Welsh Journals

The published sources of information about the history of Hafod Uchtryd deal very briefly and, on the whole, rather inaccurately with the events of the twentieth century. This is perhaps not surprising, since the natural focus of interest is Hafod's extraordinary creator, Thomas Johnes. Also, any modern history of the mansion must inevitably chart its decline and end depressingly with its demolition. It is generally asserted that the last owner-occupier of Hafod was T. J. Waddingham, whose family bought it in about 1871. However, after Waddingham's death in 1938, the estate was sold to W. G. Tarrant, a builder from Surrey. He lived at Hafod for a little under two years, until his sudden death in 1942. Anyone unacquainted with Tarrant's background might dismiss him as simply the first of the succession of timber merchants who bought the estate in order to exploit its reserves of timber. While this was certainly an immediate consideration in his decision, it is likely that Tarrant intended to make Hafod his long-term home. Although it was war-time and timber production occupied much of his attention, he began work on various improvements to the house, and would undoubtedly have continued with these and other projects had he lived longer. He was a man of many interests, including landscaping and gardening, and by profession was a skilled builder whose houses in Surrey were among the most prestigious properties in the London area in the early part of this century. Walter George Tarrant was born on 8th April 1875 at Brockhurst, near Gosport in Hampshire. Very little is known about his upbringing; his father was a police constable, who in 1885 was transferred to Hook, near the Surrey border, where W.G. went to school. It is likely that he received only a basic education, and then entered an apprenticeship. In 1896, at the age of 21, he married Henrietta Fry in Farnham parish church. At that stage he gave his address as Church Street, Byfleet, and his occupation as 'carpenter'. Henrietta (Hettie) was in service before her marriage, and her father (deceased) had been a labourer. There were five children of the marriage, of whom two are remembered in the Hafod neighbourhood: the eldest son, Percy, who worked with his father in the business and who owned a cottage known as 'Y Fron' in Cwmystwyth, and the youngest, George, who appeared occasionally at Hafod when on leave from the Royal Engineers. Tarrant seems to have built up his own business rapidly and established himself at a young age as a highly reputable builder. His firm of Tarrant