Abbey-Cwm-Hir Hall is a neo-Elizabethan

Elizabethan architecture

Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...

 country house in the Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 county of Powys

Powys

Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...

. It was built in 1833 for Thomas Wilson

Thomas Wilson

-Politicians:*Thomas Wilson of Adelaide, Australia*Thomas Wilson , US Representative from Virginia*Thomas Wilson , US Representative from Minnesota*Thomas Stokeley Wilson, judge in Iowa...

 on the site of a house built c.1656 for the Fowler family, which was later owned by the Hastings family, Earls of Huntingdon. Wilson’s house was extended and altered as a Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 mansion

Mansion

A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 of ashlar

Ashlar

Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...

, decorated with polychromatic bands and elaborate bargeboard

Bargeboard

Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached...

s, by Poundley & Walker of Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 in 1867-69 for the Philips family. The house was doubled in size in 1869, and they added the snooker room in 1894.

Francis Philips (1771–1850) J.P., D.L., of Bank Hall, Lancashire (now Warrington Town Hall

Warrington Town Hall

Warrington Town Hall is in the town of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It consists of a house, originally called Bank Hall, flanked by two detached service wings at right angles to the house, one on each side. The house and the service wings have each been designated by English Heritage as...

) purchased the Abbeycwmhir estate in 1837 which had fallen into a state of disrepair. He did much to improve the estate. His eldest son and heir, Francis Aspinall Philips (1793–1859), inherited both his father's estates and though he lived at Bank Hall, spent much time at Abbeycwmhir, becoming High Sheriff of Radnorshire. In turn, his eldest son succeeded to Bank Hall and it was F.A. Philips' younger son who inherited and lived at Abbeycwmhir, George Henry Philips (b.1831) J.P., D.L., of Radnorshire

Radnorshire

Radnorshire is one of thirteen historic and former administrative counties of Wales. It is represented by the Radnorshire area of Powys, which according to the 2001 census, had a population of 24,805...

, who presumably sculpted the house as it is seen today.

The Philips were an old Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

 family who had held manors there since the reign of King Edward VI of England

Edward VI of England

Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

. Francis Philips' ancestors had been seated at Heath House in that county since the early seventeenth century, and it is still owned by the Philips family today. In the mid eighteenth century the family built the Tean Hall Mills and soon became well known as major cotton manufacturers in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. Francis Philips was a first cousin once removed of Sir George Philips, 1st Baronet.

Paul and Victoria Humpherston bought the Hall in late 1997 and have spent the subsequent years restoring it. Their results have been featured on BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 "Discovering Welsh Houses" and "Wales Today", on ITV "Wales Tonight" and on S4C.

See also

• Obituary of Francis Philips of Abbeycwmhir, 1850
• Report on the Abbeycwmhir estate, 1847
• Cwmhir Abbey
  Cwmhir Abbey
  Cwmhir Abbey , near Llandrindod Wells in Powys, is a Welsh Cistercian monastery founded in 1176 by Cadwallon ap Madog. A spurious tale was later recorded that the abbey was founded in 1143 by Meredudd ap Maelgwn at Ty-faenor, and then refounded at the present location near the village of...
  
  
• Abbeycwmhir
  Abbeycwmhir
  Abbeycwmhir or Abbey Cwmhir is a village in the valley of the Clywedog brook in Powys, Wales.- The Abbey :The village is named after Cwmhir Abbey, the Cistercian abbey built there in 1143. It was the largest Abbey in Wales but was never completed. Its fourteen bay nave was longer than Canterbury...
  
  
• List of gardens in Wales

External links

• Abbey-Cwm-Hir Hall - official site