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Allt-y-Bela - "Keeping up with the Edwards'" |
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The Tower
The tower has a number of unusual features such as diagonally set chimneys, 'reserved chamfer' windows, and a circular wooden staircase that served both the old and new parts of the building, stretching from top to bottom. Glass had become cheaper as a building material allowing for three windows on each of the lower floors and one in the loft. The contemporary design of the windows largely eliminated drafts, and so windows that opened were fitted. There are also shaped door-heads, which set the trend for a level of sophistication in interior decoration, as doors, doorframes and door -heads would have been plain, and purely functional before.
The first floor of the building was a large parlour, the second floor a bedroom and the third floor a loft. The building also contained a cider cellar - cider making was introduced into Monmouthshire at about this time, and many new houses of the period included a specific area for storage of the barrels. Usually this meant a basement, but as Allt-y-Bela was built on a valley floor (not on a helpful hillside), the ground floor was dedicated to cider storage and may have accounted for the height of the new tower.
Roger Edwards the Benefactor- Edwards did not confine the spending of his considerable wealth to personal building projects.
- The almshouses at Llangeview were founded on his instructions to give homes to 'necessitous persons' of three local parishes. Under the terms of the Roger Edwards Charity, the almshouse dwellers are 'occupants by licence', not tenants, and pay a 'maintenance contribution', not rent. Attached to the building was a chapel, with a chaplain appointed by the trustees.
- Edwards also founded Almshouses in Newland, Gloucestershire, which still retain many of their original 17th Characteristics
- Edwards, who died on 28th March 1624, also made provision in his will to found the Grammar School in Usk, and is commemorated in the local churchyard.
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