Bodlondeb Hall
Two sisters Margaret and Constance (nee Wood ) wrote a letter to Conwy District Council following a visit to Bodlondeb Hall in 1984. The two ladies who are great nieces of Albert Wood, the original owner of the house, were brought up on the estate. These ladies, in the 80’s lived in retirement in Sussex and had decided that they would like to see again the house of their childhood. The council who now occupy the premises took it as a compliment that the ladies were so happy with what they saw on that visit.
Albert Wood and Mr & Mrs George Swinford Wood, the ladies, grandparents, came to Conwy in 1872 from Chester. They rented Benarth before purchasing Bodlondeb. The house was built in what must have been one of the finest settings he could find for this prestigious new family home.
There were earlier houses on the site, the one built by Thomas Holland in 1742 was probably the earliest. The Hollands were a noted family with long associations with the Borough. For a time Sir John Conroy, who was Master of the Household to the young Queen Victoria lived a Bodlondob and called it Arcadia. Wood pulled down the house that stood where the Greenhouses are now and built the present house in 1877.
The Woods came from a family who in 1780, had Cable and Anchor works at Stourbridge in Worcestershire and later set up works at Saltney near Chester. The firm came to be known as Henry Wood & Co, Henry being the father of Albert. The anchors of Brunel’s giant ship the “Great Eastern,” each weighing seven tons were made at the Saltney works and the firm also patented a new anchor known as the Woods Patent anchor, used widely by the Merchant and Royal Navy.
Albert Wood was mayor of Conwy between 1877 to 1902, he was a JP and received the Freedom of the Brough. Mr Wood was a great benefactor to Conwy, building a school, the marine walk, gave the fountain and statue of Llewelyn in the town square and many other gifts to Conwy.
The sisters had kept in touch over the years, along with their elder sister Winifred Wood. They had in their possession an imposing portrait of Albert Wood which they generously presented to the council in 1984 and which now hangs in its place of honour above the main staircase. Their grandmother, Mrs Swinford Wood, was a Salesbury and a lineal descendant of William Morgan on her Mother’s side, who translated the first Old Testament into Welsh in 1588 and William Salesbury on her Father’s side who translated the New Testament into Welsh in 1567. The family put in a fine pair of stained-glass windows in Conwy church depicting these clerical/scholarly figures of the 16th century.
There were many notable visitors to Bodlondeb, including Lloyd George, Sir Edward Elgar and Lionel Edwards the artist whose parents owned Benarth up the river from Conwy. Queen Victoria had intimated that she would like to stay at Blodondeb on one of her journeys through north Wales, but this did not happen because there was insufficient accommodation for her retinue.
Bodlondeb and 60 acres of parkland and wood was purchased in 1937 by the Conwy Corporation for public offices and grounds. The offices were opened by Lloyd George.
This is another story from Eddie’s archives.