(319) Bailey of Nantyglo House and Glanusk Park, Barons Glanusk

Bailey, Barons Glanusk

Many of the families which appear in these pages owe their wealth and status to one or two ancestors of exceptional good fortune, talent or industry, but the wealth which was generated in a single generation by Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt., and his younger brother and partner, Crawshay Bailey (1789-1872) was remarkable. The two men were among the younger sons of a farmer, John Bailey, who was born in 1747 in the Yorkshire village of Normanton, but moved to Suffolk in about 1779. He came from the same village and a similar background to Richard Crawshay (1739-1810), whose sister he married in 1774. Crawshay made his first fortune as an iron merchant in London in the 1760s and 1770s, and in 1786 leased the Cyfarthfa iron works at Merthyr Tydfil (Glam.), with a view to making as well as selling iron. He invested in new plant and machinery, and by 1796 Cyfarthfa was by far the largest ironworks in Britain. When he died in 1810, Crawshay was worth an astonishing £1.5m. There is nothing to suggest that Crawshay's contacts with his sister's family in Suffolk were particularly close, but in about 1800 the young Joseph Bailey made his way to south Wales to seek employment with his uncle, followed shortly afterwards by the even younger Crawshay Bailey. The two brothers made a favourable impression on their uncle, who perhaps recognised in them the same steely focus and determination which he himself had exhibited at a similar age. They were taken into the Cyfarthfa business, and when Richard Crawshay died, Joseph was left a 25% share in the firm and Crawshay a legacy of £1,000. The rest of the Cyfarthfa company went to Richard's son, William Crawshay (1764-1834) (who owned 50%) and his son-in-law, Benjamin Hall (1778-1817), who had the remaining 25%. 

Neither William Crawshay nor Joseph Bailey wanted, or were temperamentally suited, to share the management of the Cyfarthfa business, and within a few months arrangements had been made for William Crawshay to buy out Joseph for £20,000. This money Joseph invested in the purchase and development of the Nantyglo ironworks in Monmouthshire, which had been stopped for several years. In this venture, Joseph was initially in partnership with Matthew Wayne, but he was soon joined by his brother, and in 1820, when Wayne withdrew from the partnership, Crawshay Bailey took his place.

A romantic engraving of the Nantyglo ironworks in 1820 by Henri Gastineau.

As part of his development of the site, Joseph Bailey built himself a substantial house overlooking the works (Nantyglo House) where he lived until the 1820s. It seems to have been in these years that the foundation of the family fortune was laid. It is a measure of the firm's success that although the iron industry as a whole saw a significant recession after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, production at Nantyglo actually increased. By the mid 1820s, Joseph could afford to withdraw from the day-to-day management of the business - which devolved upon Crawshay - and to begin investing his accumulated capital in estates and developing a political career. His key purchases were the Glanusk estate near Crickhowell (Brecks.), bought in about 1825, where he built a new house to the designs of Robert Lugar (also employed at Cyfarthfa Castle from 1824 by William Crawshay) by 1830, and the adjoining Penmyarth estate, acquired in 1831. These became the core of his possessions and remain the property of his descendants today, but he continued to buy estates in Herefordshire and south Wales as they became available throughout the 1830s and 1840s. He made two purchases at Llansannor in Glamorganshire in 1835-36, and at much the same time bought Peterstone Court (Brecks.). 

Trebarried, Llandefalle: one of the smaller estates acquired by Joseph
 Bailey in the 1840s, photographed c.1960.  Image: Brecknock Museum.

By 1840 he had added Trebarried at Llandefalle (Brecks.) and by 1846 Pembridge Castle (Herefordshire), and he bought Hay Castle (which he had previously leased) in 1844 and Llangoed Castle in 1847. By 1850 (and perhaps earlier) he also owned Trebinshwn House. The portfolio eventually added up to more than 28,000 acres and at least seven gentry houses, although several of these were let to long-term tenants. Accounts of several of these properties are given below, but those of Hay Castle, Llangoed Castle, Llansannor Court, Trebarried and Trebinshwn are reserved for future posts. Llansannor Court was a wedding gift to Sir Joseph's youngest daughter, and passed in 1855 to her husband's family, the Spearmans.

Nor did Joseph Bailey neglect to invest in his business. In 1833 he and his brother bought the Beaufort iron works for £45,000, which was run thereafter as one integrated business with Nantyglo, and in 1837 he established Bailey, Morgan & Co. as a private bank in Abergavenny. Crawshay Bailey, having taken over the running of the Nantyglo business and moved into Nantyglo House, did not exhibit the same enthusiasm as his brother for buying landed estates. When he bought the Aberaman House estate in 1837, it was because he saw the potential of the coal-rich property, on which he later developed coal mines and a further ironworks, rather than for any interest in the house or land per se. In the late 1840s he devoted his capital to these enterprises and to promoting railway lines in Monmouthshire and the Forest of Dean which would serve his interests. He thus built up a classic, vertically-integrated business model: mining the coal that smelted the iron that made the rails that built his railways. Throughout his long life he remained driven by and focused on the opportunities to succeed in business rather than cashing in his business success for social advancement. This may have been partly because he did not marry until 1850 and had no legitimate children. He did, however, begin to build up an estate around Abergavenny in the 1840s, and in the 1860s he moved to Llanfoist House as part of his retirement arrangements. He sold the Aberaman estate and his various works there in 1864 and the Nantyglo-Beaufort ironworks in about 1867, although he retained shares in the latter which he bequeathed in 1872 to two of his nephews (Joseph's sons) who had assisted him at the works. Crawshay Bailey's principal legatee, however, was his illegitimate son, Crawshay Bailey junior (1841-87), who was brought up in his father's household but showed no interest in or aptitude for business. His illegitimacy - which may not have been widely known - seems not to have limited his social acceptance, and in 1875 he built a new mansion, Maindiff Court, on his father's estate around Abergavenny, which was designed for lavish entertaining. In 1863 he married the daughter of a Greek count living in exile in Cheltenham, and they had two daughters, who were his heirs when he died unexpectedly in 1887. They let the house but retained ownership of the estate until the early 1920s, when Maindiff Court was given to the county authorities for use as a lunatic asylum and the 4,000 acre estate was sold.

