Llwynywermod, site of one of the romantic but sadly "Lost Houses of Wales", is a name with tantalising but unproven connections with the herbal traditions of the Parish of Myddfai.
Wormwood was an important insect repellant and disinfectant in early times and a substitute for hops in beer, though not one finding much favour with George Borrow in his "Wild Wales" in the mid nineteenth century!
The earliest records of Llwynywermod so far found are about William Williams who died in 1686 and whose son was Daniel Williams. His son David Williams was baptised in Myddfai in 1713. He became a successful Carmarthen lawyer. There is a rather poignant memorial in the Church on the right hand side of the altar in memory of his son Erasmus Williams who predeceased his father in 1785 and who himself shortly thereafter died without further issue leaving his estate to his nephew.
This was the son of his wife's brother, George Griffies, who thereupon took the additional name of Williams as part of the conditions of his inheritance. George Griffies Williams was educated in England, son of a clergyman, apparently moving in illustrious circles and acquired a baronetcy in 1815. He in turn was succeeded by his second son the Reverend Sir Erasmus Griffies Williams. By all accounts father and son were both somewhat colourful characters.
Sir Erasmus became Chancellor of St. David's in 1858 and remained so until his death in 1870. The estate was then acrimoniously divided between his two daughters and in the following years the estate was sold in several stages because of heavy indebtedness, principally to an adjoining family estate. By the middle of the nineteenth century the family had ceased to reside at Llwynywermod and there is evidence that the house was let to members of several notable local families. By the time the estate was sold nobody lived in the house except a caretaker and we are led to believe that from the earlier part of the twentieth century the house deteriorated and was successively quarried until only the fragmentary remains seen here today existed.
The farm was tenanted and it is believed to have been purchased by the tenants, the Lewis family, in the 1950's. D.T. Lewis was a founder member of the Famers' Union of Wales. There is evidence in part of the ruins of the mansion of a late medieval kitchen in the small building known as the Old Bakehouse. It appears to have been in the form of a detached kitchen, not uncommon in the seventeenth century, lying adjacent to the more substantial surviving part of the ruin which we believe to have been the the part of the house occupied by the Williams family.
They appeared to have prospered and by the evidence of the position of the memorial in the Church had considerable influence in the Parish by the late eighteenth century. Substantial enlargements and improvements to the house and Park were carried out by George Griffies Williams on taking his inheritance . The house appears to have been enlarged by instalments in a relatively haphazard manner over many years as is evidenced by the only illustration extant which is a pencil sketch now residing in the National Library of Wales.
The Park is favourably mentioned in Richard Fenton's "Tours in Wales", when he passed through in 1809. A model farmyard was constructed or reconstructed around 1800 providing, amongst other buildings, a Great Barn a hundred foot long, now listed, which appears to be the largest surviving barn of this period in the county and illustrating the serious nature of agriculture here at that time. The present farmhouse was provided out of a three bay carthouse in the 1860's and this was extended into the stable and harness room in 2000.
There is a further range of ancillary buildings, contrived from the mansion side to look like cottages, to complete the yard. George Griffies Williams like many of his educated contemporaries in the eighteenth century with an estate, developed a taste for landscaping his Park and this was carried out in a very sophisticated and subtle manner. Though the Park, like the house, suffered serious deterioration during the twentieth century, fortunately the underlying structure remains and since the Park relies more on its configuration rather than more ephemeral buildings, a landscape restoration project which is now in progress will enable many features and the feel of the eighteenth century environment to be revived .
There is a small and interesting Walled Garden, the walls of which are now partially restored and the interior of which has been laid out on an experimental basis to determine the extent and variety of crops which can be grown again in this part of Wales using organic and modern scientific techniques. It is hoped that the current interest in the architectural and landscape history of this part of Wales, which is particularly rich in Towy Valley, will lead to the revelation of more of its fascinating story.
John and Patricia Hegarty