Gregynog
Encyclopedia
Tregynon
Tregynon is a small village and community in Powys, Wales. It rests on the B4389 road which runs from Bettws Cedewain to New Mills. The country house Gregynog is nearby....
, 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Newtown in 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...
, mid-Wales
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...
. Various halls have occupied the site since the twelfth century and it was the ancestral home of the Blayneys and the Traceys from the fifteenth century. It was given to the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
in 1963 by owners and art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
-collectors, Margaret
Margaret Davies
Margaret Sidney Davies , was a Welsh art collector and patron of the arts. With her sister Gwendoline, she bequeathed a total of 260 works, particularly strong in Impressionist and 20th-century art, which formed the basis of the present-day National Museum Wales' international collection...
and Gwendoline Davies
Gwendoline Davies
Gwendoline Elizabeth Davies, CH , was a granddaughter of the philanthropist David Davies Llandinam. Together with her sister Margaret, she is remembered as a patron of the arts in Wales and important collector of Impressionist and 20th-century art...
, the granddaughters of Victorian tycoon, David Davies Llandinam
David Davies (industrialist)
David Davies was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1874 and 1886. Davies was often known as David Davies Llandinam , in order to differentiate him from others of the same name.Davies was the son of David Davies and his wife Elizabeth...
.
The current hall was built in the 1840s by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley
Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley
Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley , known as Charles Hanbury until 1798 and as Charles Hanbury Tracy from 1798 to 1838, was a British Whig politician....
and is one of the earliest examples of a concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
clad building still in existence. The original estate was over 18,000 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (73 km²) but is now set in 750 acres (3 km²) of mature formal gardens and rolling countryside. The sunken garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
and arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
are of particular note.
The hall was used by the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
as a conference and study centre. It also hosted the biannual Crisis Simulation by Aberystwyth University's Department of International Politics. Now that the University of Wales has been merged into Trinity Saint David, Gregynog Hall has also been transferred to Trinity Saint David.
The Gregynog Music Festival
Gregynog Music Festival
thumb|alt=The Music Room, Gregynog|The Music Room, GregynogGregynog Festival, or Gŵyl Gregynog in Welsh, is the oldest extant classical music festival in Wales and takes place each summer at Gregynog Hall in the village of Tregynon, near Newtown, Powys, mid-Wales.In its present form, Gregynog...
, Wales' oldest extant classical music festival, was founded by the Davies sisters in 1933 and takes place annually in the Music Room in June. The Festival has attracted leading international performers and composers such as Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
and Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
. Other composers associated with the Hall include Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
and Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
. The Courtyard is also home to Gwasg Gregynog, a private printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
press founded by the sisters as the Gregynog Press
Gregynog Press
The Gregynog Press, also known as Gwasg Gregynog, is a printing press and charity in Wales.Founded in 1922 by the sisters and art patrons Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, the press was named after their mansion Gregynog Hall. It rose to prominence in the pre-war era as among the more important...
in 1922, which produces limited edition, hand-bound books.
Other arts promotions include the annual Young Musicians Competition
Gregynog Young Musicians Competition
Gregynog Young Musicians Competition began in 2005, originally as part of the Gregynog Festival, and more recently as a free-standing event. It is held at Gregynog Hall in Mid Wales and is open to instrumentalists under the age of 18.Winners have been:...
and outdoor theatre productions. The estate also houses the Training Apiary of the Montgomeryshire Beekeepers Association.
Gregynog has a history of paranormal activity and is often the site of amateur ghosthunting.