# Aberpergwym house, Glynneath. 2005



## clay_9 (Apr 14, 2011)

I took these pictures around 2004/2005, can't quite remember. They've been laying on my hdd collecting dust, so I thought I'd share them here.

Info taken from wikipedia and this site

Aberpergwm House is an abandoned and ruinous house located in Glynneath, Wales. Within the grounds of the house sits the church of St. Cadoc, which is possibly of late medieval origin.

The present house is a remodelling of an older house known as Neuadd Pergwm. The house came into the ownership of the Williamses of Blaen Baglan in around 1560. It is said that Oliver Cromwell was related, and so the house was saved from pillage during the English Civil War. The Williams family were one of the few Welsh gentry families to remain faithful to the Welsh language.

By 1850, the house was ‘playfully crenellated’ with a central pediment”. In 1876, the house was remodelled by Morgan Stuart Williams, who later went on to restore St Donat's Castle. This ‘overwhelmed’ the work of 1850, and included the addition of a new front range dominated by a ‘remarkable top heavy Elizabethan gallery across the whole front’ of 94 feet. The gallery was added in the spirit of the ancient Glamorgan halls, such as Llantrithyd Place. A further castellated wing was added along the hill. In 1868, Williams had rejected earlier plans by John Norton for a new house in Gothic style with a tower. Williams, by rejecting Norton’s Victorian High Gothic appeared to be playing safe. An elaborate central door surround (now missing)could be a 17th century Jacobean survival, or may be a convincing replica. The house is built of Pennant Sandstone with Bath stone dressings.

The former East Anglian School at Gorleston-on-Sea was evacuated to the house during the summer of 1940 and for the rest of the Second World War the house was used as a school. After the War it was leased to the National Coal Board and used as offices; the surrounding park land was mined for coal. At some time the house finally suffered a disastrous fire, and was not rebuilt. The Elizabethan gallery on the third storey has since collapsed leaving a seven-bay front of two storeys, with a small part surviving of the third. Some of the medieval tracery from the original house has since been reincorporated into Penhow Castle.
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Pics of the house in its prime:














My pics. There really is hardly anything left.













































Apparently it's recently / currently undergone conservation work to preserve what's left. The current wikipedia pic can be found here

I'm planning on heading back there soon to find out whats been happening.


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## krela (Apr 14, 2011)

You're photos are far far too big. Could you resize them to a max of 1024 pixels wide so they don't take an hour to load please.


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## clay_9 (Apr 14, 2011)

Gah, the viewer said they were 1006x, obviously not and I should have checked. Size reduced.


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## krela (Apr 14, 2011)

Brilliant thank you!

I think the breezeblocks in the window are a bit redundant now, so sad to see grand old houses in this state.


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## Foxylady (Apr 17, 2011)

Despite not being much left, there's still some interesting remains there. I love seeing things reclaimed by nature too. Nice find, Clay_9.


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## smiler (Apr 19, 2011)

Foxylady said:


> Despite not being much left, there's still some interesting remains there. I love seeing things reclaimed by nature too. Nice find, Clay_9.



My sentiments precisely FL, good pics and report Clay, thanks for sharing.


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## lurch (Apr 23, 2011)

*recent update*

Great pictures, and report, but sadly, very little of that now remains.
I visited a few weeks ago to explore, found the gates padlocked shut, dogs left roaming the grounds, caravans in front of the ruins, the lawns turned into fields to keep pigs, and sadly the ruins themselves reduced to almost nothing. Apparently every year more fell down, so last year the owners removed most of the second storey, leaving most of the walls at lintel height. 
Suffice to say, I didn't get to look around (the owners won't allow that), so I only got long distance photo's, but only the trees, and the gate really show what used to be here, and even the gates aren't original cos they were nicked, and the local scroats have tried, and in some cases suceeded, killing off the bigger trees, by setting fires at the base.
A sad tale.....


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## vplus-2008 (Apr 24, 2011)

Love this place, its a shame that there is not much left of it. All the overgrowth has been cleared away now and there is people maintaining the land. My auntie lives next to this in the old grounds.


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