Joseph Bailey was much keener than his brother to gain social advantage from his wealth and landed estates. In 1835 he became MP for Worcester, and he remained in Parliament (sitting from 1847 for Breconshire) until his death in 1858. In 1852 he was made a baronet during the short-lived first premiership of the 14th Earl of Derby: presumably a reward for his loyalty to Derby during the complex political scene-shifting of the 1840s and 1850s, which resulted ultimately in the birth of the modern Conservative party. Sir Joseph had a large family, including five sons, of whom the three youngest found careers with the family businesses. His second son went into the Royal Navy, while the eldest, Joseph Bailey junior, who stood to inherit the family estates, followed his father into politics, being elected for Sudbury (where his family's Suffolk background may have been helpful) in 1837. In 1840 he bought Easton Court at Little Hereford on the northern edge of Herefordshire, and in the following year he was elected as one of the MPs for Herefordshire. He died unexpectedly in 1850, in his father's lifetime, but - like his father - he left five sons. The eldest of these, Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 2nd bt., succeeded to the baronetcy and estates in 1858 while still a minor. One of the younger sons, Henry John Bailey (1844-1922) later built his own small country house, Rowden Abbey, at Bromyard (Herefordshire), to the designs of John Douglas of Chester.

After he came of age, the 2nd baronet followed the family tradition and entered Parliament in 1865 as Conservative MP for Herefordshire. Having served for 20 years he retired, but when the City of Hereford found itself without a strong candidate the following year he was persuaded to stand for the city and served as its MP until 1892. In 1875 he secured an even greater honour, becoming Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, a post he held until 1905, and in 1899 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Glanusk, apparently on account of his political and parliamentary service.

Lord Glanusk was succeeded in his title and estates by his eldest son, Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk. He began the process of selling off outlying estate properties, including Easton Court (in 1909), Llangoed Castle (in 1911) and Pembridge Castle (in 1912), presumably to pay death duties. He seems to have preferred the army to politics, and as a young man enjoyed a career with the Grenadier Guards, establishing a family tradition in that regiment. He retired from the army in about 1904 and was shortly afterwards appointed to succeed his father as Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, a post which he held until his death. His three sons all served in the forces during the First World War, but sadly his two younger sons were both killed. By the 1920s he was evidently in failing health, and made over his estates to his surviving son, Wilfred Russell Bailey (1891-1948) in 1923, thereby successfully minimising the death duty payable on his own death. He devoted his remaining years to raising enough money to establish the Breconshire War Memorial Hospital in memory of his two lost sons and the county's other war dead. The target was eventually achieved, and on the 11 January 1928 crowds gathered to watch him perform the official opening ceremony. By a savagely dramatic irony, he began his speech by thanking God that he had lived to see this day, only to collapse on the podium with a massive heart attack, from which he died shortly afterwards. 

Wilfred Bailey succeeded as 3rd Baron Glanusk, and he also succeeded his father as Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire. In 1937, after his mother gave up Hay Castle, he sold it to Benjamin Guinness, but otherwise he seems to have preserved the remaining family estates intact. During the Second World War he returned to the army and served with the Welsh Guards, but in 1943 he suffered a heart attack and was obliged to retire. He died relatively young in 1948, leaving a widow and a small daughter, but no sons. His title therefore passed to a cousin, David Russell Bailey (1917-97), who became the 4th Baron Glanusk (and whose son is the present peer), but as the estate was not entailed, he was able to leave it to his widow and daughter. The Dowager Lady Glanusk (d. 2002) married for a second time in 1966 and became Viscountess de L'Isle. Since there seemed no prospect of the family being able to repair or maintain such a large house, she pulled down - or rather blew up - Glanusk Park between 1952 and 1954 and made her home at Penmyarth House. She also sold off much of the remaining outlying estate property, including Trebarried, Trebinshun and Peterstone Court. In the 1970s she handed Penmyarth over to her daughter and built a small new house close to the site of the former Glanusk Park. When Lady de L'Isle died in 2002, her daughter, Shân Josephine, who had married Capt. William Legge-Bourke (1939-2009), came into full control of the Glanusk estate. She was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Powys (the modern county that includes the historic Breconshire) in 1998, continuing a remarkable family tradition which has seen members of the family serve in this office for 92 of the last 142 years! She was made a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2015, in recognition of her public and charitable works. In recent years, she has handed over the Glanusk estate to her son, Harry Legge-Bourke (b. 1972), who has established various commercial ventures on the estate to increase the income it generates.

Nantyglo House, Monmouthshire

Nantyglo House: a late 19th century view, from an old postcard.

A plain five by five bay house, built in about 1811 overlooking the Nantyglo ironworks for Joseph Bailey, who had bought the existing ironworks site the previous year. The only external decoration was a single-storey colonnade forming a porch on the entrance front. A few years later, in about 1816, when he was anxious about the possibility of rioting by his workers or more general revolution, Bailey built a rectangular walled enclosure with robust round towers of rubble stone at the north-east and south-west angles, on the hill behind the house, as places of safety for himself, his family, and trusted key workers. The south-west tower could accommodate four families. The towers were partially dismantled in about 1942 to salvage the iron trusses, beams, floor joists and window frames, so the towers are now largely ruined. 

The house itself seems to have been unoccupied after the death of Samuel Lancaster in 1883, and an attempt to sell it in 1894 was unsuccessful. It was said to have been leased by a group of Franciscan friars in 1904, but a press report of 1906 suggests it was then offices for J. & W. Stone, colliery proprietors. In 1910 the Bedwellty Poor Law Guardians wished to buy it as a branch workhouse, but again nothing seems to have come of this proposal. The house was a roofless ruin before the Second World War, and only the foundations survive in the grass.

