Llanishen Fach
Apr
Nestled quietly among the homes of Llanishen Fach sits a building that has a long and intriguing past. Nigel Lewis investigates
By Nigel Lewis
This is a story of a local farmhouse with an incredible history, dating back nearly five hundred years – a farmhouse that still exists, albeit the nineteenth-century version.
We’re talking about Llanishen Fach, the house now tucked behind the shops and school on Heol Llanishen Fach. Until recently I wasn’t even aware of its existence.
There’s reference to a house on the site in 1560, home of the Kemys-Tynte family of Cefn Mabley. Back then it was called Ton Mawr, but was probably much older. The farm was about 110 acres with 15 or so fields, running from – what’s now – the line of the M4 in the north, to Beulah Road; and from Heol-y-Deri in the west to the Caerphilly Road, with the farmhouse slap bang in the middle.
Not so long ago, it had a lodge, on today’s Thornhill Road, called Primrose Cottage, and a long driveway leading to the farmyard.
By 1650, Ton Mawr was occupied by the Williams family and continued to do so for the next 175 years. The Williams had links to Oliver Cromwell, and later with the Wesley brothers, John and Charles.
There’s evidence that one of the ‘bottom’ fields was the site of a battle in the Civil War, where the stream ran ‘red with blood’, hence the name Nant Waedlyd!
By 1702, the owner was Richard Lewis (no relative I’m afraid!), an absentee landlord. Thomas Williams, the tenant paid him a ‘chief rent’ of 4d for the farm, and another 2d for a second bit; I’m sure that was a lot of money then!
Another of the Williams family, Henry, was an Anglican priest and inherited Ton Mawr in 1784 when he was just seventeen. He already owned several houses in Cardiff but decided to rebuild the ancestral home as his new country house.
The ancient farmhouse was demolished and Henry’s plans for his new house were ambitious with many rooms. The house was to be surrounded with generous gardens, and an orchard was planned. Sadly, Henry died in 1825 with the house and gardens unfinished.
Like the best – or the worst – of family stories, the Last Will and Testament of Henry was challenged. He had no children and his sister had predeceased him, so he named Charlotte, his sister’s child, to inherit everything.
Sadly, Charlotte had also died, and it was her father William Higgon who contested the Will. Henry had previously referred to brother-in-law William as ‘That accomplished villain who killed my sister by cruel usage’ and also ‘He who ran way, returning after ten years after spending her fortune in drunkenness, idleness, and debauchery.’ Clearly William was not a nice man!
Henry also had a brother, Lambert, who Henry referred to as ‘a lazy horse, incompetent to marriage owing to his drunken habits.’ It was brother Lambert who sold the unfinished house, without any agreement, stripping the roof of its slates, and selling off all the building materials on site. The disputed Will proceeded to court!
To make matters worse, two of the three Executors of the Will renounced their appointment (who can blame them?) and the third, a man called Nicholl Wood was a complete rogue. By all accounts, he stitched everything else up. During the court case, Nicholl Wood had to flee the country to escape his own creditors, first to France and later to Holland, where he died in 1853. What a complete shambles!
An advertisement of 1827 in the Cambrian newspaper referred to the unfinished house as ‘Llanishen Fach’. No wonder they changed the name! It took twenty-six years, but eventually the farm and house were sold to Wyndham Lewis of Heath, a well-known name in the area. We’re told that Wyndham Lewis never planned to live in the house himself, but completed the construction of Llanishen Fach, albeit in a much smaller form than originally planned. Many of the unfinished wings were simply left! The house in today’s form is only about a third of what was originally planned. The sketch of Llanishen Fach shows the imposing house later in the 1800s, long and strangely tall, and only one-room deep.
Before 1851, Thomas Wride, from the well-known local farming family, became tenant of Wyndham Lewis’s Llanishen Fach. Thomas, with his wife Ann and their seven children, plus three live-in servants, occupied the house. Where they all slept in this long four-bedroom house can only be imagined! By the late 1860s, Samuel Wride, probably Thomas’s brother, was tenant, but the following decades were of agricultural recession. Accordingly, the farm was only worked sporadically.
It was in 1882 that Philip Phillips from Llanishen became tenant, with his daughters continuing to farm after his death. Finally, his son William took on the farm in 1916 after leaving Wauntreoda Court Farm in Whitchurch.
William died in 1947, and the farm tenancy was taken over by his daughter Annie. She married Ivor Llewellyn of Ty Draw Farm in Llanishen in 1935, and Annie lived in the house until 1996, a stay of 76 years. Annie’s son Howard lived in the house himself until 1988.
By then, the Wyndham Lewis Estate had sold much of the farmland for housing, and Llanishen Fach was completely surrounded by urban development. After Annie vacated the house, the Wyndam Lewis Estate renovated Llanishen Fach, converting it into two dwellings. In the process, they finally removed the 170-year-old ruins of the partly-constructed wings.
Today, Llanishen Fach sits somewhat uncomfortably within its very suburban setting. Now it’s just ’61 Heol Erwin’. The large gardens and orchard planned by Henry Williams are now blocks of flats.
otwithstanding this, CADW listed the house Grade II in 1975. Who’d have thought that a house with such a history would be unrecognised? Is this yet another example of neglect by the authorities? Where is the blue plaque?
And what about the lodge, Primrose Cottage you might ask? Ann Sullivan has shown me her copy of an autobiography by the late local legend Gwilym Roberts, which has a photograph of his dad and uncle proudly standing outside the thatched cottage. This photograph is shown, courtesy of Ann and Gwilym. I understand that Primrose Cottage was demolished in the 1960s, the mini-Sainsburys store on Thornhill Road now pretty much occupying the site.
Much of this story is based on the little book ‘A History of Llanishen Fach Farmhouse’ by Howard Llewellyn, self-published in 1999.
Nigel Lewis is a member of AWEN@thelibrary (awen.cymru@gmail.com) and now a member of the Rhiwbina Local History Group, meeting at the Rhiwbina Hub
