Penwyllt, Breconshire

Description

Photography (on 7 June 2003) by John Ball — with a Fuji FinePix S602 Zoom digital camera and Venita Roylance — with a Kodak DX4900 digital camera

Penwyllt was once a thriving but isolated community near Craig-y-nos at the top of the Swansea Valley. The economy of the area depended on its natural deposits of limestone which supported a number of quarries and a brickworks. Residents lived in rows of workers cottages, drank at a nearby inn, visited the local stores and post office, and caught the train at Penwyllt's own railway station. As the industries declined in the 20th century, the population dropped from well over 300 to around 20. The local stores, post office, inn, and railway are now long gone, but the area is full of fascinating relics of old Penwyllt. In 1998, I visited Penwyllt and produced two Images of Wales features on the Limestone Quarry and a row of former Quarryworkers' Cottages. Five years later, I returned to the area to find more evidence of Penwyllt's past. On this occasion I was accompanied by fellow genealogist and photographer Venita Roylance from Utah, USA. This illustrated record of our visit is set out in three sections and is enhanced by the addition of the comments and memories of Alan Doyle, a former resident of Penwyllt.

Penwyllt Inn

The primary reason for my latest visit to Penwyllt was to find and photograph an old pub, the Penwyllt Inn. My curiosity had been stimulated by an exchange of correspondence with my friend Annie (now of Talybont-on-Usk), whose grandmother and great grandfather had once been licensees of the Penwyllt Inn.

Image 1:

Photography by Venita Roylance

The Penwyllt Inn, just visible on the horizon.

The building was identified as a public house on Ordnance Survey maps published as recently as the 1970s. The building is shown on the Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure map of the Brecon Beacons National Park (sheet 12), published in 1996, but it is no longer identified as a public house. The former inn is reached by following the track across rough grassland through the gate shown in the picture above.

Image 2, 3:

Photography by John Ball

Approaching the Penwyllt Inn from the north.

In the two photographs above, note the evidence of quarrying on the hillside behind the inn. The dry-stone wall is constructed from local limestone.

Image 4:

Photography by John Ball

The building (Image 4) appears to consist of two homes. The home on the left shows signs of recent occupation, while the larger one on the right (see below) is clearly derelict, with its central doorway bricked up. In May 2009, Wealden Cave and Mine Society (WCMS) member Peter Burgess wrote: [The WCMS] . . . is taking out a lease on the Penwyllt Inn from the South Wales Caving Club. We are currently in the process of stabilising and restoring the building for use as a new base for our club.

Image 5:

Photography by John Ball

The census entry below shows the occupants of the Penwyllt Inn on the night of 3rd April 1881.

NAME and Surname of each Person	RELATION to Head of Family	CON- DITION as to Marriage	AGE last Birthday	Rank, Profession, or OCCUPATION	WHERE BORN
Daniel DAVIES	Head	M	44	Licensed victualler	Ystradgynlais, Breconshire
Anne DAVIES	Wife	M	38		Ystradgynlais, Breconshire
Howell DAVIES	Son	U	15	Barman	Defynnog, Breconshire
Mary A. DAVIES	Dau		13	Scholar	Defynnog, Breconshire
Rachel DAVIES	Dau		8	Scholar	Defynnog, Breconshire

(Source: The National Archive microfilm RG11/5457  Folio 40  Page 2)

Image 6:

Photography by John Ball

The back of the Penwyllt Inn (above and below).
Former Penwyllt resident Alan Doyle tells me that the Penwyllt Inn, known locally as the "Stump Inn", closed to customers in 1949.

Image 7, 8:

Photography by John Ball

To the left of the inn is a stone-built roofless outhouse (see Image 9), possibly a privy, separated from the main building by a stone-paved passageway (Image 8).

Image 9:

Photography by John Ball

To the east of the inn are a number of rocky outcrops where the earth has been scarred by quarrying activity.

Update: 10 May 2010 William Gibbs recently e-mailed me this fascinating tale connecting Penwyllt to the Social Set of the 1920s:

Penwyllt and Denise de Vere Cole I found your interesting page on Penwyllt while following up a story published recently in The Sultan of Zanzibar by Martyn Downer about Horace de Vere Cole a British eccentric, prankster, and poet. This is part of my research into James Dickson Innes, the remarkable artist, born in Llanelli, who studied at Christ College Brecon and who painted some wonderful pictures in Mid Wales before he died of TB at the age of 24. He had a fascinating relationship with fellow artist Augustus John, each spurring on the other to create some of the most remarkable paintings of the time, while staying in Mid Wales. James Dickson Innes and Horace De Vere Cole were friends. De Vere Cole was the great hoaxer of his age but he recognised the talent of Innes. In the 1920s, De Vere Cole's young wife Denise ran away with James Stanley, a London waiter. Afraid to return to Ireland, where she had considerable property, Denise and her lover got off the train at Penwyllt! The couple remained at Penwyllt for two years, boarding with Mrs Davies at the local post office, before being 'discovered' by Augustus John. Horace and Denise divorced in 1928.

Source: Downer, Martyn (2010) The Sultan of Zanzibar: The Bizarre World and Spectacular Hoaxes of Horace de Vere Cole, Black Spring Press, London. ISBN 9780948238437

Many thanks to William Gibbs for drawing my attention to this wonderful story. Visit the website of the Brecon Beacons Park Society and share in William's interest in restoring dry stone walling in the Brecon Beacons.

• http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/walespic/archive/030705.htm (link opens in new window)