Ty Mawr Mansion Country House

MichaelJM
MichaelJM
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
2
Reviews
Editor Pick

Ty Mawr

  • September 23, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by MichaelJM from Nottingham, England
About 8 miles out of Betws-y-coed through the sleepy little village of Penmachno is the small farmhouse of Ty Mawr. This 16th Century house came into the ownership of the National Trust in 1951 and has been restored and tended since then. It’s a real important place as far as the Welsh language is concerned because it’s here that Bishop William Morgan (the man who first translated the bible into Welsh) was born. The guide told us that Morgan’s Welsh became the formal language that is taught in schools and before then strong dialects and language differences were disabling communication between the tribes (still there are local differences – e.g. there are three different words for “boy” over a 25 mile distance around Betsw-y-Coed).

Ty Mawr (the big house) was the home for William, his six siblings and his parents and despite its name the house, in William’s day, was a single storey house with one downstairs sitting room that was used as the family eating, sleeping and socialising room. The other small rooms off the entrance hall were animal stalls as it was not unusual for the family to look after their “domestic” animals within their home.

William’s father was fairly well off as a drover and despite the fact that it sounds a lowly job a drover was paid for each animal that he moved from Wales to London. Life could be profitable as only people with a drovers’ licence were allowed “to roam in the country” and not only did drovers move animals but they were often asked to trade items of furniture and family heirlooms for less well off families.

The house is currently furnished with period pieces, but it’s important to remember that the upstairs was not added until many years after William Morgan’s death – even so in 1951 it is recorded, in this two bed-roomed house, that 14 people were resident. Ty Mawr obviously breeds big families!

Downstairs a fire smouldered in the grate and the guide happily talked us through the history of the house. We learnt that nowadays many visitors bring a copy of the bible and presently they have well over 500 bibles in different languages or dialects. They really need a separate room to display these. Indeed earlier this year a woman had signed a loan agreement to place her family bible (dated in the mid-1600s) in the care of Ty Maw.

Upstairs the small bedroom with a box bed (small by modern day standards as people sat up to sleep to combat the problems of consumption and other respiratory problems) and two doors either side of the bed, which would have enabled meat to be hung over the fire to be smoked.

In the other bedroom are displayed many bibles including one of only 6 surviving copies of Morgan’s original Welsh bible.

Outside the house is a small stream and a pleasant picnic area in the garden. See separate entry for country walks near Ty Mawr.

From journal Beautiful Betws-y-Coed

Editor Pick

National Trust Trail Ty Mawr

  • September 23, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by MichaelJM from Nottingham, England

As we were leaving Ty Mawr (the big house) we spotted a small National Trust booklet detailing a short walk (around one-and-a-half miles) around the estate. It was estimated to take around the hour (what turned out to be a very accurate time scale) and recommended that "stout shoes" were required for the rougher parts of the walk.

We set off from the upper National Trust car park with route planner in hand looking forward to some stunning views, an invigorating walk and the chance to learn a little more about the area. We would not be disappointed.

We’d be crossing over fields with a well recorded history starting off with the 2 acre expanses recorded in 1838 as "herben" (arable). A roofless building at the south-eastern corner was used for cattle during the winter months and the meandering hedge marks the clear but uneven boundary between the parishes of Dolwyddelan and Penmachno.

The next field is the exotic sounding Fownog Goch (red peaty field) and here you’ll see evidence of peat diggings although the peat here was not of such high quality as the "black peat" more prevalent in other places. Around here is the candle rush so named because the peeled rush was dipped into grease and burnt as candles. The light was poor but in the absence of anything else and as a way of avoiding the "candle tax" (yes you can hardly believe that such a punitive tax was ever introduced) it gave enough light to safely get around the family home. Indeed in Ty Mawr you can see rush candle holders and the equipment used to make this crude and horrendously scented form of lighting.

Exiting this filed we crossed over the small Wybrnant Stream and the amusingly named "clapper bridge" before exiting onto the Ty Mawr road. Keeping an eye out for the red way-markers we headed uphill towards the ancient way of the drovers. This route passes between stone walls and there were many weeks ahead of the drovers as they headed off for the lucrative meat markets in England.

The woodland around this area was originally populated by the mighty oak tree and the National Trust is now embarking on a reforestation plan for the area ensuring that in years to come the area will once again be planted with oak, ash, birch, hazel, and alder trees. Currently you’ll need a bit of imagination to see through the residual empty spaces and surviving coniferous trees.

On route there is a great variety of indigenous plant life including ferns, mosses, and wild flowers – a feast of colours. Dashes of white can be seen on the hills – Welsh sheep wandering apparently free in the uplands.

A field called Coeden Owen (Owen’s tree) has an interesting civil war story to tell – it is said that a group of Royalist sympathisers were meeting in Ty Mawr when parliamentarians attacked. Owen ran off and hid up a tree and survived to live another day.

From journal Beautiful Betws-y-Coed

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