History
Gentry house, C16 origins, remodelled in late C17. Owned from the C15 or earlier by the Awbrey family. A Richard Awbrey of Abercynrig was Chief Forester of the Great Forest in the C15. The family had 11 High Sheriffs, including John Awbrey of Abercynrig in 1596, his son Walter, grandson Morgan, great grandson Jenkin and great great grandson Hopkin. Dr William Awbrey of Cantref c. 1529-95, noted judge, and MP for Carmarthen 1554 and for Brecon 1558 bought Abercynrig from his cousin Richard, and may have built Buckingham Place in Brecon for himself. Dr Awbrey's son Sir Edward Awbrey succeeded, he died 1619, followed by his son Sir William Awbrey of Tredomen, died c. 1631. Sir William is supposed to have wasted the family wealth, and sold Abercynrig to John Jefferys, mercer, of Brecon, c. 1620 in settlement of debt. Jefferys was High Sheriff 1631. His son Jeffrey Jeffreys married the heiress of The Priory estate, Brecon, and Jeffrey's son Colonel John Jefferys of the Priory and Abercynrig was a soldier under Charles I, II and James II, and MP 1661, 1678 and 1685. He died in 1688. He may have rebuilt the house.
The house was largely tenanted from the late C17 to mid C20. The Colonel's daughter married Thomas Flower, Irish privy councillor, and the estate passed to the Flower family successively Barons Castle Durrow and Viscounts Ashbrook (from 1751). The third Viscount sold the estate for £13,460 in 1800 to Captain John Lloyd (1748-1818) of the East India Company, originally of Dinas, Llanwrtyd, in which family it remains. He lived at Brecon, and began building Dinas, Llanfaes, the main family seat from 1828. His heir John (1797-1875) was High Sheriff 1839, his son Col. Thomas C. Lloyd (1828-93) succeeded, followed by his son, Lt-Col Sir John C. Lloyd (1878-1954) noted antiquarian, knighted 1938. Dinas was requisitioned in 1941 and Sir John moved first into the granary and then into Abercynrig itself after the war. The granary had been converted in the 1930s as a children's playroom and linked to the main house by a new servants' hall by the tenant, Captain W. D'Arcy Hall MC, MP for Brecon & Radnor from 1924. Sir John Lloyd made the big panelled main drawing-room in 1948 from two rooms, one panelled, the other with a panelled fireplace only. The house has been restored since with renewed stone-tiled roof, the link range to the granary has been converted to a kitchen, and the former kitchen is now a dining-room.
The general form of the house is late C17 as also the panelling and staircases, but the differing sizes of the two flanking bays on the entrance front and some C16 beams in the N end suggest a remodelling of the C16 Awbrey house.