Welsh Journals

Houses, and Some Families connected with Kerry. J. B. WILLANS, F.S.A. Many years ago the late Archdeacon Thomas asked me to try to work up about the old Kerry families, which had not been touched on by the late Rowley Morris in his excellent history of Kerry. The latter gave an exhaustive history of the Foxe's of Gwernygoe, and of the Pugh family, who were the former owners of Cilthrew and Brynllywarch, and whose descendant, Mr. Minton Beddoes, still owns the Dolfor estate. There is also now a desire to record about the old houses in the county, and it would be well to have a note about the various farms for the benefit of the future. Great alterations have been made in some of the farms, especially on the former Brynllywarch estate, and little of the original houses remains. We shall begin at the furthest west end of Kerry parish with the half- timbered farmhouse of Neuadd Goch, which I would date from the 17th century. I reproduce an illustration (Fig. 1) from my Byways of Montgomeryshire (Kegan Paul, 1905). The chimney is in the centre, and door opposite, with the kitchen on the left, and staircase leading out of it to the upper rooms; it is somewhat similar in plan to Middle Cwmydalva, of which I shall speak later. I can find little of its history. The Calendar of Colman Deeds, and the schedule of Dolforgan estate deeds in the National Library of Wales have a large amount of information relative to Kerry. About the year 1800, Mr. John Herbert of Dolforgan owned several farms in Dolfor district, as Glascoed, Graig, Cwmyrhiwdre (Mochdre), Tan-y-glog, Cwmdu, and Garthilin. Little Brynbedwen belonged to the Knight family of Barrels, Warwickshire (Mont. Coll., Vol. XL., p. 266). Little Glascoed is half-timbered. The late Hugh Lewis, Esq., and his father owned it and Glascoed, and the latter has only recently been sold. Glascoed house is mid 19th cent. Old Court, Dolfor, belonged to the same estate as Penhempen. The former is half-timbered, and there are two pencil sketches of it made in 1916 by K. M. B. Cross, the architect, son of the architect of the chemical laboratories at Aberystwyth College. These and other sketches by Mr. Cross I have given