Harold’s Moor House as well as Glannant & Oaklands by Wendy Cope

Includes an Update: Ynys-y-plant, Childrens Home , West Cross 

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Harold’s Moor, West Cross

In June 1850 a field beside the Mumbles Road was for sale at auction.  Its name was Harold’s Moor and it was advertised as ‘an eligible site for a villa.’  The purchaser did indeed build at the site but produced two semi detached dwellings which became known by the field name, Harold’s Moor. 

One part was occupied by Miss Eliza Rachael Leach, a lady of independent means, who lived there until at least 1882, by which time she was 70 or 71.  Living with her were her elder sister, Sarah Allen, who was the widow of a serviceman, Sarah’s two children, and a friend, Mary Miles. Over the years the children grew and left home, Sarah died and then Mary died leaving Eliza on her own.  She became involved in the running of local bazaars such as that in 1859 which raised money for the National Schoolrooms in Mumbles and the Swansea Hospital bazaar in April 1975.  She would collect donations and take charge of a stall. 

The other house was taken by the Misses Thomas who ran a school for young ladies.  One of them died in 1861 and the last advertisement for the school was in January 1862.  The following year their furniture was offered for sale, including the pupils’ desks.  The premises were taken by the Misses Habakkuk, Mary and Anne, who moved from Craddock Street, Swansea, and opened their own school there in January 1864.  When the census was taken in 1871 they had four boarders, Anne Jones and Mary Glasbrook, from Swansea, Margaret Brook from Tredegar and Jessie Jones from Merthyr, whose ages ranged from 9 to 14.  The Misses Habakkuk were still there in 1876 and may have stayed some time longer possibly until the spring of 1878 as the house was then advertised as being to let. 

Slaters directory of 1880 names three people as being residents of Harold’s moor, Eliza Leach, Thomas P. Bevan and T. W. Islay Young. Another nearby house was included in the location, Earlsmoor, the one occupied by Mr Bevan. This house was to let from September 1880 to November 1881 as Mr Bevan had died.  Mrs Islay Young was there in November 1880 when patron of a bazaar and Miss Leach was patron of another bazaar in July 1881.  After 1882 one of the houses was let to Mr S. C. Johnson as a family home and three of his children were born there.  By 1889 another tenant of one house was a Mr. Lucas, whose daughter Millie was married from there to D. Villiers Meager, a barrister. 

One of the two semi-detached houses was to let in October 1892 and stayed on the market for several months.  It was described as having 3 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms, large attics, bathroom, hot and cold water, a lawn at the front and a productive kitchen garden at the rear.  By this time the term Harold’s Moor had come to mean the whole group of houses around what we now call Bethany Lane so it becomes more difficult to pinpoint the two original semi detached houses.

Lydia Bevan nee Maille is believed to have lived at Harold’s moor with her cousin Miss Elizabeth Pym, from the early 1900s until her death in 1920.  Lydia was apparently a friend of Admiral Heneage Vivian of Clyne Castle and one of the first worshippers at Clyne Chapel.  Her niece (?) Bessie Hampton nee Maille and her daughter Louie also lived there after Bessie’s husband Henry was killed at the first tank battle at Cambrai in 1917.  Bessie married Edward Southall at the end of 1919 and moved to another of Lydia’s properties in Dunns Lane, Mumbles.  She later bought a house in Overland Road, Mumbles, with money inherited from Lydia.

In 1911 the other part of Harold’s moor was occupied by Jane Hughes, a widow aged 83 with her lady’s maid and two servants.  She noted that the house contained 13 rooms

In 1929, the Swansea Directory named Captain William J. Ackland and D. Rees as living at Harold’s Moor.

Yns-y-Plant, Childrens Home,
West Cross

In 1952 the two large houses known as Harold's Moor were bought by Swansea Corporation and converted at a cost of between £14,000 and £15,000, into a council owned nursery for small children which was named Ynys-y-plant.  On the night of the 14th January 1954 fire broke out in an attic room and all twenty children there were rescued unharmed and taken to neighbouring houses before being transferred to the Homes at Cockett.  Although the fire spread to four rooms and the roof fell in above the fire, repairs were undertaken with all speed and the children were able to return a few days later. 

The home was closed in the latter part of 1980 due to cutbacks and policy changes and was sold in 1981 to Councillor Bill Hughes for £96,000 with planning permission for its use as a 20 bedroom hotel.  Nothing happened for several years and the house deteriorated.  There was a fire in 1987 which was followed by a bigger fire later which left the building in a sad state.  Bill Hughes passed the ownership to his sons’ business, Bethany Developments Ltd. and they put in a planning application for six blocks of flats in 1988.  That and a 1990 plan for 20 flats in four blocks were both turned down as being over-developments.  By 1992 the house had become dangerous and faced with an order to put it in order or demolish it, the latter option was chosen. 

In 1997 McCarthy & Stone Developments Ltd. produced plans to build a 3 storey block of 37 flats for the elderly similar to their development at the bottom of Mayals Road.  This too was rejected as being too intensive.  In 2001 another building group, the Walter Group, asked permission to build 6 terraced houses and 5 detached houses on the site.  These plans were passed; building started in 2002 and is now completed.  

GLANNANT HOUSE

Glannant probably dates back to before the beginning of the 19th century.  It was owned by John Griffiths in 1845 and tenanted by John Price.  It was to let in 1866.

The Rev. Thomas Thomas and his wife Ann lived there in the 1870s and 1880s.  The Cambrian reported the death of his son David on the SS Indies in 1876 and the marriages of two other sons in the next few years.  Thomas was named as architect of the proposed board schools in 1877 and was a member of the Oystermouth School Board until his death in 1888.

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