Langland Bay Convalescent Home
It's the Full Story, from the beginning -
It began life as a private residence, 'Llan-y-Llan Villa',
and changed into: The Langland Castle Hotel, Langland Bay Hotel,
then Langland Bay Convalescent Home and is now Langland Manor
by Wendy Cope, Dick Hart, Heather Sangster Davies and Stephen Yolland
Llan-y-Llan Villa
Later known as 'Langland Castle'
By far the most dominant building on Langland Bay, (originally called Longland Bay) constructed in the mid-nineteenth century and backing on to the Newton Cliffs, it was originally known as Llan-y-Llan. Built in dramatic Scottish Baronial style by Henry Crawshay, as his summer residence. Stephen Yolland
Llan-y-Llan Villa, the summer residence of Henry & Elisa Crashay and their family
Langland Bay and Llan-y-Llan Villa, photo: from Paul Conibear
Dick Hart wrote that, 'Henry Crawshay, grandson of Richard Crawshay the founder of Cyfarthfa ironworks, married Lisa Eliza Harris of Penderyn, one of the workers in the foundry. His family were totally opposed and so he distanced himself from them and in 1847 was transferred by his father to manage their Cinderford Works in the Forest of Dean. In the early 1850s, Henry decided to build a summer home for their growing family at Langland, which they moved into and named ‘Llan-y-Llan’ in August 1856.
Llan-y-Llan Villa and the Kitchen Garden, 1880
A fete was held there in 1862 to raise funds to build a school at Newton in which Mrs Crawshay remained very interested, Dick Hart.
Wendy Cope noted that at first the Imposing Gothic house was called Llan-y-llan but was later known as Langland Castle. He built Langland Bay Road to provide a good access to it. The family attended All Saints church and when one of their daughters died at Langland they caused a memorial window to be placed in the church. Henry became patron of Mumbles Athletic Sports and Mumbles Cricket Club. He also enjoyed sailing, each year being a patron of the regatta.
Mrs Crawshay joined with other local ladies and became a stall holder at charity events such as the Swansea Hospital Bazaar.
Mrs. Henry Crawshay was a benefactor of Newton School, where the log book records numerous visits by her between 1867 and 1882, usually between April and September each year, to hear the children answer questions in mental arithmetic and scripture. She “promised them a tea when the strawberries will be ripe” and on a summer afternoon in the years 1867-69 she had all the children to tea at Llan- y-llan, “a sumptuous treat”, and perhaps in other years not recorded.
In October 1869 she entertained the children of Newton and Bishopston schools combined, one hundred and twenty in number, to a mid-day meal of roast beef and plum pudding, followed later in the afternoon by tea and cakes “in the house” and on several occasions hosted the Swansea Ragged School treat.
Henry died in 1879 but Lisa Eliza lived on until 1887, after which the house was sold.
Longland Bay: later known to us as Langland Bay, 1877
© Ordnance Survey
Langland Bay, 1900
© Ordnance SurveyThe Langland Castle Hotel
Later renamed The Langland Bay Hotel
Langland Castle Hotel: An extension was built and tennis courts and a bowling green were laid out at the front.' Dick Hart
Wendy continued, The Langland Castle, with its furniture and 77 acres of land were bought from the Crawshays Estate, by Mr Ludlow who formed a company with other gentlemen to develop the house as a grand hotel. The house was enlarged with a third floor added and as part of this plan for a hotel a drinks licence was granted in September 1888. The Langland Castle Hotel was opened with fifty rooms and fifty acres of land, the following year.
Early in 1891 the hotel came under new management, it was renamed The Langland Bay Hotel and Miss Duffield was the new manageress. A year later it was for sale again, along with the farm.
Langland Bay Hotel, coach-house and kichen garden.
Langland Bay Hotel and Tennis Courts
Langland Bay Hotel and grounds
A postcard from the time and used in the hotel advertising
An advertisement in the Western Mail in 1902 describes it as:
‘Winter resort by the sea charmingly situated in its own extensive grounds. South aspect, and entirely sheltered from the North wind and East winds. Tennis courts, billiard room, 75 bedrooms, hot and cold seawater baths on each floor. Excellent cuisine. Moderate tariff. The “Mentone” of Wales. Omnibus carries visitors free of charge from Swansea station to Hotel on advising Manageress, MISS LOGAN.
National Telephone 502. Telegrams, “Delight” Mumbles.
Langland Bay Hotel and Coach-House
An aerial view of Langland Bay Hotel, with tents on the beach
Supplies for the hotel were ordered from Swansea and sent to Mumbles on the steam train, from where hotel vehicles would collect them.
