Oxwich Castle

Built during the early 16^th century, Oxwich Castle is believed to stand on the site of a vanished Norman castle, alongside an ancient trackway dating back to the Celtic Christian period.  

Owned by the wealthy Mansel family, Sir Rice Mansel (1487-1559) was the first renovating architect who built the southern range.  However, it was his son Sir Edward who was responsible for adding the much grander eastern range and that Elizabethan ‘must-have’ gallery and hall.  

Despite all this ambitious building work, the Mansel family’s occupancy proved relatively short lived and by the early 17^th century the castle was empty, the southern block converted into a farmhouse and leased to tenants.  

The Bevan family occupation dates from 1698-1917 and spans over two hundred years and a part of four individual centuries.  By the beginning of the 18^th century Rowland Bevan and his wife Joan were farming at the Castle. Their son Francis baptised at St. Illytd’s on 15^th April 1730 took over the tenancy after his father’s death in 1760.  Francis was Silvanus’ great grandfather and Ann’s great-great grandfather.   In his turn, Ann’s father George took over the tenancy and Ann and her sisters and brother grew up at ‘Castle.’ 

The black and white photographs of Oxwich Castle date from the beginning of the 20th century.

Disasterous disease

Among the carefully preserved letters is the following newspaper clipping saved from The Cambrian.  Now the full horror of events in the small villages of Port Eynon, Horton and Overton is revealed.

PORT-EYNON – It has been deemed necessary, under medical advice, to postpone the re-opening of Port-Eynon Elementary School, in consequence of the prevalence of typhoid fever, which has assumed a most serious aspect in the neighbourhood.  This deadly fever has visited the villages of Horton, Port-Eynon, and Overton.  Only one case, as yet, has appeared in the first mentioned village, which has proved fatal to Mr. Coe, clerk to Mr. Justice Lush.  One case only has appeared in Port-Eynon, but in the village of Overton the fever has laid its prostrating hand upon no less than 18 persons.  In the house of Mr. S. Bevan, seven persons are lying severely afflicted with this disastrous disease.  In Capt. J. Stevens’s house there are four suffering from the same malady. Last week there were five persons lying on beds of affliction in the same mentioned house; but on Wednesday night, the 19^th inst, death rid Mrs Stevens of all her sufferings.  On Friday, the 21^st inst, her mortal remains were escorted to the place of internment.  She was a woman highly beloved and respected by all who knew her.  Her death has caused a great breach in the family; she has left a husband and seven children to lament her loss. – Cor.

How it all began

Several years ago I acquired an archive of family letters and books collected and preserved by Dr Mary Bevan (pictured below).  Mary was born in 1925 in Colwyn Bay, the only child of George Herbert Bevan and his wife Constance. Having graduated from Oxford University, she went on to Medical School in Manchester where she qualified in 1950.

After the sudden death of her mother in 1962, Mary decided to travel, ending up in Mildura, in North Western Australia, where she settled and retrained.  It had always been her intention to retire to her old home in North Wales, but apart from an occasional visit, she failed to return.

Although Mary never married or had children, she left the most extraordinary heritage, over 200 family letters,  dating back to 1839.

Mary's grandfather, George Bevan, was born in 1861 at Bay View Farm, Overton, Gower, the third of Silvanus and Ann Bevan's eleven children.  In 1876 George left the family farm to begin an ironmongery apprenticeship at his Uncle William's shop in Llandudno.

The Bevan family roots in Gower stretch back over 350 years to Jenkin ap Evan, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Peter After in the parish church of St. Mary's at Rhossili c.1620.  Jenkin anglicised his Welsh surname creating the new one of Bevan.

One branch of the family moved to Swansea, a descendant of whom was Silvanus Bevan (1691-1765) an apothecary who created the Plough Court Pharmacy in Lombard Street, Cheapside, the foundation of the 21st century global conglomerate GlaxoSmithKline.

Another Silvanus Bevan (1743-1830) son of Timothy and his first wife Elizabeth Barclay, joined the Quaker family bank of Barclay, Bevan, Tritton & Co and was also a sleeping partner in the takeover of Henry Thrale's famous Southwark Bankside brewery, paying a quarter of the total purchase price of £135,000 in 1781.

However Mary's great-grandfather, yet another Silvanus Bevan, led a more prosaic life.  Farmer and Methodist lay preacher, Silvanus kept close to home, marrying his cousin Ann and raising his large family on the farm overlooking the tempestuous Gower coastline.

George was the first to fly the nest.  He planned to return to his childhood home after completing his apprenticeship with the intention of building a business in Swansea.  However, like Mary, he was also to put down new roots, opening a shop in the developing seaside resort of Colwyn Bay.

George was first elected on to the Local Board in 1890, the beginning of a political career lasting forty-two years.  In 1908 he became a Justice of the Peace for the county and towards the end of his life he was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the Borough in recognition of his services to the town.

Entering the gateway of St. John's Methodist Church for Sunday worship in March 1935, George collapsed and died shortly afterwards.  Opening the eulogy at his funeral the Rev. A.J. Costain said:

"We are met to pay our last tribute to the memory of George Bevan.  He touched the life of the community at many points."

The letters that Mary so carefully preserved, chart the events of George's life and one Victorian Welsh farming family.  I hope she would have approved of this account.

Dr Mary Bevan

Constance Bevan - Mary's mother

George Herbert Bevan - Mary's father