Llancaiach Fawr

It's been quite a while since I have done an aerial photo so I thought I'd put that right today, and go somewhere I haven't been before.

Llancaiach Fawr Manor is a Tudor Manor House near the village of Nelson, located just to the north of the site of the former Llancaiach Colliery, South Wales. The manor house is a semi fortified house circa 1530, The Manor is considered to be one of the most important Gentry houses to have survived from the 16th and 17th century period.

Built in 1530 for Dafydd ap Richard, the Manor was designed to be easily defended during the turbulent reigns of Tudor kings and queens and is one of the finest examples of a semi-fortified manor in Wales today.

The original defensive design incorporated a single entrance, four-foot thick walls enclosing spiral stone staircases for access between floors and stout wooden doors. When these were securely closed they split the Manor in two and ensured that the inner east wing provided a safe and secure place of refuge during troubled times.

The Manor is now a living museum, where first person interpretation is used exclusively by the costumed interpreters in the house, who take on the role of the house servants set in the period 1645. 

In 2013, the manor house received nearly a £1million from The National Lottery fund for repairs.