Bradbury Hall

Notable Houses in and around Llanelli

Bradbury Hall

Bradbury Hall was a large gentry house, built in the vicinity of an ancient Roman marching camp, where the Wine Bar ‘Stamps’ is situated today [2002}.

In 1784 William Roderick, of Myddynfych, Llandeilo, married Sarah, the daughter of William Jones who was the son of the Lord of the Manor of Gurrey, Llandeilo. Roderick is said to have left Llandeilo for Llanelly with his partner Griffith Bowen the same year that he married.

Roderick entered into a partnership with local industrialist Thomas Bowen and Margaret Griffith. Although his business interests were in Llanelli, his family lived at Brynhafod which he leased from John Philipps, Gentleman and Attorney, in 1790 and 1804. The partnership of Roderick, Bowen and Griffith suffered financial ruin when their collieries were flooded and during 1808 William Roderick was declared bankrupt.

It is probable that around this time William Roderick and his family moved to Bradbury Hall. He may well have been staying at the Hall when he was in Llanelli on business. The family lived at Bradbury Hall until his death on 10 May 1823 after a period of great suffering. Roderick’s widow, Sarah, probably continued to live at Bradbury Hall until she died on 11 March 1835.

It would appear that following her parents’ deaths, Margaret Roderick who was born on 23 September 1788, continued to live at the family home. Bradbury Hall was now the property of John Davies, an Attorney, and his wife Frances. Frances Davies, formerly Frances Roderick, was William Roderick’s ninth child, born on 2 February 1801.

The census of 1851 shows that Bradbury Hall was in the occupation of Robert Smith, aged 44, a tinplate manufacturer who had taken over the Dafen Tinplate Works with Sidney James Phillips, and Benjamin Phineas Nunes, a Portuguese Jew. The partnership had purchased the tinplate works from brothers Thomas and James Motley and their partner John Winkworth.

Part of Bradbury Hall was let out to a medical professional and during 1859 John Kirkhouse Cook, died at the age of 46. Cook, described as surgeon and gentleman of Bradbury Hall, the son of Thomas B Cook, had been medical adviser to many of the local industries, including the silverworks, copperworks, and several collieries.

A newspaper article of the time described him as ‘much honoured and respected in the town and neighbourhood’.

John Kirkhouse Cook and his father Thomas B Cook, were two of the five Medical Practitioners who felt it necessary to prepare and send a Report to the Magistrate about the town’s sanitary conditions in 1847.

By the time of the census of 1861 Bradbury Hall was occupied by Edward Bagot a 43-year-old civil engineer and mineral surveyor, from Ireland. Bagot lived at the Hall with his wife Martha aged 26 from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire and his seven-year-old son, Edward Arthur. Martha Lewis, who was a house servant, aged 22, also lived with the family.

By 1871, Bradbury Hall, described as being in Stepney Street, was still in the occupation of Edward Bagot, his wife Martha and their 17-year-old son, Edward Arthur, who was a student. The family had two live-in servants, Margaret Thomas aged 26, their cook and Mary Robinson aged 19, a housemaid.

At some time James Buckley (1802-83) of Penyfai, father of Maria Buckley, had bought Bradbury Hall. He may have bought the property for his son, Dr Henry Child Buckley, who was known to have been living there in 1881. The census of 1881 shows that Bradbury Hall was in Cowell Street and occupied by Dr Henry Child Buckley, aged 37, GP, MD, BMC, Aberdeen, MRCS, LSA, London, his wife Maria Isabella aged 30 and born in Bath, Somerset. Other people living at the Hall were Elizabeth Catherine, Maria’s sister aged 26 and two domestic servants, Mary Anne Blackmore aged 20, and Annie Thomas aged 21.

Dr Henry Child Buckley became involved with the Gwendraeth Tinplate Company, along with Thomas Chivers, David Evans, J Beavan Phillips and David Paton, and left Llanelli around 1890.

The census of 1891 shows that another local businessman, Isaiah Bevan, was living at the mansion with his family. Isaiah, the son of John Bevan of Bryn Rhos, had married Caroline Edith Bishop in 1884 and they lived at Bradbury Hall with their son John Maybery Bevan. Isaiah Bevan was in partnership with his father John in a local chemical works and he also had business interests in Briton Ferry. He was visiting Briton Ferry Docks in January 1893 when a cargo of pig iron was being unloaded from the ss Solway Prince. As Isaiah was passing a chain on one of the cranes snapped and a large piece of timber dropped on his head. Although he received medical attention he later died of his injuries at the age of 40 years.

Note

Isaiah and Catherine also had a daughter named Mary Margaret born 14 May 1885 who married Bernard Percival Rees on 6 September 1906 at London.

Their daughter Hilda Edith Rees was born at 4 Goring Road on 16 November 1909 and later married William Smallman Gordon Rees on 11 April 1931.

William S G Rees was Works Manager of the Glanmor Foundry in 1936 when his father William John Rees was Managing Director.

The next, and last, occupant of Bradbury Hall was Dr Sidney James Roderick, Borough Medical Officer in 1893, described as physician and surgeon. Dr Roderick was the son of William and Maria Roderick and nephew of Dr Henry Child Buckley.

Bradbury Hall, which once belonged to the Roderick and Buckley families, was demolished to make way for the new Post Office, which was opened with much ceremony in 1911.

