CASTLE FOR SALE

Grey River Argus, 8 September 1939, Page 5

CASTLE FOR SALE

EX-NEW ZEALANDER BENEFACTOR TO WALES. LONDON, August 14. A New Zealander is to sell Bryn Bras Castle, which is reputed originally to have been one of the outworks of the royal castle of Caenarvon, Wales. Mr Duncan Elliott Alves, who was born in Dunedin 69 years ago, bought the castle after the war. During his occupation he has spent about £150,000 in restoring and modernising it. 111-heaffh, however, has compelled him to leave Wales, and Bryn Bras: is for sale. Mr Alves left. New Zealand with his parents over 50 years ago, As a young man he became interested in the oil industry, and spent many years in Central America. He is the founder of the Imperial scheme for securing and building up reserves of oil for British naval and national purposes in that region, and he assisted in founding a Chair of Oil Technology at Birmingham University. Five times in succession Mr Alves has been Mayor of Caenarvon. He received the freedom of the borough in 1931. He was High Sheriff of Caenarvonshire in 1931-32. In the years he was associated with Caernarvon he has proved a great benefactor to the town. It was largely due to him that the town undertook the financial risk of holding the Royal Welsh Show in 1929 and in 1927 he gave £2OOO toward providing a new town hall. ' Mr Alves bought Sir James Parrie’s birthplace, Kirriemuir, two years ago, and presented it to the nation. He did this to prevent it being transported ’’stone by stone” to America. He was a friend of Barrie’s and he decided to &ave the cottage as a memorial “for purely, philosophical reasons.”

Many Charitable Acts. The former New Zealander is well known for his charitable work. He is president and patron of numerous associations in Caernarvonshire, Sussex and Kent. He has also presented Gribble’s Royal Academy picture “Our Golden Argosies,” to the Federal Council Chamber of the Australian Commonwealth Government, and the same artist’s Royal Academy picture “Nelson’s First Prize,” to the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich. i Bryn Bras Castle is in the beautiful country forming the foothills of the Snowden Range. It is four miles from Caernarvon. The property extends over 470 acres and includes shooting rights over 2800 acres of grouse moor. Lakes and pools are stocked with trout and the sea is four miles away. It is a stone castle with a Norman arched entrance doorway. The wails are ivy-covered.