Brynhyfryd House, West Cross by Wendy Cope
BRYNHYFRYD HOUSE
Brynhyfryd, a large seven bedroom house with cellars, stables and two acres of land, was built on land leased from the Duke of Beaufort for 75 years from 25th December 1863 at an annual rent of £40. It is mentioned in the Cambrian newspaper in November 1865 when it was one of the buildings damaged by gale force winds in an unusually severe storm. “The new mansion of Mr David Williams at West Cross near Mumbles was partially unroofed, glass broken and other damage sustained which will involve a considerable outlay in its repair.” David Williams was a wine merchant with a business in Wind Street, Swansea, and he was a keen gardener, being secretary of the Swansea and Glamorgan Floral Society. He enjoyed his new garden and showed pot vines, lilies, exotic ferns, heliotropes and petunias successfully in the show two years later. However life there was not without its problems as he found it necessary to take Robert Westcott, the farmer at West Cross to court to deal with the damage caused to a field of mangolds by his straying cattle. In 1874 David Williams was complaining about the gypsies who had camped at Blackpill saying that they were a rough lot who had attacked one of their own women and left her for dead outside his house, that one of his servants had been forced to get a cab home to avoid them and that it was not safe to let the children out to play. He and his wife Anne had two daughters and two sons, all but the eldest having been born at Brynhyfryd.
In 1876 James Henry Burgess and his wife Laura, who had previously lived at Woodbine Cottage on the Mumbles Road, were living in the house. Their 6½ year old son Sidney James died there in February and another son was born there the following December. James was a shipbroker and Hon. Secretary of the Swansea Bay Regatta. In August 1877 he advertised the house for sale or to let and in November there was a sale of the contents of the house. By 1878 they had moved on to Alexandra Terrace, Norton. In May 1878 the house was again for sale, a sale ordered by the mortgagees. Details could be obtained from a Swansea solicitor or W. Gray Esq. of Dawlish, Devon. Was he one of the mortgagees?
Edward and Rachel Strick were the next occupiers of Brynhyfryd. Edward was a solicitor and held the post of Swansea coroner for very many years. Their daughter Rachel married Ashley Walker, the captain of Swansea Cricket Club and assistant schoolmaster at the Grammar School. After the marriage in 1876 he took a new appointment at Queen’s College, Colombo. 1880 saw the birth at Brynhyfryd of a daughter to Ashley and Rachel who were home on leave and staying with her parents. Ashley and Rachel had at least three more children all born in Colombo. Ashley served for 25 years in Ceylon rising to become an inspector of schools and he became known as the father of Ceylon cricket, captaining the Ceylon (European) team to Madras and Bombay. On census night in 1881 Edward Strick was 64 and at home at Brynhyfryd with his wife, his son Edward Upton, 18, an articled clerk, his daughter Marion Gwenllian, 22, and a married daughter Helen Mary Giles, whose husband was a civil engineer.
By 1886 the tenants had changed again. Robert Armine Morris, the son of John Morris, the industrialist, was living at Brynhyfryd. He was then 37 and had recently married Lucy, aged 23. By 1891 they had produced four daughters there and needed a nurse and an under-nurse to care for them. He appears to have given up his army career to settle down to married life. He eventually left this house to return to the family house at Sketty Park.
In the late 1890s William Robinson Smith was in residence. He also was a solicitor. He had a criminal practice and was involved in many cases heard at the Swansea Police Court. He had been born in Loughborough in 1829 but had been practising at Merthyr Tydfil for many years before moving to Swansea in 1886.
In 1901 Emily Leigh and her husband Rev. Daniel Leigh moved in. On census night in 1901 her husband was away but Emily, then 53, was entertaining her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, yet another solicitor, and their son Tudor Jones. In 1911 they were
both at home on census night. Daniel was then 74 and Emily was 63. Emily died in April 1917 and her obituary records her work for the Church, especially the Mothers Meeting, and her participation in the Red Cross sewing party during the war. At some time during the next four years Daniel moved away to the Pontypridd area.
From about 1924 to 1938 Sydney Laver Gregor lived in the house. He was a mining engineer and son of one of the founders of Gregor Brothers timber merchants at South Dock. He moved to Llanishen, Cardiff in 1938.
In 1946 the house was in multiple occupation and by 1956 it had settled into being three flats, one on each floor, which were occupied for many years by the Price, Kydd and Evans families.
At the beginning of 1986 Brynhyfryd was for sale by tender with planning approval for change of use to a nursing home. Much work was done to restore the house and shortly after, Brynhyfryd House Nursing Home was opened.