How many of you have either visited, or driven past Merthyr Labour Club and not realised that it is actually the old Court House – one of the oldest buildings in Merthyr?
The main building that stands today was built in 1717, but there is evidence that there was a building on the site as far back as the 12th Century. During renovations at the house in the 1700’s, an old carved oak bedstead was found in a room in the cellar with the letters MCL carved into it – the Roman numerals for 1150.
Some sources say that the ancient house was the site of the 12th Century Court of the Welsh Prince, Ifor Bach, and it is said that it was actually from the Court House that Llewelyn Bren, great-grandson of Ifor Bach, set out in 1316 with 10,000 armed men to face Payne de Turberville of Coity, who had cheated him out of the position granted him by the Earl of Gloucester. The house passed down through the descendents of Llewelyn’s brother Gruffydd.
The house subsequently passed through the hands of several families. Records show the house was occupied by the Ifor family in Elizabethan times, and a Mr Edward Lewis owned the house until he left in 1717 to build a manor house near Caerphilly. The house was then bought by the Rees family of Llanelli and rebuilt in 1717.
The new house was built of local stone, enlarged and had new windows built, and a description of the building in 1787 described it as looking like a large farmhouse, surrounded as it was at the time by green fields. In 1827, the house (and the attached 172 acre estate) was bought by Dr William Thomas, the prominent local magistrate. The estate would go on to be developed and named Thomastown in his honour.*
The house, after again passing through a number of families, was rented by Dr William Edwards in the late 1800’s and converted into a private school for young ladies run by the Misses Edwards.
In 1908 the building was leased to a syndicate “…for the purpose of providing accommodation for artisans and other working men” (Cardiff Times – 14 March 1908). The accommodation was to house 100 single men in cubicles in the 12 bedrooms, and a bathroom containing six baths was installed.
The building was eventually converted into the Merthyr Labour Club, and although it has been modernised, some of the old features still remain, including the old front door and several fireplaces on the upper floors.
*If anyone would like to find out more about Dr William Thomas, I would urge you to read the excellent book ‘Doctor Thomas of the Court’ by prominent local historian Wilf Owen.
If you would like a copy of the book, please get in touch and I will pass all enquiries on to Wilf Owen.
The old court house was my home for 2 years in my younger years
Marvellous. Do you have any memories of the building you would like to share?
I am Edward Davis Lewis, a direct descendent of the Lewis of Van
via William Lewis of Egwysillan [ 1636-1707] who with his brother Ralph Lewis
immagrated to the “Welsh Tract” of William Penn’s Silvanian provence in the ‘New World’ in 1686.
I would like to have contact with someone of the Merthyr Historical society to help me with reserch
on Merthyr and the Lewis of Van.
Paul it was my home from the age of 15 until I left Merthyr at the age of 47, God I spent some money behind that bar 😂
Played Cricket, Pool, Snooker and Football for the club. Great memories of great friends .
Regards
A very interesting article which has added a few more details to those of Wilf’s and my own knowledge of our historic Court House. Wilf recently received fascinating information from a descendent of the Lewis family , the chief of which was known as ‘Lewis of the Van’ ( Y Fan, his house in Caerphilly) who was Lord of Senghenydd, a large part of Glamorgan and he owned much of the land which included the village of Merthyr Tydfil. He lived in the Court House before building The Van. The estate owns the leasehold of land in Troedyrhiw to this day. The Lewises climbed the social ladder after the Act of Union, looking after the estates of the Earl of Pembroke and acquiring much land and property around Cardiff. The earl’s seat was Wilton House near Salisbury. The Lewises eventually moved into England and aggrandised themselves further through high connections, marrying into wealth and acquiring more land and property. Thomas Lewis, a family member who remained in Cardiff, was the main shareholder of the first furnace built in Dowlais in 1759.
Mary Owen,
I only just found your reply to mine of 14/2/21 asking for information about the “Court” House, Merthyr Twdvil and Ivor ap Meurig [ Ivor Bach]. His ancestors were long associated with the Cantref of Senghenydd, and his residence could have been Merthyr. It could well have been Ivor who built the original house on the site of the Court House, but I am wondering what actual evidence indicates he built it ? According to G.T. Clark Ivor’s grandson, Hywel ap Gruffudd [Felyn], after Earl of Gloucester had taken by force the site of Caerphilly [c.1271]., he later settled at Merthyr.
Any scraps of information about this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.