Descent: Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt.; given c.1826 to Crawshay Bailey (1789-1872); sold c.1867 to Nantyglo Iron Co.; sold 1878 to J. Lancaster & Co. and occupied by Samuel Lancaster (d. 1883) and abandoned thereafter.

Glanusk Park, Breconshire

There appears to have been a house on this site before the Bailey family acquired the estate in 1825, but very little is known about it.

Glanusk Park: the first house, marked on the Ordnance Surveyor's drawing of 1814-15.
Image: British Library OSD 195.

The original Ordnance Surveyors Drawing made in 1814-15 marks a building labelled 'Glan Uske' in the centre of the park formed in a loop of the River Usk, and in 1830 Henri Gastineau noted in his Wales Illustrated that the place had formerly been the seat of Sir David Wilkins and that 'it must have been a charming place .... finely wooded, fine inequalities everywhere'. According to Theophilus Jones, the historian of Breconshire, the Baileys' house was 'built on the site of a residence bearing a similar name', but there seems to be no surviving visual record of the building.

Glanusk Park: the entrance front, from an early 20th century postcard

At all events, the ironmaster Sir Joseph Bailey bought the estate in 1825 and commissioned a new house from Robert Lugar. Like Lugar's Maeswllch, built a year or two earlier, the house was a robust Tudor Gothic block with two long fronts which derived their character from immensely tall octagonal pepper-pot finials with ogee caps rising from boldly modelled octagonal buttresses at the angles and flanking the central porches on both sides of the house. The two-storey entrance front had a projecting single-storey porte-cochere in front of the two-storey porch. The three-storey garden front was symmetrical and was set originally above a grassy slope in the picturesque manner, which was later carved into elaborate terraced formal gardens designed by Markham Nesfield and laid out between 1842 and 1872. Little seems to be recorded about the interior of the house, except that it had a two-storey hall colonnaded like an atrium.

Glanusk Park: garden front from an early 20th century postcard

The house was requisitioned during the Second World War and seems to have fared particularly badly. When it was returned to the family after the war they could not afford to restore it or to maintain it, and it was blown up between 1952 and 1954. The surviving original features of the estate are the three pretty little Tudor Gothic lodges by Lugar at the ends of the drives, which are built of rock-faced masonry with half-hipped gables and decorative bargeboards; the three-arch bridge of 1836 across the River Usk which connects the estate with Penmyarth; the Tower Lodge on the north drive; and Lugar's stable courtyard, entered through a neo-Elizabethan gabled gatehouse.

The Lodge, Glanusk Park: the house of 1978.

After the demolition of the Lugar house, Penmyarth became the centre of the estate, but a new building, now known as The Lodge House, was built close to the site of the previous house to the designs of Tim Richards in 1978 for the Viscountess de L'Isle. It consists of two substantial ranges with huge barn-like roofs, set parallel to one another and linked by a short cross-range. One of the main ranges is single storey and the other two-storey, but nothing is made of these generous forms, and the fenestration and external detailing is disappointingly suburban. The house does not do justice to its fine position above the River Usk, and perhaps one day it can be replaced by a building of greater consequence that would make a fitting centre to the estate.

Descent: sold 1825 to Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt.; to grandson, Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 2nd bt. and later 1st Baron Glanusk; to son, Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk; to son, Wilfred Russell Bailey (1891-1948), 3rd Baron Glanusk; to widow, Margaret (d. 2002), later Viscountess de l'Isle; to daughter, Dame (Elizabeth) Shân Josephine (b. 1943), wife of Capt. William Nigel Henry Legge-Bourke (1939-2009); to son, Harry Legge-Bourke (b. 1972).

Penmyarth House, Breconshire

Penmyarth House, from an early 20th century postcard.

The present essentially 18th century house is said to have been built on the site of an earlier building belonging to the Vaughans of Tretower. It has three bays and two storeys, with a hipped slate roof and end stacks, and a service wing and court at the rear; it is set in its own small park on the north bank of the River Usk. The building was remodelled after 1831 for Sir Joseph Bailey, 1st bt., who probably coated it in stucco, added the deep eaves and the tripartite windows on the ground floor, and built the colonnade of paired cast-iron Doric columns, no doubt supplied by Sir Joseph's own ironworks. Some further alterations were made after 1932 for the 3rd Baron, when the house became a regular winter residence for the family, and again in the 1950s, when it became the principal residence on the estate.

Descent: Evan Guillim (fl. 1806)... W.A. Gott (fl. 1824); sold to Capt. Fredrick, who sold 1831 to Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt.; thereafter as for Glanusk Park.

Easton Court, Herefordshire

The medieval house of the Delamere family, who owned the manor of Little Hereford, stood near the church, but an estate map of 1775 shows a house close to the present site, and the present late 18th century brick stables must have belonged to it.  When the Leominster Canal was built in 1791-94 the drive approaching the house from the south had to be diverted and carried over a new bridge. 

Easton Court, Little Hereford: the entrance front and service wing in 1979. Image: Historic England.

Easton Court, Little Hereford: the house in 1979. Image: Historic England

It is not entirely clear, but the Ordnance Surveyors' drawing of 1817 may not to show a house on the estate, and it is therefore possible that the 18th century house had been destroyed prior to the construction of the present building of about 1820, which has a three-bay entrance front with plain pilasters, a recessed one-bay centre and a Doric porch, and a service wing to the left. Round the corner, the plain five-bay side elevation has giant moulded pilasters and a fluted cornice. When the house was advertised for sale for the first time in 1833, it was described as comprising 'a vestibule, large hall, drawing room 25' x 17', dining room 25' x 13', library, and eight best bedrooms, four with dressing rooms attached'. The lodge, with gabled dormers and pierced bargeboards, dates from about 1840. 

Easton Court: the ruins in 2001. Image: A Buildings Fan.

Easton Court: the ruined staircase hall in 2015.
Image: A Buildings Fan.

