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Notable Houses in and around Llanelli

Allt y Gof & Ael y Bryn

now the Diplomat Hotel

A substantial parcel of land was acquired by Sir David Dundas from the Pemberton family. The Pembertons had purchased large tracts of land during the early industrialisation of the town, hoping to establish their own industrial base in the locality.

Sir David built a spacious house of architectural interest on solid rock which can be seen in the extensive wine cellars (Pennant Measures), and designed to follow the geology of the land.

In 1848 Captain John Dundas inherited Allt y Gof after the deaths of his father and three brothers. John also inherited the Baronetcy to become the 4th Baronet Sir John Dundas and lived on the family estate in the style of a retired military man and country gentleman, from 1849.

All that remains today as a reminder of the Dundas Family is the house at the entrance to the Hotel called ‘Dundas Lodge’ and memories of the Pistyll Dundas, or Dundas Well, known locally as ‘Llandas’. The elaborate well, with its stone surround and iron railings, was adjacent to the Lodge and provided sweet water and had been the source of domestic water for nearby cottages.

Sidney James Phillips, his brother-in-law Benjamin Phineas Nunes, a Portuguese Jew, and Robert Smith took over the Dafen Tinplate Works from brothers Thomas and James Motley and their partner John Winkworth. The partnership had purchased the licence to make tinplate from Sir Henry Bessemer’s new process for making mild steel bars. They attempted to establish a tinplate works at Dafen but failed.

A stone on the portals of the Coach House shows the date 1867, which is about the time the property changed hands.

Captain Sir John Dundas, described as of Richmond and Llanelly, died without issue on 2 September 1868.

The Dundas family vacated Allt y Gof (Ael y Bryn) around 1864 and put the house on the market for a quick sale.

The Llanelly Guardian of Thursday 28th July 1864 carried an advertisement:

Carmarthenshire

Alltygove House Velinvole Llanelly

Sale of Whole of the Household Furniture

China, Glass Books etc.

MR E MORGAN DOUGLAS

Has been honoured with instructions from Admiral Sir John Dundas Bart., to

SELL BY AUCTION

ON Friday August 5th 1864

The whole of the Household furniture

and other effects in the Drawing room, Best bedroom

and Dressing room; Bedrooms No 1 and 2

Servants ditto No 1 & 2 Hall and Housekeepers Room

Tent House, Green House, Wash House, Stable, Cellars & Out Offices

TOGETHER WITH

Kitchen requisites &c.

the whole comprising about 400 lots.

Full Particulars of which are in the Catalogue now preparing and may be obtained 3 days previous to the Sale of the Auctioneer at the offices

No 1 Rutland Street, Swansea, and at all the principal Hotels in Llanelly and adjacent Towns.

Sale to commence at 11 o’clock a.m.

The Auctioneer particularly requests a punctual attendance as the whole must be sold in one day.

Edward Nunes Phillips, the son of Sidney James Phillips took over management of the Dafen Tinplate Works around 1868 just before he became the new owner of Ael y Bryn (Allt y Gof). Around this time he had the house renovated and modernised.

Ael y Bryn was described as a residential mansion with:

Adjoining the house were the gardeners’ and laundresses’ cottages. Gas and water supplies, were laid all over the mansion, laundry and stables. The gardens and ornamental grounds were laid out with a large tennis lawn, flowerbeds, rose trees and shrubs, with a kitchen garden, cow house, piggeries and fowl yard.

In 1874 Dafen Church was built and opened by the patronage of the Phillips and Nunes Families.

Edward Nunes Phillips’ wife, Cecil Mary died in childbirth in 1878, at the young age of 32 years, and is the only member of the family to be buried in the family vault in Dafen Church. Her husband emigrated to America and the property was offered for sale once more and passed to the Trubshaws.

The Llanelly Guardian of 17 March 1881 reported that ‘E. N. Phillips, Esq. of Ael-y-Bryn is to move from Llanelly to London’ and on 24 March 1881 an advertisement for the sale of Ael-y-Bryn states that it ‘was built about 12 years previously’ [An advertisement in the Llanelly Guardian of 5th August 1864 shows the house was of an earlier date.]

Ernest Trubshaw was Chairman of the Board of Health and he and his brother-in-law Joseph Smith became involved in the town’s steel and tinplate industry. Their first venture seems to have been the Western Tinplate Company in Station Road.

The Trubshaw family was the last to live at Ael y Bryn where Earnest along with his wife and children Harold, Gwendoline and Kit, lived in style. They had six indoor servants to care for their daily needs and six outdoor servants who maintained the gardens and the greenhouses. Just after the First World War the family also had at least three cars at their disposal.

When Major Harold Trubshaw married, he acquired Caedelyn, on the Cwmbach Road to Trimsaran, near the village of Furnace. Caedelyn later passed to Dame Gwendoline and Ael y Bryn was converted into a private school.

The outbreak of the Second World War hampered the progress of the school, which was turned into a hostel for children and evacuees. At the end of the War Dame Gwendoline and the WVS, turned Ael y Bryn into a hostel for the elderly, which was probably the first in the Llanelli area. This venture attracted little support from the County Council and it closed after a few years.

The grand residence, that has been home to local gentry, industrialists and entrepreneurs is now [2007] an hotel serving businessmen, travellers, holidaymakers, tourists and the local community.