Wyelands

Wyelands, sometimes styled The Wyelands or Wyelands House, is a Grade II* listed building and estate located about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Mathern, Monmouthshire, Wales, and about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the edge of Chepstow. It is a neoclassical villa designed by Robert Lugar in the late Regency period, and was completed around 1830.

History

The house was commissioned by George Buckle, a leading Chepstow shipbuilder and timber merchant who was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1819. There is some uncertainty as to the date of the house's construction. It was started, but is unlikely to have been finished, before Buckle's death in 1824. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales date it as "closer to 1819 than 1846", and it was probably built by 1834, when George Buckle's son John (c.1796-1845), also a shipbuilder and merchant, was appointed Sheriff of Monmouthshire.

The property was sold first to John Russell (1788-1873), a colliery owner and magistrate, who in turn became Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1855. It then passed to Major General Sir Edmund Keynton Williams, whose son sold Wyelands to Rev. Robert Vaughan Hughes; he lived there with his family until his death in 1901. His son, Gerald Vaughan Hughes, who was Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1919, then occupied the house; in turn, his son, Brigadier Gerald Birdwood Vaughan-Hughes (1896-1983), became Sheriff in 1960.

Architecture

The villa is described by the RCAHMW as "a compact classical Regency villa" of two storeys, built of Bath stone ashlar. The main entrance, on the north side, has a shallow porch and doorway flanked by pairs of Ionic columns. The east wing is slightly lower, originally contained the service and children's rooms, and is rendered. A stone conservatory was added to the wing in the 19th century. The house has several false windows, as the internal arrangement of walls and fireplaces is unrelated to the design of the exterior. A covered swimming pool, to the east of the service wing, was added in 1999. Architectural writer John Newman describes the ensemble of the buildings as "remarkably complete and beautifully preserved."

The garden, to which formal balustrades and a stone summer house were added in the 19th century, is to the south of the house. There are also stables. The North Lodge is contemporary with the main building. The whole estate covers some 286 acres (116 ha).

The Vaughan-Hughes family sponsored the building of estate cottages, including an almshouse, for their workers and former workers, in the Newton Green area of Mathern village. The almshouses are dated 1891.

Wyelands was given Grade II* listed building status on 10 October 2000.

Current uses

Wyelands was put on the market in 2009 with a price of £4.5 million. The house has been refurbished in recent years, and, as at 2013, is offered for rent to up to 22 guests "for private house parties, weddings, corporate entertaining, business meetings, residential business events, management training, team building weekends and photo shoots." Reports in the Daily Mail in 2012 stated that Wyelands had been the scene of a "sex and alcohol party" causing "thousands of pounds of damage", involving participants in the ITV show Take Me Out.