The house itself was damaged by fire in the late 1950s, but is said to have been re-roofed immediately, and photographs from the 1970s show no sign of fire damage, although the house was evidently in poor repair. Since the 1970s, however, the house seems simply to have been abandoned, and it is now in ruins. Recently an application was made to demolish the building and build a new house on the site behind a facsimile of the present facade, but this was rejected by the planning authority. Recent photographs of the house suggest that although it is now in an advanced state of dereliction, the house would not be beyond economic repair, but if it is too late to save it, a new house in the classical tradition would be a more fitting replacement than a piece of blatant facadism.

Descent: Dansey Dansey (d. 1774) of Brinsop Court; to son, Richard Dansey (1766-1813); to son, Dansey Richard Dansey (d. 1857); sold 1840 to Joseph Bailey (1812-50); to widow, Elizabeth (d. 1897), later the wife of Edward Otto Partridge, who let to Edward Reston; to son, Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 2nd bt. and later 1st Baron Glanusk; to son, Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk, who sold by 1909 to Col. Richard Henry Wingfield Cardiff (1870-1945); to son, Brig. Ereld Boteler Wingfield Cardiff (1909-88); to daughter, Jennifer Susan Margaret (b. 1934), wife of Sir Richard Ernest Butler Lloyd (b. 1928), 2nd bt.

Pembridge Castle, Herefordshire

Pembridge Castle: entrance front, 2006. Image: Philip Halling. Some rights reserved.

Pembridge is one of the smaller Welsh border castles, and essentially dates from the 13th century. It has a quadrangular plan, and was moated, with a substantial earthen bank constructed beyond the moat to contain the water on this sloping and artificially terraced site. Originally called Newland Castle, it passed to the de Pembridge family in 1208, and became their principle seat from c.1265 until the late 14th century. It then passed by marriage to Sir Richard Burley and subsequently came to the Crown. During the Civil War it was held by Sir Walter Pye for the Royalists and suffered substantial damage from an attack by Col. Kyrle during his assault on Monmouth. The garrison was eventually starved into surrender and the castle was then slighted. The castle had been made habitable again by 1675, works which included building the present hall range. 

Pembridge Castle: ground plan, 1931

In 1678, the elderly Fr. John Kemble, George's brother, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 'Popish Plot' invented by Titus Oates. Although cleared of any such involvement, he was found guilty of being a Catholic priest and was executed at Hereford in 1679. He was canonized as one of the forty English martyrs in 1970.

In 1912, the castle was sold to Dr. Hedley Bartlett (d. 1956), for whom Ernest G. Davies carried out extensive restoration work in 1913-15. He rebuilt the destroyed parts of the gatehouse and curtain walls, and added new crenellations throughout. Bartlett was a colourful character. He is buried in the chapel of the castle, where he is commemorated by a brass on which he is depicted in episcopal robes as 'Bishop of Siluria in the Lesser Eastern Church'. He was what is called an 'episcopus vagans', pithily defined on Wikipedia as "independently acting bishops...mostly without congregations, and many in different stages of delusion and fantasy, not least in the Episcopal titles they confer on themselves". In 1980 the castle belonged to Mr R.A. Cooke, and it remains in private ownership.

Descent: Sir Walter Pye, kt. (1571-1635); to son, Sir Walter Pye, kt. (1610-59), who sold to George Kemble; ...sold 1693 to Henry Scudamore (1653-1737); to son, James Scudamore (1692-1748); to son, James Scudamore (d. 1783), who sold to Charles Townley (1737-1805); to brother, Edward Towneley-Standish (d. 1807); to uncle, John Towneley (1731-1813); to son, Peregrine Edward Towneley (1762-1846), who sold to Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt.; to grandson, Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 1st Baron Glanusk; to son, Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk; sold 1912 to Dr. Hedley Bartlett (d. 1956)... R.A. Cooke (fl. 1980)...

Peterstone Court, Llanhamlach, Breconshire

The Walbeoffe family had a seat on or near this site, known as Llanhamlach Court, in the 17th century, but sold it to John Powell (d. 1769), a successful barrister, in the early 18th century. He seems to have lived previously on the Duke of Beaufort's estate at Tidenham (Glos), and his brother was steward to the Duke's Welsh estates. He built the lower two storeys of the present house in 1741. 

Peterstone Court: entrance front. Image: Expedia.co.uk

His architect is unknown, but the style of the house, which is of a type uncommon in mid-Wales, suggests that he was English, and quite probably from the Bristol area, given Powell's background. The entrance front has a three-bay breakfront and a central doorcase with Gibbs surround, and large sash windows. Inside, the house has a double-pile plan with a broad hall in the centre leading through to a good staircase with three turned balusters per tread, and a small panelled room with a well-carved pine overmantel.

The estate was occupied in the early 19th century by the Rev. Thomas Powell (d. 1832), who was the rector of Llanhamlach. He was probably responsible for the addition of the top storey of the house, with its deep cornice and the unusually steep-sided pediment, which gives the house an air of being rather over-hatted.

Some time after 1836, Gabriel Middleton Powell sold the estate to Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt., the Monmouthshire ironmaster, who had already acquired the Glanusk and Penmyarth estates further south, It remained part of the Glanusk estate well into the 20th century, and an important further addition was made in 1901, when the five-bay single-storey ballroom was added to the right of the entrance front. After the Glanusk estate sold the house, it was converted into an hotel in the late 20th century.

Descent: Charles Walbeoffe sold to John Powell (d. 1769); to widow (d. 1801); to nephew, Sir Gabriel Powell (d. 1814); to son, Gabriel Middleton Powell (fl. 1826) who let to his cousin, Rev. Thomas Powell (d. 1832); sold after 1836 to Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt.; to grandson, Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 1st Baron Glanusk; to son, Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk; to son, Wilfred Russell Bailey (1891-1948), 3rd Baron Glanusk; to widow, later Viscountess de L'Isle (d. 2002), who sold... Peterstone Court Hotel.

