Lymore, or Lymore House or Lodge was demolished in 1931. It stood in Lymore Park, one mile ESE of

Montgomery, Powys Montgomery ( ; translates as ''the town of Baldwin'') is a town and Community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales. It is the traditional county town of the Historic counties of Wales, historic county of Montgomeryshire to which it gives its name, ...

, Wales. The house was a large

half-timbered Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

house built by

Edward Herbert, 3rd Baron Herbert of Chirbury Edward Herbert, 3rd Baron Herbert of Chirbury (1633-1678) was an English aristocrat and soldier. Life He was the elder son of Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury. He joined the royalist uprising under Sir George Booth, when he declare ...

, c. 1675, to replace the family residences in

Montgomery Castle Montgomery Castle () is a stone castle looking over the town of Montgomery in Powys, Mid Wales. It is one of many Norman castles on the border between Wales and England. Its strategic importance in the Welsh Marches meant that it was destroy ...

and Black Hall in Montgomery. The house, which had been uninhabited but maintained for many years, was used for an event in 1921, when one of the floors collapsed with disastrous consequences, resulting in demolition in 1931. The Earls of Powis still own and maintain the park. The park includes the grounds of the Montgomery Cricket Club, which is the oldest cricket pitch in Montgomeryshire and

Offa's Dyke Offa's Dyke () is a large linear Earthworks (Archaeology), earthwork that roughly follows the England–Wales border, border between England and Wales. The structure is named after Offa of Mercia, Offa, the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon king of Mer ...

forms its eastern boundary. It is listed on the

Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is a heritage register of significant historic parks and gardens in Wales. It is maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and ...

General description

Today, the site of Lymore Hall is overgrown, with the walled garden filled with trees. On the north side, the Gardeners Cottages, shown on a survey of 1775, still stands. On the West side stands the Lymore Farmhouse (the former Steward's or Bailiff's House) which was originally attached to the main house. It incorporates much early brick. On the West, the site is partly encircled by three large ornamental lakes, probably late 17th century, though the Middle Pool, traversed by a causeway is now dry. Opposite, on the Middle Pool are the stone walls of a curious ‘fortified’ farmyard (either a folly, or for militia training) and a Georgian brick farmhouse. There was also a mill building (later converted to a water driven sawmill), which was part of the ornamental setting (cf Mill at

Dunham Massey Dunham Massey is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The parish includes the villages of Sinderland Green, Dunham Woodhouses and Dunham Town, along with Dunham Massey Hall and Park, formerly th ...

, Cheshire) with gardens on the East side. Elsewhere, more elements of the hunting park layout can be observed, with fox coverts and

decoy pond A duck decoy is a device to capture wild ducks or other species of Anatidae, waterfowl. Decoys had an advantage over hunting ducks with shotguns as the Duck as food, duck meat did not contain Shot (pellet), lead shot. Consequently, a higher pric ...

s with a hut in wood to South and another possible decoy pond in Bronyhall wood. Throughout the parkland there are numerous old oaks. The tree ring-evidence from a recently felled example suggests that they were planted in the late 17th century. A letter from Lord Herbert of Chirbury in 1673 mentions that he intended to ''sow the

frith Frith is a word derived from Old English meaning "peace; protection; safety, security, freedom, refuge". Etymology Derived from Old English ''friðu, friþ'', it is cognate to Old Norse '' friðr'', Old Saxon '' frithu'', Old High German '' ...

with nuts and acorns'' for a ''perpetual stock of fuel''

The Montgomery Cricket Club

The cricket pitch is to the North East of the house. The earliest recorded match on the Lymore pitch was on 17 September 1847 between ''eleven gentlemen of Montgomery and eleven of Newtown''. After this the club became established and in 1882 a match was played between ''A United All England Eleven versus 22 of Montgomery''. The Montgomery team won by 62 runs in a two-innings match. In the 1970s the original wooden pavilion was replaced by the present brick pavilion.

