Hengwrt
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Hengwrt ( en, Old Court) was a mansion near Dolgellau in
Meirionnydd Meirionnydd is a coastal and mountainous region of Wales. It has been a kingdom, a cantref, a district and, as Merionethshire, a county. Kingdom Meirionnydd (Meirion, with -''ydd'' as a Welsh suffix of land, literally ''Land adjoined to Meirio ...
, Gwynedd. It lay in the parish of
Llanelltyd Llanelltyd ( cy, Llanelltyd) is a small village and community in Gwynedd, to the northwest of Dolgellau. The community population taken at the 2011 Census was 514, 57.4% of which speak Welsh. It is home to the 12th-century Cymer Abbey, a grade ...
near the confluence of the
River Mawddach The Afon Mawddach ( en, River Mawddach, italic=yes) is a river in Gwynedd, Wales, which has its source in a wide area north of Dduallt in Snowdonia. It is 28 miles (45 km) in length, and is much branched; many of the significant tri ...
and
River Wnion The River Wnion is a river in the southeast of Gwynedd, Wales. It begins high on the slopes of Aran Benllyn about five miles south of Lanuwchllyn and flows south-west into the River Mawddach near Cymer Abbey Cymer Abbey (Welsh: ''Abaty Cyme ...
, near
Cymer Abbey Cymer Abbey (Welsh: ''Abaty Cymer'') is a ruined Cistercian abbey near the village of Llanelltyd, just north of Dolgellau, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, United Kingdom. History It was founded in 1189 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the ...
. With medieval origins, it was rebuilt or remodelled on several occasions before being demolished in 1962. It is remembered as the original home of the important collection of the
Peniarth Manuscripts The Peniarth Manuscripts, also known as the Hengwrt–Peniarth Manuscripts, are a collection of medieval Welsh manuscripts now held by the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The collection was originally assembled by Robert Vaughan (c. 1 ...
, now in the National Library of Wales.


History

Hengwrt was recorded as a grange of
Cymer Abbey Cymer Abbey (Welsh: ''Abaty Cymer'') is a ruined Cistercian abbey near the village of Llanelltyd, just north of Dolgellau, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, United Kingdom. History It was founded in 1189 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the ...
, and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries passed with the rest of the abbey properties to
Sergeant at Arms Sergeant ( abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other un ...
John Powys. It was eventually bought by Hywel Vaughan of Gwengraig, after which it remained in the Vaughan family for many years.Dolgellau Character Area 5
, Gwynedd Archaeological Trust
A new house was built in 1750–54 on the site of the earlier building; it was substantially remodelled in 1830, when it was refaced in stone. Hengwrt was purchased by William McConnel in 1859. McConnell was the owner the Sedgwick cotton mill in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, one of the largest mills in operation in the United Kingdom. In January 1864, he formed the Aberdovey Slate Company which leased the
Bryn Eglwys Bryn Eglwys quarry was a slate quarry and mine near Abergynolwyn, in Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd), Wales. More than 300 men worked at the site, making it the principal employer in the area. Two veins of slate, known as the Broad Vein ...
slate quarry near
Abergynolwyn Abergynolwyn ( en, Mouth of the River with a Whirlpool) is a village in southern Gwynedd, Wales, located at the confluence of the Nant Gwernol and the Afon Dysynni. The population of the community which is named after the village of Llanfihan ...
. He built and opened the
Talyllyn Railway The Talyllyn Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Talyllyn) is a narrow gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1865Drummond 2015, page 17 ...
to transport slate from his quarry to the main line at
Tywyn Tywyn (Welsh: ; in English often ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the lo ...
; he owned the railway and quarry until 1910. Hengwrt mansion was demolished in 1962 following a fire, though some of its outbuildings survive.


Literary connections

Hengwrt is famous in Welsh literary history as the former home of one of the most important collections of Welsh manuscripts, the Hengwrt–Peniarth Manuscripts (often known more simply as the
Peniarth Manuscripts The Peniarth Manuscripts, also known as the Hengwrt–Peniarth Manuscripts, are a collection of medieval Welsh manuscripts now held by the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The collection was originally assembled by Robert Vaughan (c. 1 ...
), now held in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The collection was originally assembled by the collector and antiquarian Robert Vaughan, who lived at Hengwrt during the 17th century. They included treasures such as the
White Book of Rhydderch The White Book of Rhydderch (Welsh: ''Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch'', National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 4-5) is one of the most notable and celebrated surviving manuscripts in Welsh. Mostly written in southwest Wales in the middle of the 14th century ...
, Black Book of Carmarthen, Book of Taliesin and the
Book of Aneirin The Book of Aneirin ( cy, Llyfr Aneirin) is a late 13th century Welsh manuscript containing Old and Middle Welsh poetry attributed to the late 6th century Northern Brythonic poet, Aneirin, who is believed to have lived in present-day Scotland. Th ...
, along with the
Brut y Tywysogion ''Brut y Tywysogion'' ( en, Chronicle of the Princes) is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Brut ...
. The collection includes an important early copy of Chaucer also known as the "
Hengwrt Chaucer The Hengwrt Chaucer manuscript is an early-15th-century manuscript of the ''Canterbury Tales'', held in the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth. It is an important source for Chaucer's text, and was possibly written by someone with access to a ...
" or, misleadingly, the "Hengwrt Manuscript". These manuscripts remained in the Hengwrt library for 300 years, although several others in the collection (including the Hendregadredd Manuscript and the lost Hengwrt 33 or ''Hanesyn Hên'') disappeared in the late 18th century.
Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life ...
is recorded as having seen the antiquarian books there in 1696. A number of 18th- and early 19th-century antiquarians visited the mansion to see and copy manuscripts, including Evan Evans,
William Owen Pughe William Owen Pughe (7 August 1759 – 4 June 1835) was a Welsh antiquarian and grammarian best known for his ''Welsh and English Dictionary'', published in 1803, but also known for his grammar books and "Pughisms" (neologisms)."The Inventio ...
and
Iolo Morganwg Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclop ...
. The collection was inherited by
William Watkin Edward Wynne William Watkin Edward Wynne (23 December 1801 – 9 June 1880) was a Welsh Conservative Party politician and antiquarian. Life Wynne was born on 23 December 1801 in Denbighshire, Wales, and educated at Westminster School and Jesus College, ...
of
Peniarth Peniarth is a village and community in Meifod, Powys, Wales. It is 87.1 miles (140.2 km) from Cardiff and 156.9 miles (252.5 km) from London. It is represented in the Senedd by Russell George (Conservative). It is part of the Montgome ...
in 1859. In 1904 Sir John Williams purchased the collection from the Wynne family, subsequently donating it to the new National Library when it was established in 1907. The room in the National Library in which some of the manuscripts are displayed is named "Hengwrt", after the mansion. In the 18th century Hengwrt was the home of the diarist Elizabeth Baker, who was employed as a secretary to Hugh Vaughan, Robert Vaughan's great-great grandson. In the late 19th century it was the home of sculptor Mary Lloyd and her partner, the journalist and social reformer
Frances Power Cobbe Frances Power Cobbe (4 December 1822 – 5 April 1904) was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, religious thinker, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy group ...
.


References


External links

*
''Hengwrt Chaucer''
on the National Library of Wales website {{coord, 52.781, N, 3.781, W, type:landamrk_region:GB, display=title History of Gwynedd Llanelltyd Welsh manuscripts Merionethshire Welsh country houses destroyed in the 20th century