Site History
The earliest record of a building on the resort site was 1634, when it was the residence of the High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, Lewis Van.
The Manor House was built in 1860 by Thomas Powell, the largest coalmine owner in the South Wales coalfield, the world's biggest coal exporter and the first coal millionaire. Powell's son, Thomas Powell Jnr, and his bride Julia Jenkins were given the mansion as a wedding gift when they married in 1859. They named it Coldra Hall.
After Thomas and Julia Powell's deaths on safari in Africa, Coldra Hall was leased to a number of tenants, including the Firbank family from 1900–1915. Charles Firbank was also a high sheriff of Monmouthshire and well known for his generosity, entertaining parties of a hundred or more blind and disabled people. On Mr Firbank's death in 1915, the hall was sold to Sir John Wyndham, a colliery and shipping entrepreneur, who added a wing to it.
In 1930 Sir John donated the house to the local health authority and, in 1940, it became the Lydia Beynon Maternity Hospital, named in honour of his mother. Over 60,000 babies were born there, including the present owner Sir Terry Matthews. It closed as a hospital on the 1st March 1977.
Read more about this topic: Celtic Manor Resort
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