The Ice House at Bradbury Hall

A Stepney Estate map of 1841 shows an ‘Ice House’ in the same location as the ‘Old Roman Camp’ and a town map of 1878 shows an ‘Ice House’ in the Penycastell area bounded by John Street, Cowell Street, Murray Street and Salamanca Road. This ice house was probably built in the gardens of Bradbury Hall and seems to have been in the shape of an ‘igloo’ which would have been a brick construction and covered with earth to give extra insulation.

As the name suggests, an ice house is a building for storing ice. When ice is packed together into a large mass its relatively small surface area slows down melting and an ice mass lasts even longer when protected by insulated walls and a roof so it was possible for ice collected in winter to be preserved. Until refrigeration was available, people lived on seasonal foods – supplies of which fluctuated from season to season.

An abundance of food in one season had to make up for shortages in the next. Food was dried, salted, pickled in vinegar or alcohol, smoked, parboiled, potted or kept in sugar syrup. The rich were able to supplement their food supplies with a dovecote, deer park, fish pond and a rabbit warren. The wealthy were also able to complement their food supply through the luxury of an ice house.

Evidence of ice houses in the Middle Ages is limited but it is known that by the 17th century when great economic and social changes occurred, most wealthy families owned their own ice house. One of the first ice houses was built at Greenwich, London, in 1619 followed by another built close by in 1621. An ice house was built at St James’s Palace, London, in 1660 followed by an ice house for the Duke of York at St James’s in 1666. Around 1670 an ice house was built at Windsor Castle and in 1693 an ice house was built at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, for the Duchess of Cleveland.

In 1686 James II and his officers enjoyed a dozen dishes of ice-cream at their camp on Hounslow Heath, Middlesex, from an ice house nearby.

The Duke of Marlborough suggested that an estate ice house should be built and his wife said it would take three years to complete. These early 17th century ice houses were used to provide ice for preparing summer desserts and for cooling wines.

In 1755 an ice house was considered to be a luxury but by 1786 the design had been perfected and they became more readily available at a reasonable cost.

In 1819 the architect John Papworth commented that ‘the ice house forms an excellent larder for the preservation of every kind of food liable to be injured by heat in summers; thus fish, game, poultry, butter, &c., may be kept for a considerable time, indeed in London they are used for such purposes by persons who deal largely in either fish or venison; and for the table, where coolness is desirable, the use of ice in summer is a great luxury.’

Food stored in the ice house was placed in the body of the ice, or on boards or shelves on top of it, or hung in trays and baskets on pulleys or hooks in the cold air above. Fruit was also preserved in the ice house behind ‘thrice locked doors’, chilled by ‘stern winter.’ The purest, cleanest ice could be brought to the kitchen and used in all sorts of ways, forming a bed for cold food or salads and for chilling drinks. It could be moulded into ice goblets and decorative edible armorial crests. On warm and sultry days, blocks of ice were sculpted into swans and dolphins and used for cooling the surrounding air.

Physicians used ice to treat fever and inflammation, even prescribing the swallowing of small pieces to cure indigestion.

By the middle of the 19th century most country houses, especially those of the new mercantile class would have a least one ice house on their estate. Merchants who built town houses would have an ice house in the basement.

Two distinct types of ice houses developed which were large domestic cold rooms for storing produce such as meat, fish, confectionery and wine, and commercial reservoirs for ice that would be used in fish packing and transporting, confectionery manufacture and for stocking domestic ice safes.

The majority of ice houses on country estates were constructed with an entrance, a passage, a chamber and drain and a vault. Beyond the outside door, the paved passage leading from the entrance to the ice chamber varied from a short straight corridor to an elaborate passage with niches in the walls, flights of steps and changes of direction. The passage provided insulation and protection to the ice chamber and were often fitted with additional doors, set into masonry openings or stout oak frames. Some doors were edged with leather and covered with sheepskin to provide airtight seals, sub-dividing the access passage to create a ‘strawshed’ which was filled with cushions of insulating barley straw. Generally the passage led to the top half of the chamber which allowed the bottom half to be filled with ice. A door always separated the passage and the chamber.

The ice house was usually managed by the house steward but filling the chamber was generally the duty of the head gardener. The chamber had to be dry, which was achieved by leaving the doors open on windy days and by the use of quicklime which could absorb moisture at a rate of 5 gallons per bushel (6.25 litres per 10 litres). It is thought that fires were lit in the chamber to reduce dampness before filling began. Filling was cold and arduous and workmen were revived afterwards with bread, cheese, heated beer, brandy and rum. It could take up to 1½ days to fill one ice house and the men would often celebrate with a football match.

Ice was collected from natural or artificial freezing ponds (which were kept as clean and clear as possible) and carried by wheelbarrow to the ice house. In mild winters, ice could be brought in straw lined wagons from the Lake District or the Fens and when the canal and railway networks improved Norwegian and American ice became a profitable enterprise. Heavy falls of hail occasionally supplemented other sources or snow from the fields which was trampled into the chamber by two or three gardeners.

The temperature of the frozen snow could be lowered by using salt. Salts of any element worked, but common salt (sodium chloride) was used most often.

There were a variety of freezing mixtures, one consisting of 5 parts potassium nitrate, 5 parts ammonium chloride, and 16 parts water, which would drop the temperature considerably. The water could then be evaporated from the salts and the crystals retrieved and used again. This principle was used for icehouses and ice pails used for serving food at the table.

Ice houses continued to be used until the end of the 19th century when they gradually fell out of fashion.

Sources

Bradbury Hall

Francis Jones Archives at Brawdy Books

Public Records Office

Census Details

Kidwelly Tinplate Works: A History by W H Morris

Ice Houses - Tim Buxbaum, Shire Publications Limited