Maindiff Court, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Maindiff Court was the site of an ancient manor house - perhaps more farmhouse than gentry dwelling - belonging to the Dukes of Beaufort and occupied by the Owen family. It was sold in 1848 to Crawshay Bailey as part of the estate he was building up around Abergavenny. He seems never to have occupied the house, preferring the 18th century Llanfoist House, but after his death his son, Crawshay Bailey junior (1841-87) rebuilt the house as his main residence. 

Maindiff Court, Abergavenny: the garden front, from an old postcard.

The new house was a substantial Italianate mansion with a three storey main block of three-by-three widely spaced bays, with a lower wing. The entrance front had a single-bay breakfront with a steep pediment, a two-storey projecting porch and an immense porte-cochère in front of that. The irregular garden front also had a single-bay breakfront with an open pediment, but it was placed off-centre; the narrow bay to its left had only blind windows, while the wide bay to its right had a two-storey bow window. Beyond that was an ornate cast iron and glass conservatory. Inside, the house had a fine staircase hall with a polychrome tiled floor and a staircase with a cast iron balustrade rising to a gallery.

Maindiff Court: staircase hall. Image: Mike Powell.

In 1886, when Crawshay Bailey fell ill, Maindiff Court was let. After the estate was sold in the early 1920s, the site was presented to the Monmouthshire Asylum Committee and the house became a mental hospital. It was pulled down in 1935 and replaced by purpose-built accommodation blocks. The site was used as a military hospital and prisoner of war reception centre in the Second World War, and Rudolf Hess was held here for a time in 1942. It later reverted to use as a mental hospital, and is still in use.

Descent: sold 1848 to Crawshay Bailey (1789-1872); to son, Crawshay Bailey (1841-87); to daughters, Clara Jane Isabella Bettina (1865-1924), wife of William James Gordon Canning (1857-1940) and Augusta Emily Selina (1866-1956), wife of Col Sir William Edward Carne Curre (1855-1930), 1st bt., who gave it in 1924 to Monmouthshire Asylum Committee; by descent to Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board.

Rowden Abbey, Bromyard, Herefordshire

There was a late medieval or 16th century house on a moated site by the River Frome, to the west of the present building, which was demolished in about 1790 by the Hopton family of Canon Frome. Some 16th or 17th century woodwork from this building was preserved and reused at Canon Frome Court. The Hoptons sold the estate in 1872 to the Barnebys of Bredenbury Court, from who it was bought by Henry John Bailey in about 1880.

Rowden Abbey: entrance front

The present richly half-timbered house was  built by John Douglas of Chester in 1881, and has been little altered. The entrance front has a slightly off-centre gabled two-storey porch and a taller and wider gable over a double-jettied cross-wing at the right-hand end, creating a picturesquely asymmetrical elevation. There is much ornamentation in the timbering, with curved braces, concave lozenges, carved bargeboards and bressumers, and heavily cusped window lights. The complex steep roof and tall brick chimneystacks provide strong vertical accents, and round the corner on the south side there are three canted bays, lighting the drawing room, dining room and billiard room. Inside, the original plan form and decorative finishes are largely unchanged, and the house has ribbed ceilings and a great deal of panelling.

Descent: built 1881 for Henry John Bailey (1846-1922); sold c.1924 to Col. Lewis Henry Peregrine Birch (d. 1942); sold 1943 to Louis Alfred Benjamin Horton Bone, who ran a guest house and riding stables (bankrupt 1947; jailed 1948); sold 1948 to Kenneth Henry Rendell Gibbs (b. 1905; fl. 1960)... Mr G. Preece... Ernie Warrender (fl. 2017).

Bailey family of Glanusk Park, Barons Glanusk

Bailey, John (1747-1813). Son of Joseph Bailey, farmer at Normanton (Yorks WR), baptised at Featherstone (Yorks WR), 30 March 1747. A farmer at Wakefield (Yorks WR) and from c.1779 at Great Wenham (Suffk) and later at Stratford St Mary (Suffk). He married, 7 July 1774 at Normanton, Susannah (1747-1812), daughter of William Crawshay of Normanton, and had issue:
(1) Ann Bailey (b. 1775), baptised at Normanton, 29 June 1775; married, 19 December 1797 at Great Wenham, Robert Rand of Roydon (Norfk), and had issue; living in 1812;
(2) Elizabeth Bailey (1776-1832), baptised at Normanton, 29 May 1776; married, 15 September 1796 at Great Wenham, James Partridge (1775-1859) of Stratford St Mary, farmer, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died at Stratford St Mary (Suffolk), 23 September 1832;
(3) William Bailey (1778-1834), baptised at Normanton, 2 February 1778; married, 1834, Ann (1809-65) (who m2, 1850, his brother Crawshay Bailey), daughter of Joseph Moore of Mitcham (Surrey); buried at Mitcham (Surrey), 27 November 1834;
(4) Susannah Bailey (1780-1833), baptised at Great Wenham, 14 May 1780; married, 5 May 1802 at Great Wenham, Robert Sallows (d. 1842) of Plymouth (Devon) and later of Newport (Mon.), merchant & commission agent; died at Newport (Mon.), 4 November 1833;

(5) Crawshay Bailey (1781-89), born at Woodhouse (Yorks), 1781; died young, 1789;

(6) Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt. (q.v.);
(7) John Bailey (1785-1815), baptised at Great Wenham, 25 March 1785; farmer at Great Wenham (Suffk); named as a trustee in his father's will in 1812; buried at Great Wenham, 25 March 1815;
(8) Thomas Bailey (1786-1811), born 21 December 1786 and baptised at Great Wenham, 2 January 1787; died unmarried, 1811;
(9) Crawshay Bailey (1789-1872) (q.v.).
He lived at Wakefield  and from c.1779 at Great Wenham and Stratford St Mary.
He died 6 October 1813; his will was proved in the PCC, 21 October 1814. His wife died 11 May 1812.

