Abbey Cwmhir Hall

Thomas Wilson was a successful London solicitor who came into ownership of the old manor and abbey ruins when his client, the banker Henry Fauntleroy, was hung for forgery having faked the signatures of his clients to misappropriate £250,000. Wilson quickly expended his own fortune building the new house and landscaping its grounds which included creating a lake to power a sawmill in the village. When his creditors sold up to Francis Philips in 1837, the hall and grounds had already fallen into a bad state of repair and in 1838 Wilson sailed to Australia where he became Mayor of Adelaide.

Francis Philips was descended from Francis Phylippe who came from Flanders to Staffordshire in the mid 16th-century. In about 1690, the family acquired The Heath House which is still owned by the Philips family today. Nathaniel Philips (1693-1776) grew up there and with his brother operated the New Tean Hall Mill at Checkley near Manchester. Establishing J & N Philips, they soon became the largest manufacturers of pure linen tape in England. In the year after Nathaniel died, his son John bought Bank Hall at Heaton Norris to which Francis succeeded before buying Abbey Cwmhir (Welsh for "Abbey of the Long Valley") as a summer home for his family away from the mills.

Abbey Cwmhir's American Connection

Bank Hall came to Francis Philips by default in 1824 after his three elder brothers predeceased their father. One of those brothers, Henry, went to America to extend the reach of the family's export business and bought 200,000-acres in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Kentucky. In 1796, he founded Philipsburg in Pennsylvania but died just four years later. In 1810, his youngest brother, Hardman, was forced to flee England on a trumped up charge of attempted murder and under his management he, "spearheaded an impressive commercial and industrial boom" turning Philipsburg into a thriving town.

Henry Philips had married Sophia Chew whose family were at the heart of the American aristocracy. She grew up in Philadelphia and summered at Cliveden, and she and her sister, Harriet, were favorites of George Washington who was a familiar face at both their homes. Sophia's niece and namesake, Sophia Chew Nicklin, married George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice-President of the United States and the U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom from 1856 to 1861, during which time it is a very real possibility that he was a guest here.

Francis Philips - Shot into History

Prior to inheriting Bank Hall, Francis had established the cotton spinning firm of Philips & Lee at Manchester and gained a reputation as a forward-thinking philanthropist and one of the best employers in the region. In 1812, he set off to London to petition the House of Commons into taking further action against the Luddites. Entering at the same time, he unwittingly found himself standing next to the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval when he was famously shot and killed. It was Francis who was chiefly responsible for carrying the Prime Minister away from the ensuing melee and in whose arms he died.

The Philips Family at Abbeycwmhir

Although Abbey Cwmhir was his summer home, Francis Philips invested in the local community and made improvements wherever he could. Among other things, he built a school for the children in the village which meant they no longer had to walk six miles every day over the mountains to Rhayader for their education. By 1850 it was reported that, "Mr Philips... has greatly increased its (the estate's) value by making new roads, building bridges, and effecting various extensive and important improvements". 

On Francis's death in 1850 both Bank Hall and Abbeycwmhir passed to his son, Francis Aspinall Philips, who like his father had done, initially continued to divide his time between both. But, in later years he began to spend increasingly more time here and he and his wife both supported and superintended the village Sunday School. His role in the community was recognized when he was made High Sheriff of Radnorshire.

The house as seen today was doubled in size to 52-rooms between 1867 and 1869 by Francis Aspinall Philip's son, George, whose considerable wealth was still inextricably linked to the family's cotton business in Manchester. He was the first of his family to live here full time and having commissioned the architectural firm of Poundley & Walker of Liverpool, he gave the ashlar house its present distinctly Victorian-Gothic appearance. At the same time his unmarried sister, Beatrice, paid for the construction of the village church in a similar style, situated just a stone's throw to the west of the hall.

George's son, Lt.-Colonel John Lionel Philips, was the last of the family to live at Abbeycwmhir. Having served as a Captain in the Royal Artillery during World War I he was awarded the D.S.O. (Distinguished Service Order). He divorced his first wife in 1941 before marrying Shearme VanKoughnet Thomas of Montreal, whose mother, Mrs Annie Meredith, passed her last few years here and a bench inscribed to her memory is still seen next to the entrance to the church. In 1970, after 250-years in business, J & N Philips, Cotton Manufacturers, of Somerset Street, Manchester, finally closed their doors and five years later both Colonel Philips and his wife Shearme died, survived by one son.

Abbey-Cwm-Hir Hall Today

Its history from 1959 into the 1990s isn't readily available (if you know, please add a comment), but in 1997 Abbey Cwmhir was purchased by Paul and Victoria Humpherston who have spent the subsequent years restoring the house and gardens while running it as an hotel. It has since featured on BBC's "Discovering Welsh Houses" and the gardens which are open to the public are considered among Wales' finest. 

In July, 2020, it was announced that The Hall at Abbey-Cwm-Hir was closing its doors due to, "the financial and practical impact of the coronavirus pandemic".