The Walters family, who owned the Park Hotel in Llandrindod Wells, bought the Hotel in or after 1904 for their daughter Julia, who married Mr Arthur Hart. In 1912 the hotel was managed by a German couple named Buttgen, but they were interned during the First World War and Mr Hart persuaded his sister, Mrs Murison, to take over as manageress and she filled that post until the hotel was sold in 1922.
The Langland Bay Convalescent Home
The hotel was bought in 1922 by the Workingmen’s Club and Institute Union and became the Langland Bay Convalescent Home providing an opportunity for recuperation for many miners and other working men. In later years it also provided holidays for club members. In 1974 it was closed for a while for alterations and modernisation and the lodge at the entrance was demolished. At the beginning of 2004 the organisation decided to close the home as they were in financial difficulties. It was bought the following year by developers who have turned it into flats, Wendy.
The Convalescent Home, c1925, photo: M A Clare
by Audrey Beaumont
My German grandmother Leopoldine Konetschny, worked at Langland Bay Convalescent Home as a cook and lived there for three years from 1938 during the 2nd World War, after escaping Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, as an anti-fascist activist.
She also workedas a housekeeper at 'Owls Barn,' a house next to Clyne Golf Club.
Heather Sangster Davies, who worked there for many years, rising to the role of matron, noted that 'before 1972 the home used to have 86 residents a week, most of whom came from Merthyr and had a mixture of Spanish, Italian and Irish names. The residents used 47 of the rooms, usually staying for a week and when they left, we had one day to get the rooms ready for a new intake.'
After their evening meal, the men usually went across to the New Langland Bay Hotel Restaurant (built next door) for a drink.'
'Most of the staff was made up of young ladies and they often had ‘gentlemen callers’ and sometimes the back door was left unlocked for them.
The first Ghost Story
Heather continued, As with a lot of old houses, the 'Home' is reputed to have its own resident ghost, a lady in a long blue dress, who stands on the staircase. One day, Heather passed a regular guest sitting in the hall, who remarked, 'She is here again today, near the stairs.' Apparently, the lady could prevent people from passing on the stairs. Rumours persist that the lady in blue is still there.
One resident who stayed with us had no legs and asked if he could be taken to the beach. The porter rigged up a trolley and each day one of us took him down to the sea. He eventually went into water, swam around and laughed, as he enjoyed it very much.'
A stay at Langland Home
By Louise Hill,
George Randall Walker (my Great Grandad) convalesced at Langland twice. This was the last correspondence (typed verbatim) on the back of the postcard photos that he wrote to my Great Grandmother whilst he was there, as later that day he went out walking with the Superintendent of the Langland Convalescent Home and passed away of a heart attack.
August 55
Just a line to let you know that I landed all right I got there to home at 9am and in the home they would have something to eat but I did not. I ham sure it is the home I have being to without doubt here’s (very good) up to know we had rain at teatime and it was heavy but it was not last long tell Val and John its fine please that’s all this time.
My Great Grandfather’s Grandad moved from Parkend in the Forest of Dean to work in the new mines in Yorkshire, so George Randall Walker continued as a miner in Yorkshire before having to convalesce.
My Great Grandad, George Randall Walker and his wife Eliza.
The residents gather in the garden of the Home, c1925, photo: M A Clare
Photo collection of Residents
Langland Home, 1930s. These photos were posted on SHS Facebook page. Annie Grifiths, said that this photo may show her grandfather. Joanna Jones said that her grandfather was indicated in the group photo, and shown relaxing in the garden.
Any information and updates would be welcomed, Contact Editors >
The Convalescent Home residents, Sept, 26 1922, photo: M A Clare
The gentleman seated in the centre, with a moustache is also included in several of the following photos
The Convalescent Home residents, July, 10, 1923, photo: M A Clare
The Convalescent Home residents, October, 28 1924, photo: M A Clare
Photo: Thomas Watts-DaviesThe gentleman standing on the left, is in this and the earlier photos
The Convalescent Home residents, November, 4 1924, photo: M A Clare (A coloured copy from Jeff Stewart is below)
Photo: Thomas Watts-DaviesThe gentleman standing on the left, is in this and the earlier photos
The Convalescent Home residents, November, 4 1924, photo: M A Clare
Photo: Thomas Watts-Davies, coloured by Jeff StewartThe gentleman mentioned earlier, is also in this photo, seated in the centre
The residents, 20 January 1925, photo: M A Clare
Photo: Ozzie Williams
The residents, 15 September 1925, photo: M A Clare
The Aberfan Disaster
Heather said, 'I will never forget the Aberfan Disaster.' This took place on Friday, October 21, 1966, when a waste tip slid down a mountainside into the mining village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, resulted in the deaths of 144 people, 116 of them school children and five of their teachers.
