Llantysilio Hall is a Grade II* listed country house in Llantysilio, near

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community (Wales), community, situated on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Val ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

. It is on the bank of the River Dee and adjacent to the historic Horseshoe Falls, the source of the

Llangollen Canal The Llangollen Canal () is a navigable canals of the United Kingdom, canal crossing the border between England and Wales. The waterway links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere, S ...

(the eleven miles of the canal to Chirk is a World Heritage site). The estate was purchased by the Victorian locomotive designer and builder

Charles Beyer Charles Frederick Beyer (an anglicised form of his original German name Carl Friedrich Beyer) (14 May 1813 – 2 June 1876) was a celebrated German-British locomotive designer and builder, and co-founder of the Institution of Mechanical Engineer ...

in 1867. He was co-founder of

Beyer, Peacock & Company Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English general engineering company and railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson founded the company in 1854. The company close ...

, one of the world's leading locomotive manufacturers. Beyer, a bachelor, built the 25-bedroom mansion house, soon after his business partner,

Henry Robertson Henry Robertson (11 June 1816 – 22 March 1888) was a Scottish mining engineer and prolific railway builder, industrialist and Liberal Party politician. He was head of Brymbo Steelworks, Wrexham. He was co-founder of Beyer-Peacock, with C ...

, rebuilt nearby Palé Hall,

Llandderfel Llandderfel is a village and a sparsely populated community in Gwynedd, Wales, near Bala, formerly served by the Llandderfel railway station. The community also includes the settlements of Glan-yr-afon, Llanfor, Cefnddwysarn and Frongoch. ...

. Samuel Pountney Smith of Shrewsbury was the architect. The hall was lavishly decorated. For example, the larger, south-facing, drawing room has a Carrara marble chimneypiece with giallo antico columns and three cameos in the frieze, of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, Robertson's wife (formerly Elizabeth Dean of

Brymbo Hall Brymbo Hall, one of Britain's lost houses, was a manor house located near Brymbo outside the town of Wrexham, North Wales. The house, reputed to have been partly built to the designs of Inigo Jones,''Encyclopædia Britannica'', vol 24, 1911, p.8 ...

, who met Queen Victoria at Palé Hall when her son – and Beyer's godson – Henry Beyer Robertson played host and was subsequently knighted), and Shakespearean actress

Helena Faucit Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress. Early life Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a ...

(Beyer's nearest neighbour, at Bryntysilio Hall, with her husband Sir Theodore Martin, author of the official biography of Prince Albert, ''Life of the Prince Consort''). The smaller room has a similar chimneypiece depicting

William I, German Emperor Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 1861 and German Emperor from 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. ...

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

, and

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (; 26 October 180024 April 1891) was a Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as the creator of a new, more ...

. These pieces were probably made c. 1874, some three years after the start of the German Empire. Charles Beyer died at Llantysilio Hall on 2 June 1876. He was buried at Llantysilio Church, in the grounds of his estate.

was the head engineer of the

Llangollen and Corwen Railway The Llangollen and Corwen Railway was formed as a continuation of the Vale of Llangollen Railway to continue the line along the Dee Valley a further to Corwen. This was opened on throughout on 8 May 1865 and was worked by the Great Western Ra ...

and he also owned and rebuilt the Chainbridge hotel and rebuilt the historic

chain bridge A chain bridge is a historic form of suspension bridge for which chains or eyebars were used instead of wire ropes to carry the bridge deck. A famous example is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest. Construction types are, as for other suspensi ...

, which is a short distance down the river bank. Rob old hall was demolished in 1875. When Beyer died the estate was bequeathed to his godson

Sir Henry Beyer Robertson Sir Henry Beyer Robertson (4 May 1862 – 2 June 1948) was a British industrialist. He was the son of Henry Robertson, of Palé Hall, Llandderfel. Life Born in Shrewsbury, he was the son of Henry Robertson (11 June 1816 – 22 March 1888) and El ...

(

's son). Sir Henry Robertson became head of

Brymbo Steelworks The Brymbo Steel Works was a former large steelworks in the village of Brymbo near Wrexham, Wales. In operation between 1796 and 1990, it was significant on account of its founder, one of whose original blast furnace stacks remains on the sit ...

, responsible for its rescue in the 1930s and the development of the new blast furnaces. He was also a director of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

References

{{coord, 52.9844, -3.2059, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Houses in Denbighshire Country houses in Wales Grade II* listed buildings in Denbighshire Registered historic parks and gardens in Denbighshire