Parc Wern

 This blog starts around the year 1799.

Parc Wern Mansion was built, taking a different form from today’s building.  During 1817-18, the ceramic illustrator, Thomas Baxter made sketches of Parc Wern.

The tenant from 1842, was Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn, MP.  The following year, Amy Dillwyn was born. The 1851 Census, Lewis and his family, plus five servants, living at Parc Wern.  

1851 Census

Hendrefoilan House

Two years later, the family moved to Hendrefoilan House. The house had been built by William B. Colling, for Lewis.  It was here that Amy began her writing.

Following Dillwyn’s departure from Parc Wern, John Henry Vivian, from the neighbour Singleton estate purchased Parc Wern for £6,000.  The house was re-modelled and doubled in size, following Henry Woodyer’s Tudor Gothic style. Inside there were separate areas for male and female servants, and a stable block and coach house was built.

Henry Hussey Vivian

Architect Henry Woodyer had built St. Paul's church, Sketty.  The church was in memory of Jessie Goddard, the wife of Henry Hussey Vivian, son of John.  Henry and Jessie had married in 1845.  Jessie was the daughter of Adam Goddard, MP for Swindon.  A year after their marriage, Jessie had died of a childbed fever following the birth of their son, Ernest, a few weeks earlier.

Henry remarried in 1853, Flora Caroline Elizabeth Cholmeley, the daughter of Montague Cholmeley, MP.

Following the completion of the works at Parc Wern, the couple moved in.  1857, a water wheel was erected on the stream which flows through the Singleton, this improved the water supply at Parc Wern.

John Henry Vivian died in 1855, and his widow, Sarah, continued to live at Singleton until she died in 1885.

Henry and his family, plus a number of servants, are present at the property at the time of the 1861 Census

1861 Census

Following Sarah’s death, Henry Hussey Vivian moved into Singleton.  Parc Wern, passed to the second son, William Graham Vivian, terms of John Henry’s will. 

William Graham Vivian

William Graham, who was a bachelor and was living at Clyne castle, didn’t move into Parc Wern.  It remained empty for 26 years.

During the First World War, Dulcie Vivian made Parc Wern available for a Red Cross military hospital. 

Following the war, Parc Wern and its 18-acre estate was purchased by Roger Beck, for £16,500.  Roger Beck was the chairman of the Swansea Hospital’s board of management. On behalf of the hospital’s authorities, the mansion became the Nurse Training School, in 1922, It was also renamed Parc Beck, honouring Roger Beck.  Roger died the following year and was buried at Oystermouth Cemetery.

In 1925, Glendinning Moxham designed a large accommodation block to be built.  The designs matched Henry Woodyer’s designs of 70 years earlier. There were plans that a 600-bed hospital would be built, however, they didn’t materialise, as Singleton Hospital was built.

Roger Beck

During the 1960s, a single brick-faced accommodation was built, which became Swansea University’s Department of Nursing and Midwifery.

During the First World War, part of the Parc Beck estate had been successfully used as allotments, in 1989, they closed.  The area was sold for building, and the property was converted into luxury homes.