History

The park before Lymore was built

The earliest features, revealed by excavation and aerial photography, are the medieval causeway on the North side of the park, which continues to the Hollow Way going to the Rhydywiman ford in the river

Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

, which would have linked with the Trystllywelyn causeway on the other side of the Severn. This would have been a major routeway into Wales before the foundation of the town of Montgomery. A slightly later feature is a possible

Deserted Medieval Village In the United Kingdom, a deserted medieval village (DMV) is a former settlement which was abandoned during the Middle Ages, typically leaving no trace apart from earthworks or cropmarks. If there are fewer than three inhabited houses the conve ...

, which may have been a vill of Chirbury Priory, with a large area of

ridge and furrow Ridge and furrow is an Archaeology, archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: ''sliones'') and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open field system, open-field system. It is a ...

cultivation. The creation of the Park at Lymore, would have taken place after the Herberts acquired the lands of Chirbury Priory in the late 16th century

Building history

The house was a large and late half-timbered house built by Edward, third Lord Herbert of Cherbury, c. 1675 (date on a gable finial but not finished until 1677, a year before Lord Herbert's death) to replace the New Building in the outer bailey of Montgomery, and possibly his other house ''Plas Llysen'' or ''Llysun'', which was set in his other Montgomeryshire park at

Llanerfyl Llanerfyl is a village and community (Wales), community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. Located near the River Banwy, the community includes the village of Llanerfyl, several farms and wide tracts of marchland. The southern part of the communit ...

. The house had a close-studded frontage, with an open three-bay loggia on the ground floor, six gables, and, rising from the centre, a pyramid-roofed look-out tower. This lookout tower can be compared with the stair-turret lookout at Plas Mawr,

Conwy Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy ...

and a very similar tower on Oak House

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...

. A series of letters between Edward Herbert and his agent Roger Jones provides a fairly detailed outline of the building work that was taking place. In the first letter Lord Herbert of Cherbury is undecided whether to re-build at Black Hall, below the Castle at Montgomery or at Lymore. He, however, decides to have 300,000 bricks fired at the estate brickyard (this would have been at the Stalloe brickyard to the North East of Montgomery). He then acquires more land at Lymore and proceeds with demolishing "Powell's" house to use for timber for Lymore. There is then a detailed account of the construction work and particularly alterations to the staircase. It has been speculated that the staircase, which, in 1931, was removed to Aldborough Hall in Yorkshire, came from the ''New Build'', in

, but this is unsubstantiated. Although Lymore is thought primarily as being a

timber framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

house, a huge quantity of bricks were used in the extensive kitchen and service wing that lay to the south. This was pulled down after 1795. Early bricks were also used in the walled garden and the Steward's house which was reconstructed in 1931. The earliest drawing of Lymore is dated July 1684, when it was sketched by

Thomas Dineley Thomas Dingley or Dineley (died 1695) was an English antiquary. Life He was the son and heir of Thomas Dingley, controller of customs at Southampton; he was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, and, on his own account educated by Ja ...

, who was accompanying the Duke of Beaufort on his progress through Wales. The north frontage of the house was shown with six gables. A survey of the valuation of Lands belonging to the Earls of Powis in 1785 shows the house with eight gables. The house was drawn by Moses Griffiths for

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (16 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall, near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he had ...

in 1775, during his tour of Montgomeryshire and Shropshire. Thomas Pennant intended to re-publish this tour and in 1794–5 he commissioned three further watercolours of Lymore from John Ingleby, which are now in a collection in the National Library of Wales. These watercolours add greatly to our knowledge of Lymore and particularly for details of the brick service range to the south of the timber framed reception areas of Lymore Hall. An extensive reconstruction of Lymore must have taken place in the early years of the 19th century, when the number of gables on the north frontage were reduced to three.

