Peniarth

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The Peniarth Estate occupies a considerable tract of land on the N bank of the Afon Dysynni, E of Llanegryn village. The house stands towards the S edge of the parkland, overlooking the river.

The early history of the site is obscure. In 1418 a house of sufficient substance to be called 'Plas Peniarth' occupied the site, owned by the Lloyd family. It passed by marriage to the Owen family in the mid C16, Lewis Owen and Sir John Wynne being called upon to suppress the Gwylliaid Cochion of Mawddwy in 1554-5^[1]. The house was enlarged by Richard Owen in c1700. His son, Lewis Owen, who married Margaret Williams-Wynne of Llanworda and Winnstay, carrried out some improvements to the house and probably laid out the surrounding park. Their daughter, Jane, married Richard, 5th Viscount Bulkeley of Cashel MP, whose arms appear in the pediment on the NE front of the house. He probably applied the fashionable urbane brick front to the NE elevation in c1729-1739. However Peniarth passed through the offspring of her second marriage to Edward Williams of Bodelwyddan, thence to the Wynne's of Wern, Portmadoc. The later William Watkin Edward Wynne MP (1801-80) became a distinguished antiquary and collector, inheriting and adding to the Peniarth Manuscripts, the most important collection of Welsh manuscripts, now in the NLW.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ https://snowdonia.gov.wales/discover/history-and-heritage/mythology-and-folklore/red-bandits-of-mawddwy/#:~:text=Gwylliaid%20Cochion%20Mawddwy%20were%20a,their%20own%20routines%20and%20rituals.
2. ↑ https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300004731-peniarth-llanegryn#.ZDVoHeyZNNy