Bailey, Sir Joseph (1783-1858), 1st bt. Elder son of John Bailey (1747-1813) of Wakefield (Yorks) and Great Wenham (Suffk), and his wife Susannah Crawshay, born 21 January and baptised at Great Wenham (Suffk), 9 March 1783. As a young man, he went to work for his uncle Richard Crawshay at Cyfarthfa ironworks and in 1810 was left a quarter share of that company, which he sold to his cousin, William Crawshay, for £20,000. This sum he invested in 1811 in purchasing and developing the Nantyglo ironworks (Mon.) in partnership with Matthew Wayne and later with his brother, Crawshay Bailey, and he made Nantyglo a thriving concern. He and his brother have acquired something of a reputation for being oppressive masters, but there seems to be little evidence that they were more so than their contemporaries. One thing that may have helped to establish this opinion is that in 1816, fearing the possibility of riot or revolution, Bailey built a rectangular enclosure with two defensive round towers on the hill behind Nantyglo House as a place of safety in the event of trouble. He retired from active engagement in the management of the firm in 1830, leaving his brother as managing partner. In 1833 they purchased the Beaufort Ironworks for £45,000 and in 1837 he established Bailey, Morgan & Co. (later Crawshay Bailey & Co.) as a private bank at Abergavenny; it was sold to National Provincial Bank in 1868. J. & C. Bailey & Co. was developed as an iron merchanting business in Liverpool, and his interests on Merseyside led to his becoming chairman of the Birkenhead Dock Trustees. He was MP for Worcester, 1835-47 and Breconshire, 1847-58; High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, 1823; Freeman of Newport, 1829. He was created a baronet, 5 July 1852. He married 1st, 8 October 1810 at Llangattock (Brecks.), Maria (1792-1827), daughter of Joseph Latham, and 2nd, 19 August 1830 at Leamington (Warks), Mary Anne (1796-1874), daughter of John Thomas Henry Hopper, of Wilton Castle (Co. Durham), and had issue:
(1.1) Joseph Bailey (1812-50) (q.v.);
(1.2) Maria Susan Bailey (1813-71), baptised at Aberystruth (Mon.), 28 June 1813; married, 25 January 1838 at Llangattock, Ven. Thomas Johnson Ormerod (1809-74) of Sedbury Park (Glos), Archdeacon of Suffolk, and had issue three sons and four daughters; died 26 February 1871;
(1.3) Margaret Bailey (1814-58), baptised at Aberystruth, 18 November 1814; married, 22 June 1839 at St George, Hanover Square, London, James Greenfield (c.1810-67) of Ryddgaer (Anglesey) and Brynderwen (Mon.) and had issue six sons and four daughters; died 15 July 1858 at Destelbergen near Ghent (Belgium);
(1.4) Richard Bailey (1816-53), born 19 September 1816; manager at the Nantyglo ironworks; died 14 April 1853;
(1.5) Capt. John Crawshay Bailey (1818-96), born 22 May 1818; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1844; Cdr, 1851; Capt. 1867); entered navy, 1834; court-martialled 1853 but largely vindicated; retired 1864; published First commission of HMS Sharpshooter, 1893, about his exploits in the 1850s capturing slaving vessels on the Brazilian coast; lived at Midford House (Somerset); married, 4 October 1860 at Dawlish (Devon), Maria Fowler (1837-1916), youngest daughter of Charles Cooch esq., and had issue one son; died 28 October 1896; will proved 20 November 1896 (effects £2,334);
(1.6) William Latham Bailey (1820-75), born 14 October 1820; inherited from his uncle a moiety of Crawshay Bailey Brothers & Co., of Liverpool, iron merchants, and shares in the Nantyglo and Beaufort ironworks (sold in 1871); lived in Liverpool; married, 24 August 1848 at St John's Chapel, Edinburgh, Frances Byng (1822-92), youngest daughter of John McLean of Campbelton (Argylls.) and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 2 January 1875; will proved 21 January 1875 (effects under £25,000);
(1.7) Henry Bailey (1822-89), born 31 October 1822; inherited from his uncle a moiety of Crawshay Bailey Brothers & Co., of Liverpool, iron merchants, and shares in the Nantyglo and Beaufort ironworks (sold in 1871); married 1st, 28 May 1848, Mary Louisa (1826-65), youngest daughter of Sir Richard Puleston, 2nd bt. of Emral Hall (Flints) and had issue two sons and one daughter; married 2nd, 21 September 1881, Christina (d. 1896), daughter of Neale Thomson of Camphill (Renfrews.) and had further issue one son and two daughters; died at Coates (Glos), 10 August 1889; will proved 4 October 1889 (effects £4,113);
(1.8) Jane Bailey (1824-1905), born 2 July and baptised at Aberystruth, 7 August 1824; married, 17 December 1846, Sir James Stuart-Menteth (1792-1870), 2nd bt., but had no issue; died at Mansfield House, New Cumnock (Ayrs.), 14 October 1905; will confirmed 12 December 1905 at Ayr Sheriff Court and sealed in London, 20 December 1905;
(2.1) Mary Anne Betha Bailey (1832-60), born 17 July 1832; on her marriage received Llansannor Court (Glam.) from her father; married, 31 May 1855 at St George, Hanover Square, London, Alexander Young Spearman (1832-65) (who m2, 2 April 1861, Louisa Anne Caroline Amelia (1842-1933), daughter of Edward Pellew Mainwaring, and had further issue two sons), eldest son of Sir Alexander Young Spearman, 1st bt., and had issue one son; died 14 January 1860.
He built Nantyglo House in about 1811, overlooking his ironworks, and lived there until he purchased Glanusk Park in 1825 and built a new house there. In 1831 he extended the estate through the purchase of Penmyarth House; and he later bought Llangoed Castle, Hay Castle, Peterstone Court, Trebarried at Llandefalle, and Trebinshun House in Breconshire; Pembridge Castle (Herefs) and Llansannor Court (Glam.) and Turville Court (Bucks) (where a new house was built in 1847, probably by a tenant). All these estates except Llansannor passed at his death to his grandson, the 2nd bt.; Llansannor was a wedding gift to his youngest daughter.
He died 20 November 1858; his will was proved 14 February 1859 (effects under £600,000). His first wife died 27 May 1827. His widow died 26 June 1874; her will was proved 20 July 1874 (effects under £7,000).