It was nearly a week before all the bodies were recovered, and afterwards, the miners who played a large part in the rescue and recovery efforts, were given a two week break at Langland and Heather well remembered how affected they were by the disaster.
Heather continued, 'Their wives were allowed to come as well, but were made to stay at a caravan park in nearby Thistleboon, while the men were in Langland and had to travel every day to see them.'
The residents, 6 July 1926, photo: M A Clare
The residents, 6 September 1926, photo: M A Clare, from S Bussel
Stephen Yolland, who lived at Langland remembered that, ‘I would sit on the tables outside the Langland Bay Hotel, chatting to the hoary old miners, nursing their pints and couching up black bile from their lungs. For a nicely brought up middle-class kid their stories were eye openers, and induced in me a horror of the social effects of coal mining that has never left me,' .
The residents, with matron and her dog
Langland Bay Convalescent Home overlooking this 1950s beach scene. These chalets were constructed in the early 1920s.
Heather concludes:
'After a refurbishment in 1974, couples and later single ladies were allowed to stay. This changed the atmosphere and some of the men who had stayed with us for many years chose not to return after women were admitted and the result was that numbers reduced slowly over the years.
Instead of a home full of men who formed one group it had changed to a home full of separate couples, who did not always mix so freely.
There were several rooms’ unused or just used for storage, which were still unaltered from the earliest days of its life as a hotel.
I had some postcards and even menus, from when they had special meals and gave them to the Workingmen’s Club and institute Union at Swansea,' Heather.
Christina Clark, (née Vaughan) contacted us to say,
‘Your site brings back many happy memories of when I worked at the Home, with Heather Sangster Davies, for 13 years until 1992. She was lovely lady. It was my first job after leaving school at age 16 and I worked with my sister Denise Vaughan.
At first, we lived at the Home, ‘all found’, until we both moved into a flat together at Swansea.
When we were there the residents stayed for two weeks at a time and they overlapped by a week. They would go home on Tuesdays and new ones would arrive on Wednesdays.
I was told that the home was used as a hospital during the war
I heard that there was more than one ghost.
We have some photos I will try and dig some out for you.
Another Ghost Story
Christine said that there was another unexplained story that she was told by a Mrs Mcmann -
'One morning Mrs Mcmann saw what she thought was a resident on the second floor. He was wearing ‘Hospital Blue,’ like all the other patients, who were not allowed upstairs in the morning so the girls could get on with their work.
When she called to him, to ask why he was up there, he did not respond so she followed him into his room but when she went in there was no one there! '
An earlier plan
An earlier plan is revealed below, in this cutting from the Mumbles Press, dated Thursday, October 9, 1919. This scheme involved the Club Union in building their own Home. However, It was fortuitous, that shortly after the hotel was put up for sale and therefore this project did not come to fruition.
As previously reported, the proposed Convalescent Home to be erected at Langland Bay (the forth belonging to the Club Union) will accommodate 40 residents, in separate bedrooms, with entrance and lounge halls, dining room, reading and writing rooms, etc.
by Audrey Beaumont
My German grandmother Leopoldine Konetschny, worked at Langland Bay Convalescent Home as a cook and lived there for three years from 1938 during the 2nd World War, after escaping Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, as an anti-fascist activist.
She also workedas a housekeeper at 'Owls Barn,' a house next to Clyne Golf Club.
The Convalescent Home, the original Llan-y-Llan plus the extension have recently been converted into luxury apartments named Langland Manor, Dick Hart
Any memories of life in the house would be welcome, please contact the editors..
Langland Manor Apartments
photo: Stephen
Langland Manor Appartments and Crawshay Court
March 2008
In 1922, the original coach-house which lay beside the main building was sold separately and was converted into a new licensed restaurant, the Langland Bay Hotel Restaurant, which opened in 1925 and attracted many functions during its lifetime.
This building was suddenly demolished in 1991 and two blocks of flats were built in its place and named Crawshay Court, Wendy.
Acknowledgements
Wendy Cope, Past Archivist & Exhibition Organiser for Oystermouth Historical Association.
Dick Hart, Past Membership Secretary of Oystermouth Historical Association, lived at Mary Twill lane overlooking Langland Bay.
Heather Sangster Davies, worked and lived at Langland Bay Convalescent Home for many years, becoming the Matron and latterly living in Park Street, Mumbles. Her memories were told to John Powell, any errors or omissions are his.
Christina Clark, (née Vaughan), who remembered working with Heather.
Stephen “Yolly” Yolland, from Langland Bay, now lives in Melbourne, Australia. The extracts noted here are taken from his article:
Langland Bay Hotel and Restaurant with many original photos
My Summer Days at Langland Bay in the Fifties by John Powell