Llangoed Hall is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhouse (Great Britain), town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the cit ...

hotel, near the village of

Llyswen Llyswen is a small village in Powys, Wales on the west bank of the River Wye. It was formerly within the county of Brecknockshire and now forms part of the Community of Bronllys. The nearest town is Brecon approximately to the south-west. Hist ...

, in

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

Mid Wales Mid Wales ( cy, Canolbarth Cymru or simply ''Y Canolbarth'', meaning "the midlands") or Central Wales refers to a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd ...

. It is known for its decoration in

Laura Ashley Laura Ashley (née Mountney; 7 September 1925 – 17 September 1985) was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She originally made furnishing materials in the 1950s, expanding the business into clothing design and manufacture in the 1960s ...

fabrics and styles, and was owned by Sir Bernard Ashley, the widower of the designer. It is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

building.

History

The Hall, originally known as Llangoed Castle, was donated to the church in 560 by

Prince Iddon A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

in expiation of his sins. It may have also been the site of the legendary White Palace, home of the first

Welsh parliament The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gov ...

. A mansion existed from 1632. It was in the possession of the Macnamara family for two generations until 1847, but changed hands to settle a gambling debt. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

re-designed it as a country house, retaining the surviving Jacobean porch as part of the south wing but creating several

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

additions.

Sir Bernard Ashley Sir Bernard Albert Ashley (11 August 1926 – 14 February 2009) was an English businessman and engineer. He was the husband of Laura Ashley, and was her business partner from the founding of their fashion-textiles-centred business. An enginee ...

bought Llangoed Hall in 1987 and opened it as a hotel in 1990. The Ashley family sold the hall to

Von Essen Hotels Andrew Davis (born 12 February 1964) is a British businessman who founded the von Essen Group, which included Von Essen Hotels, PremiAir and the London Heliport. Early life and career Davis went to St Bede's Comprehensive School. Reigate Gramm ...

in November 2010 for an undisclosed sum. The property was put up for sale again in February 2012 after Von Essen went into administration in April 2011.

Hotel

Sir Bernard Ashley's intention was to recreate Llangoed Hall as an

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

house, replete with high-society Edwardian customs, period furnishings and antique fittings. The hotel also has an art collection with pieces by Whistler,

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

Andrew Melville Andrew Melville (1 August 1545 – 1622) was a Scottish scholar, theologian, poet and religious reformer. His fame encouraged scholars from the European continent to study at Glasgow and St. Andrews. He was born at Baldovie, on 1 August 15 ...

John Duncan Fergusson John Duncan Fergusson (9 March 1874 – 30 January 1961) was a Scottish artist and sculptor, regarded as one of the major artists of the Scottish Colourists school of painting. Early life Fergusson was born in Leith, Edinburgh, the firs ...

and

Albert Lynch Albert Lynch (1860–1950) was a Parisian painter of German-Peruvian ancestry. Biography Alberto Fernando Lynch was born on 26 September 1860 in Gleisweiler in the Rhineland of Germany, and baptised there on 21 March 1861. His father, Diego Lyn ...

. Bedrooms are individually designed and decorated with furnishings from

and Sir Bernard's

venture company Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ...

Elanbach, which he created in 2000 and is based in the hotel's grounds. It won the ''Best Restaurant in Wales'' award in its first year.

References

External links

Official website
{{Powys Country houses in Powys Castles in Powys Hotels in Wales Grade II* listed buildings in Powys Country house hotels Arts and Crafts architecture in Wales