Joseph Bailey (1812-50)

Bailey, Joseph (1812-50). Eldest son of Sir Joseph Bailey (1783-1858), 1st bt., and his first wife, Maria, daughter of Joseph Latham, born 9 February 1812. Educated at Rugby and Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1828; BA 1832; MA 1835). Stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at Monmouth, 1835 and Sudbury, 1837, but was elected at a subsequent bye-election and served as Conservative MP for Sudbury (Suffk), 1837-41 and Herefordshire, 1841-50. DL for Breconshire. Chairman of the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Railway. He married, 22 June 1839 at St George, Hanover Square, London, Elizabeth Mary (1821-97), only child of William Congreve Russell of Leamington Spa (Warks), and had issue:
(1) Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 2nd bt. and 1st Baron Glanusk (q.v.);

(2) Elizabeth Anne Bailey (1841-43), born 8 November and baptised at Leamington Spa, 11 December 1841; died in infancy and was buried at St Mary, Moseley (Worcs), 15 March 1843;
(3) William Latham Bailey (1843-61), born at Leamington, 1863; died at Torquay (Devon), 15 April, and was buried at Penmyarth, 23 April 1861;
(4) Henry James Bailey (1844-1922), born 12 June 1844; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1853; BA 1858); built Rowden Abbey, Bromyard (Herefs), 1881; JP and DL for Herefordshire; played a leading role in the revival of Hereford breed of cattle; artist, who exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1881; married, 19 April 1871, Edith Anne (1846-1919), daughter of Joseph Tarratt, but had no issue; died 21 August 1922; will proved 4 November 1922 (estate £73,511);
(5) John Franklen Bailey (1845-1905), born 2 December 1845; an officer in the 13th Foot (Ensign, 1865; Lt., 1869; Capt., 1877; retired 1878); lived subsequently at Tanllan, Llanelltyd (Merioneths.); JP for Merionethshire; married, 25 October 1871, Ellen Isabella (d. 1890), daughter of Charles Prüst, but had no issue; died 1 May 1905; will proved 28 June 1905 (estate £49,300);
(6) Marian Bailey (1847-1929), baptised at Little Hereford, 14 July 1847; married, 19 April 1871 at Little Hereford, Fitzroy Paley Ashmore (1845-83), son of James Ashmore of London, barrister, and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 14 March 1929; will proved 5 June 1929 (estate £12,459);
(7) Richard Crawshay Bailey (1849-1916), born 15 January 1849; educated at University College and Charsley's Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1868; BA 1872) and Inner Temple (admitted 1872); lived at Pigeon House, Bodenham (Herefs); married 1st, 15 February 1881 at Eardisley (Herefs), Mabel Jane (1859-1909), daughter of Rev. Charles Samuel Palmer, and had issue two sons; married 2nd, 7 November 1911 at Dorking (Surrey), Ellen (1860-1941), daughter of Henry Douglas of Bromley (Kent), merchant; died 19 July 1916; will proved 2 October 1916 (estate £49,874).
He purchased Easton Court, Little Hereford in 1840.
He died 31 August 1850 and was buried at Llangattock, 6 September 1850; his will was proved 6 November 1850. His widow married 2nd, 4 July 1872 at St John, Paddington (Middx), Edward Otto Partridge (1819-1914), and died 23 November 1897; her will was proved 5 February 1898 (effects £2,049).

