10944

 

II  

Designated  

08/07/1966  

19/07/1999  

Mandinam  

 

Carmarthenshire  

Llangadog  

Llangadog  

Mandinam  

273608  

228101  

 

Situated some 3 km E of Llangadog, reached by long drive off lane running SE towards Llanddeussant.  

Domestic  

 

Double pile house probably of the late C17 to early C18, altered to front and internally in the early C19. Recorded from 1660 when G Gwynne of Llanelwedd, Radnorshire, released it to the author and divine Jeremy Taylor and his daughter. Mandinam may have been the property of Taylor's second wife Joanna Bridges, said without evidence to have been the daughter of King Charles I. Taylor (1613-67), the chaplain to Archbishop Laud and then King Charles I, had been captured at Cardigan in 1645, but taken under the protection of the Vaughans of Golden Grove. He is said to have been with the king at his execution in 1649. During the interregnum Taylor was mostly in Wales, though imprisoned in 1654-5, 1655 and 1657-8 for his writings. Most of Taylor's best works, and he was renowned as one of the masters of English sermon and prose style, were written at Golden Grove, including 'Holy Living' 1651, 'Holy Dying' 1652 and 'Golden Grove' 1655. About 1658 he moved to Ireland, later becoming Bishop of Down and Connor and vice-chancellor of Dublin University. He died there. In 1707 his daughter Joanna, then in Dublin, mortgaged Mandinam to William Broadber of Neath, gentleman, and then Broadber mortgaged to John Powell of Carmarthen, surgeon in 1710. In the same year it was transferred to the Prices of Ystradffin and thence to the Lloyds of Wern Newydd and Glansevin, owners until the later C20. In 1755 owned by Edward Price Lloyd, occupied by Morgan Lloyd. Called Mynddinam in 1816 Glansevin deed, marked as Mandiriliam with 134 acres (54.3 hectares) on 1839 Tithe Map. The interior plasterwork is probably by the same hand as that at Glansevin.  

Small country house comprising two parallel ranges. Whitewashed rubble stone (probably formerly stuccoed or roughcast) with slate double roof, close eaves, and 4 gable-end roughcast stacks. Two-storey, 3-window front, 12-pane sashes each side, 4-8-4-pane triple sash to first floor centre under recessed blank arch. Plain central door opening, square-headed, half-glazed door with fan-patterned overlight. Unpainted roughcast right end with one small 12-pane first floor sash just left of valley, in arched recess. Two C20 ground floor windows. Whitewashed left end wall with big first floor 12-pane sash just left of valley, and large projection for chimney of rear range and small C20 single storey rendered extension. Rear 4-window range, two smaller 12-pane sashes in centre, larger each end, but traces of blocked window to right of centre. Ground floor 12-pane sash under each outer sash, half-glazed door just right of left sash. Centre large C20 hipped plain-tiled single storey porch addition with recessed centre and glazed door.  

Front range has three-room plan with broad centre hall and room each side. Dog-leg oak stair in centre of rear range with kitchen to left. Left front room has earlier C19 plasterwork, similar to that at Glansevin, 2 elliptical arched recesses and fireplace with lion-mask and ivy motifs. Early C19 panelled shutters and 6-panel doors. Right room has inserted C18 style fireplace, arch each side. Ceiling border and doorcase both have early C19 reeded detail. Rear stair hall has thick walls each side suggesting that they may have been external originally. Coved ceiling with simple detail and small pointed oval rose: acanthus centre and scrolled border. Upper rooms have early C19 shutters and doors. Undercut cornice to centre dressing room. Very narrow servants stairs to attic. Roofs have oak pegged collar trusses, earlier than present front as front roof has been raised.  

Included as a good example of an early C19 gentry house incorporating an earlier house associated with the noted author Jeremy Taylor.