Illustrations by John Ingleby of Lymore 1794/5

Later history and demolition in 1931

Lymore was only lived in for one year by

, and he was succeeded by Henry, the 4th Baron, who died in 1691. His widow Lady Catherine continued to live at Lymore until her death in 1714, when the house and estate devolved to Francis Herbert of Dolguog at

Penegoes Penegoes () is a village in Powys, Wales, between Cemmaes Road and Machynlleth, on the A489 road, and the primary settlement of the Community (Wales), community of Cadfarch. The Afon Crewi, one of several streams feeding into Afon Dulas, itself ...

in Montgomeryshire. In 1903 Fletcher Moss in his ''Pilgrimages to Old Homes, mostly on the Welsh Borders'' gives a graphic account of being shown round the deserted house by the daughter of the caretaker. He recounts cycling up to the hall ''amid a herd of grand Herefords, some of which looked like weighing a ton, and by a picturesque saw-mill where great trunks of trees are piled up''. He remarks that ''the oak in this house is wonderful. All the floors in the house are waxed and polished, but the panelling, doors and other oaken work is simply dusted''. He noted that the house was well kept, some of the old furniture was still there, and that fires were lit during the winter to keep the house warm. Lady Powis had had a picnic tea there the previous day and Lord Kitchener was shortly to come for a shoot. In 1907 the house was recorded in ''Country Life'' and in 1909, the future

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

came to Lymore as the guest of the 4th Earl of Powis for a shooting party. The end of Lymore was heralded in August 1921, when the floor of the Banqueting Hall dramatically collapsed in the course of a church

bazaar A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...

. This was graphically described at great length in the ''Montgomeryshire Express and Radnor Times'' of Tuesday 9 August 1921. It was reported that ''there was a considerable congestion of people near the main entrance … suddenly without any audible promontory symptoms, a knot of guest were observed to disappear outright''. 17 people had disappeared, nearly 12 feet below, into a stone vault. The

Earl of Powis Earl of Powis (Powys) is a title that has been created three times. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1674 in favour of William Herbert, 3rd Baron Powis, a descendant of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (c. 1501–15 ...

was at the time talking to the Rector of Montgomery, and he disappeared with the lady journalist from the ''Montgomeryshire County Times'', while the Rector remained above. Fortunately, no-one was badly injured although some people were badly shaken. In 1929 the Earl of Powis decided that he could no longer afford the cost of maintenance and offered the house through the

Office of Works The Office of Works was an organisation responsible for structures and exterior spaces, first established as part of the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it be ...

to the nation. The Earl also offered the house to anyone for £1 to anyone who would put it in order. The house was then surveyed by the architect A B Waters and his report in the ''Montgomeryshire Collections'' provides detailed plans and elevations of the house, as it stood. The furnishings and fittings of the House were then offered for sale at an auction on 25 October 1929 by the Estate department of

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

. A last minute offer of £10,000 was made by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

through the Office of Works to preserve the house for the Nation, but the Office of Works did not consider that this was a sufficient sum for the repair work, so the sale went ahead. This was followed on 20 May 1931 by a sale of the structural elements of the house. A fine carved staircase with diamond-rusticated newels had already been removed to Aldborough Hall in Yorkshire. Much of the other timber was purchased by Kenneth Hutchinson-Smith, an architect/builder from

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, where it was used for building ''mock'', Tudor houses. Sawn trunk of Oak Tree that had been blown down

The gardens and pools

On the West the site is partly encircled by three large ornamental lakes, probably late 17th century, though the Middle Pool, traversed by a causeway is now dry. Opposite, on the Middle Pool are the stone walls of a curious ‘fortified’ farmyard (is this a folly or was it for training the militia?) and a Georgian brick farmhouse. The gardens and park are listed at Grade II on the

Gallery

References

Forests and woodlands of Powys Timber-framed houses in Wales Former houses in Wales Buildings and structures in Powys Houses in Powys Montgomery, Powys Registered historic parks and gardens in Powys