Parc Howard – A Short History by West Wales Chronicle’s Philip Thomas

Parc Howard – A Short History
by Philip Thomas

                                                         © Philip Thomas Publishing 2016

Parc Howard in Llanelli is a magnificent example of a Victorian Italianate style mansion house that stands on high land formerly called Bryncaerau, the Welsh for ‘Hill of Forts’. It gets its name from early settlements established thousands of years ago by early European settlers who colonised the land including the Iberians, Brythons, Romans and Anglo-Saxons.

In 1572, English politician and lawyer Alban Stepney of Hertfordshire became the first landowner of Bryncaerau after being appointed Receiver General of the Diocese of St David’s by Bishop Robert Davies, a relation to Stepney’s second wife Mary Phillips of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire. Alban Stepney never lived at Bryncaerau and died in 1611 having established the Llanelli branch of the once famous Stepney family of West Wales.

In 1800, a residence was built at Bryncaerau by the Roberts’ family and appropriately named Bryncaerau Cottage. Eight tenants lived at Bryncaerau Cottage during its eighty one year lifespan including Sir John Stepney, the debtor Martyn John Roberts, W H Laud, Charles William Coombs, Richard Thomas Howell and James Buckley of Penyfai. It was the latter who decided to replace Bryncaerau Cottage with the wonderful building we see today. The commission to design and build the castle was given to his architect cousin, James Buckley Wilson who completed the work between 1882 and 1886.

© Philip Thomas Publishing 2016

James Buckley died in 1895 aged fifty six and serving as High Sherriff of Carmarthenshire and the following year, his son Captain ‘Frank’ Buckley moved into Bryncaerau Castle with his new wife, Edith ‘Yoi’ Cornelia Crosse of Paddington. Considered one of the most beautiful of women of her day, the writer and model caused a national scandal when she began an affair with Foreign Office attaché Sir Coleridge Kennard. Deserting her marriage and two daughters, ‘Yoi’ pursued Coleridge after he transferred to Rome and Tehran to evade journalists and to end the affair. Frank Buckley divorced ‘Yoi’ on grounds of infidelity and after giving up on Sir Kennard she returned to Rome and married Italian Sculptor Antonio Maraini in 1914. She died in 1944.

In 1900, tinplate industrialist Richard Beaumont Thomas took up residence at Bryncaerau Castle but relocated to the Wye Valley three years later. In 1917, he bequeathed a complex will worth £450,000 which was made into a Private Bill by Act of Parliament. Today, it would be worth £40 million.

Sir Edward Stafford Howard of Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire purchased the estate for the sum of £7,750 (£900,000 in today’s money) and renamed it Howard Park only for it to be changed to Parc Howard by his new wife, Lady Catharine Meriel Stepney of Llanelli. On 21st September 1912, the date of their first wedding anniversary, Parc Howard was gifted to Llanelli Urban District Council for 999 years at an annual lease fee of £5.

During his gifting speech, Sir Stafford Howard said:

“I can only express the hope on behalf of Lady Howard and myself, that this park will be a real benefit to the people of Llanelly.”

© Philip Thomas Publishing 2016

During World War One, Parc Howard served as a Red Cross Auxiliary Military Hospital and was manned by a total of 127 volunteer nurses from both Red Cross and the Voluntary Aid Detachment. It was used to provide medical care to wounded British servicemen and Belgian refugees and the commandant was Agneta Stepney Gulston MBE. Also among the Red Cross nursing team was Edith Eileen Towranna Mansel Lewis of Stradey Castle, a great aunt of Patrick Mansel Lewis, the present day owner of Stradey Castle.

During World War Two Parc Howard served as an Air Rapid Precaution (ARP) Centre and their busiest night was Tuesday, 9th July, 1940 when the Llanelli areas of New Dock, Embankment Road and Machynys each suffered war damage from enemy action.

Llanelli Borough Council replaced the Urban District Council in 1913 and in 1997, Carmarthen County Council was established. As such, Parc Howard was transferred across to the new administration and they have remained the official landowner of Parc Howard ever since.

Philip Thomas is author of ‘The Story of Parc Howard’.