Cylchgronau Cymru

in full.2 The papers, in an unsorted condition, remained in the possession of Mr D. T. Jones, who was absent on war-service from 1940 1945, and died in 1950. They remained in the family home until around the time of his wife's death in 1967, when Mr D. M. Jones discovered them. Although recorded in the Annual Reports of the National Library of Wales, they were catalogued only as the Dafydd Morris Jones donation, and as such have long escaped the attention of researchers. They represent a fascinating record of the minutae of refitting and extending a house in the last decade of the nine- teenth century and provide a wealth of detail about tradesmen, materials, colour schemes, wallpaper, paint, plumbing and state of the art solutions to problems such as electric lighting, cooking and central heating. In the pres- ent article an outline of the principal considerations is presented. A more detailed analysis of materials and methods would be of undoubted value to restoration scholars. A brief history of the site The ownership history of Tan-y-bwlch Mansion is uncomplicated. It was built by Major General Lewis Davies, who acquired the modest ten- anted farm of Tan-y-bwlch in 1825, and commenced the construction of his villa on a virgin site, west of the farmstead. It cannot have been long com- pleted when he died there on 10 May 1828. The mansion then passed for two further generations down the male line of Davies, before it became extinct. Major General Lewis Davies 1776 1828 Lewis Davies was the eighth child and fourth son of John Davies of Crugiau. John Davies was a moderately wealthy man, who in his will of 1784 left legacies to his seven surviving children totalling £ 1600, and owned lands in Llanbadarn Fawr, Llanfihangel Genau'r-glyn, and one farm in Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn.3 His home, Crugiau, survives today. It is on the north side of the Ystwyth, just within the Town and Liberty ofAberystwyth, and looks out along the river towards the sea. Lewis and his siblings were bom between 1766 and 1776 and were baptised at Llanbadarn Fawr. He was just eight years old when his father died, leaving Crugiau and the bulk of his land to his eldest son John, and just one farm to each of his other sons, David and Lewis. There is no surviving record of John's death, but by 1817, the owner of Crugiau was his brother David.4 In 1801 Lewis Davies married at Llanbadarn Fawr an heiress just three years his senior. This was Jane Davies, daughter of Matthew Davies of Cwmcynfelin, a man well on in years (66 at this time), and engaged in the