Llantysilio Hall is a Grade II* listed country house in Llantysilio, near Llangollen in Denbighshire. It is on the bank of the River Dee and adjacent to the historic Horseshoe Falls, the source of the Llangollen Canal (the eleven miles of the canal to Chirk is a World Heritage site). The estate was purchased by the Victorian locomotive designer and builder Charles Beyer in 1867. He was co-founder of

Beyer, Peacock & Company Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...

, one of the world's leading locomotive manufacturers. Beyer, a bachelor, built the 25-bedroom mansion house, soon after his business partner,

Henry Robertson Henry Robertson (11 June 1816 – 22 March 1888) was a Scottish mining engineer and prolific railway builder, industrialist and Liberal Party politician. He was head of Brymbo Steelworks, Wrexham. He was co-founder of Beyer-Peacock, with Charl ...

, rebuilt nearby Palé Hall,

Llandderfel Llandderfel is a village and a sparsely populated community in Gwynedd, Wales, near Bala, formerly served by the Llandderfel railway station. The community also includes the settlements of Glan-yr-afon, Llanfor, Cefnddwysarn and Frongoch. T ...

Samuel Pountney Smith Samuel Pountney Smith JP (2 November 1812Obituary. Date stated to be his birthday. – 5 November 1883) was an English architect who practised in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. Smith was a native of Munslow, where he was baptised on 17 De ...

of Shrewsbury was the architect. The hall was lavishly decorated. For example, the larger, south-facing, drawing room has a Carrara marble chimneypiece with giallo antico columns and three cameos in the frieze, of Queen Victoria, Robertson's wife (formerly Elizabeth Dean of

Brymbo Hall Brymbo Hall, one of Britain's lost houses, was a manor house located near Brymbo outside the town of Wrexham, North Wales. The house, reputed to have been partly built to the designs of Inigo Jones,''Encyclopædia Britannica'', vol 24, 1911, p. ...

, who met Queen Victoria at Palé Hall when her son – and Beyer's godson – Henry Beyer Robertson played host and was subsequently knighted), and Shakespearean actress

Helena Faucit Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress. Early life Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a gi ...

(Beyer's nearest neighbour, at

Bryntysilio Hall Bryntysilio Hall is a country house in Llantysilio, Denbighshire, north Wales, two miles west of Llangollen. It was the summer residence of Sir Theodore Martin, the author of ''Life of The Prince Consort'', the official biography of Albert, Prin ...

, with her husband

Sir Theodore Martin Sir Theodore Martin (16 September 1816 – 18 August 1909) was a Scottish poet, biographer, and translator. Biography Martin was the son of James Martin, a solicitor in Edinburgh, where Theodore was born and educated at the Royal High Scho ...

, author of the official biography of Prince Albert, ''Life of the Prince Consort''). The smaller room has a similar chimneypiece depicting William I, German Emperor,

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

, and

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Helmuth is both a masculine German given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name; *Helmuth Theodor Bossert (1889–1961), German art historian, philologist and archaeologist *Helmuth Duckadam (born 1959), Romanian forme ...

. These pieces were probably made c. 1874, some three years after the start of the German Empire. Charles Beyer died at Llantysilio Hall on 2 June 1876. He was buried at Llantysilio Church, in the grounds of his estate.

was the head engineer of the

Llangollen and Corwen Railway The Llangollen and Corwen Railway was formed as a continuation of the Vale of Llangollen Railway to continue the line along the Dee Valley a further to Corwen. This was opened on 1 May 1865 and was worked by the Great Western Railway and subseq ...

and he also owned and rebuilt the Chainbridge hotel and rebuilt the historic chain bridge, which is a short distance down the river bank. Rob old hall was demolished in 1875. When Beyer died the estate was bequeathed to his godson

Sir Henry Beyer Robertson Sir Henry Beyer Robertson (4 May 1862 – 2 June 1948) was a British industrialist. He was the son of Henry Robertson, of Palé Hall, Llandderfel. Born in Shrewsbury, he was the son of Henry Robertson (11 June 1816 – 22 March 1888) and Elizabe ...

(

's son). Sir Henry Robertson became head of Brymbo Steelworks, responsible for its rescue in the 1930s and the development of the new blast furnaces. He was also a director of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

References

{{coord, 52.9844, -3.2059, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Houses in Denbighshire Country houses in Wales Grade II* listed buildings in Denbighshire Registered historic parks and gardens in Denbighshire