Historic Welsh mansion with links to Charles Dickens is reduced to rubble in a warning for nation’s heritage
AN 180-YEAR-OLD mansion house has been reduced to rubble – serving as a warning to the historic homes of Wales.
Plas Dulas on Pencoed Road, Llanddulas, Conwy, was built in the 1840s as a summer retreat for Elizabeth Easthope, the daughter of the owner of the Morning Chronicle.
Its famous guests included writer Charles Dickens, playwright Noel Coward and novelist Evelyn Waugh. The grand house is said to have been the inspiration for the boy’s school Llanabba in his 1928 novel Decline and Fall.
Despite that history and a campaign to save it – backed locally and across the UK – planning was secured in 2011 to demolish the mansion and build 15 homes in its place.
Campaigning did not stop but the condition of the building continued to deteriorate and bids to protect the site failed.
In January, it was reported that developer Alex Davies Construction had submitted a construction method statement detailing how the building will be demolished and the site cleared ahead of the new development.
Now 13 years after planning permission was given the mansion has been razed to the ground.
The loss of this significant property highlights the risk to hundreds of historic properties
across Wales. There are about 30,000 listed buildings across Wales, according to Cadw – Wales’ historic monument agency, Although most owners keep their listed buildings in good repair, buildings can become vulnerable or at risk, particularly when they are not in use. Cadw has released a list of more than 2,708 listed structures, which are have been categorised – in three levels of risk from lowest to highest, with around 700 in the highest category.
Mark Baker, architectural historian and
chair of Gwrych Trust, had campaigned against the demolition decision. Speaking previously, he said the demolition decision “shows a greater disrespect for architectural history in Wales”.
Talking about the origins of the mansion he said: “The beauty and appeal of the region attracted one particular woman, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Easthope MP, one of the wealthiest men in Victorian Britain, owning the influential Morning Chronicle, employing Charles Dickens in his first journalistic job. It was Elizabeth and her descendants who developed Plas Dulas.”