.

TWICE IN FLAMES.

Gwydyr is reputed to have been the first house in Wales to have glass windows. Two fires—in 1922 and 1924 —destroyed the castle to a large extent, but most of the walls, which are four feet thick, survived. Many of the old sandstone doorways and mullions, the ornamental stone Jacobean pediments along the walls, the castellated chimneys, and the tables with the Wynn Eagle arms carved on them, still remain intact.

Another feature of the castle is the Dutch garden, with its rows of clipped yew trees, said to be the best in the country. Among them is one tree more than 600 years old, a rare specimen of the wistaria chinensis which covers the courtyard front, and trees planted by the present King and Queen, who stayed there in 1898.