Llantarnam Abbey

Llantarnam Abbey gatehouse

Llantarnam Abbey is an Grade II*-listed abbey of the Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy and a former Cistercian monastery located in Llantarnam, Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen in southeast Wales.

History

It was founded as a daughter house of Strata Florida Abbey, Ceredigion, in 1179. After its dissolution in 1536,[1] William Morgan of Pentrebach bought the property in 1554 and he later became a Member of Parliament (MP) and High Sheriff. The abbey may have been built by his son Edward Morgan, also a MP and High Sheriff, who was repeatedly fined for his recusancy. His son, Sir Edward Morgan, 1st Baronet was a noted Royalist during the Civil War. The second baronet, also Edward, sheltered the Jesuit priest who was executed at Usk in 1679, Saint David Lewis. The house was only intermittently occupied from then until it came into the hands of Reginald Blewitt. He rebuilt it in Tudor Revival style to the designs of Thomas Henry Wyatt in 1834–36. The renovation supposedly cost £60,000 and that expense, coupled with the collapse of his finances, forced Blewitt into exile from 1851 to 1868. After his death a decade later, the nephew who inherited the property sold the abbey in 1895 to Sir Clifford Cory,[2] colliery owner, shipping magnate and Liberal politician, who lived there until his death in 1941.[3] After his death, it became a depot for the American Army during the Second World War.[2] In 1946 it became again a monastic institution, in the hands of the Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy.[3]

The main abbey building was Grade II* listed on 6 June 1962 "as an early and very elaborate Tudor revival country house."[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Llantarnam Abbey". www.tycroesocentre.co.uk. Ty Croeso Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Llantarnam Abbey, Llantarnam, britishlistedbuildings.co.uk.
  3. 1 2 Horace A. Laffaye, Polo in Britain: A History, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 12

External links

Coordinates: 51°37′51″N 2°59′45″W / 51.6308°N 2.99585°W / 51.6308; -2.99585

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