Sir Joseph Bailey, 2nd bt. & 1st Baron Glanusk

Bailey, Sir Joseph Russell (1840-1906), 2nd bt. and 1st Baron Glanusk. Eldest son of Joseph Bailey (1812-50) of Easton Court and his wife Elizabeth Mary, only child of William Congreve Russell and later the wife of Edward Otto Partridge, born 7 April 1840. Educated at Harrow (1855-58) and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1858). He succeeded his grandfather as 2nd baronet, 20 November 1858. High Sheriff of Breconshire, 1864; JP and DL for Radnorshire and Herefordshire; Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, 1875-1905 and first Chairman of Breconshire County Council, 1889. Conservative MP for Herefordshire, 1865-85 and for Hereford, 1886-92. Hon. Col. of 1st Volunteer Battalion of South Wales Borderers. Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for Herefordshire. He was created Baron Glanusk, 26 January 1899. He had antiquarian interests, and made important additions to Theophilus Jones' History of Brecknock which were incorporated into the third edition, published 1909-30. He married, 9 April 1861, Mary Ann Jane (1840-1935), daughter of Henry Lucas MD of Crickhowell (Brecks.), and had issue:
(1) The Hon. Elizabeth Mabel Bailey (1862-1952), born 16 March 1862; lived at Crickhowell; JP for Breconshire; died unmarried, 13 October 1952; her will was proved 8 January 1953 (estate £9,765);
(2) William Russell Bailey (b. & d. 1863); died in infancy;
(3) Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk (q.v.);
(4) The Hon. Edith Bailey (1866-1933), born 18 February 1866; married, 20 April 1892 at Llangattock, Samuel Hood Cowper-Coles (1865-1932); died 22 February 1933; will proved 29 April 1933 (estate £5,566);
(5) The Hon. William Bailey (1867-1942) of Tretower House (Brecks.), born 28 August 1867; an officer in 11th Hussars (2nd Lt, 1888; Lt., 1890; Capt., 1895; Maj., 1904; retired 1908) and the Welsh Horse Yeomanry (Maj.), 1914-19; served in India Frontier Expedition, 1897, Egypt, 1898-1902 and First World War (mentioned in despatches); JP and County Councillor for Breconshire; died unmarried, 24 December and was buried at Penmyarth, 27 December 1942; will proved 11 November 1944 (estate £33,607);
(6) The Hon. Arthur Bailey (1868-1929) of Hay Castle and later Aston-on-Clun (Shrops.), born 3 December 1868; an officer in East African Mounted Rifles (Capt.); served in Boer War and First World War; British Resident in Nigeria, 1903-06; married, 1 July 1924 at St Jude, Courtfield Gardens, London, Ethel Sophia (1884-1959), youngest daughter of James Ledger Hill of Bulford Manor (Wilts) and had issue one daughter; died 19 January 1929; will proved 8 May 1929 (estate £25,397);
(7) Cecile Mary Bailey (b. & d. 1870), born 25 March 1870 and died in infancy, 2 November 1870; 
(8) The Hon. Herbert Crawshay Bailey (1871-1936) of Uppington House, Wellington (Shrops.), born 23 June 1871; educated at Eton, Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1890; BA 1895) and Inner Temple (admitted 1890; called to bar 1897); barrister at law; served in First World War as an officer in the Territorial Army (Lt., 1916); JP for Middlesex; president of Pension Appeals Tribunals, 1920-24; a Commissioner of the Board of Control, 1924-36; married, 23 April 1908, Kathleen Mary (1883-1948), younger daughter of Sir Shirley Harris Salt, 3rd bt., of Saltaire, and had issue one son (later the 4th Baron Glanusk, from whom the current Lord Glanusk descends) and four daughters; died 13 April 1936; will proved 2 June 1936 (estate £25,512);
(9) The Hon. Margaret Elinor Bailey (1873-1960), born 28 October 1873; lived at Crickhowell; died unmarried, 22 May 1960; will proved 23 August 1960 (estate £7,302);
(10) The Hon. Gwladys Mary Bailey (1875-1960), born 29 March 1875; lived at Tretower House and had some reputation as a poet; died unmarried, 20 January 1960; will proved 29 March 1960 (estate £10,553);
(11) The Hon. John Lancelot Bailey (1878-1918), born 2 December 1878; educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1897); an officer in the Brecknockshire Battn., South Wales Borderers (2nd Lt.; Lt.; Capt., 1917); served in First World War; married, 6 August 1903, Vivien Dora (d. 1938), second daughter of Ferdinand Gaussen Carey of Guernsey (C.I.) and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Mhow (India), 26 October 1918.
He inherited his grandfather's estates in 1858, and Easton Court on the death of his mother in 1897. He sold Turville Court in 1901.
He died 6 January 1906; his will was proved 15 March 1906 (estate £104,552). His widow died aged 95, 18 April 1935; her will was proved 17 June 1935 (estate £3,303).

J.H.R. Bailey, 2nd Baron Glanusk

Bailey, Joseph Henry Russell (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk. Eldest son of Sir Joseph Russell Bailey (1840-1906), 2nd bt. and 1st Baron Glanusk, and his wife Elizabeth Mary, only child of William Congreve Russell and later the wife of Edward Otto Partridge, born 26 October 1864. Educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst.  An officer in the Grenadier Guards (Lt., 1885; Capt., 1896; Maj., 1900), 1885-1903; commanded Guards depot, Caterham, 1901-03. He retired from the army in about 1904 and was Hon. Col. of 3rd Battn, South Wales Borderers, 1905-10 of the Brecknockshire Battn, 1911-16 and of the London Command Depot, 1916-21; he was appointed DSO, 1900; CB 1911; CBE 1919. He succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Glanusk and a baronet, 6 January 1906. Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, 1905-28. He married, 6 August 1890, Editha Elma CBE (1870-1938), daughter of Maj. Warden Sergison of Cuckfield Park (Sussex), and had issue:
(1) Wilfred Russell Bailey (1891-1948), 3rd Baron Glanusk (q.v.);
(2) The Hon. Gerald Sergison Bailey (1893-1915), born 22 November 1893; educated at Eton and Royal Agricultural College; farmed in British East Africa; served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt.), 1914-15; was unmarried when he was killed in action, 10 August 1915; buried at Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy (France);
(3) The Hon. Bernard Michael Bailey (1899-1916), born 17 January 1899; midshipman on HMS Defence in the Royal Navy, 1914-16; was unmarried when he was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916;
(4) The Hon. Dulcie Editha Bailey (1896-1957), born 23 November 1896; an officer of the Order of St. John; married, 12 October 1922 at Llangattock, Capt. Alastair Robertson-Cooper (1897-1951), son of Sir George Alexander Cooper, 1st bt. of Hursley Park (Hants), but had no issue; died 16 April 1957; will proved 27 June 1957 (estate £74,635).
He inherited the extensive Glanusk Park estates from his father in 1906. He sold Easton Court by 1909, Llangoed Castle in 1911 and Pembridge Castle in 1912. The remaining properties were made over to his son in 1923.
He died of a heart attack while performing the official opening of the Breconshire War Memorial Hospital, 11 January 1928; his will was proved 27 March 1928 (estate £83,603). His widow died 19 April 1938; her will was proved 14 June 1938 (estate £54,514).

W.R. Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk

Bailey, Wilfred Russell (1891-1948), 3rd Baron Glanusk. Eldest and only surviving son of Joseph Henry Russell Bailey (1864-1928), 2nd Baron Glanusk, and his wife Editha Elma, daughter of Maj. Warden Sergison of Cuckfield Park (Sussex), born 27 June 1891. Educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. An officer in the Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt., 1911; Lt., 1912; Capt. 1914?; Maj., 1921), 1911-24 (wounded twice, mentioned in despatches; DSO 1916, 1919). Hon. Col. of 3rd Battn, Monmouthshire Regiment (TA), 1934 and of Brecknock Battn, South Wales Borderers, 1939. Returned to the army as an officer in the Welsh Guards (Maj. 1939) and GHQ Home Forces (Lt. Col., 1942) in Second World War; he retired following a heart attack in 1943. Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, 1928-48, and President of Brecon Territorial Army Association. He succeeded his father as 3rd Baron Glanusk and a baronet, 11 January 1928, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of St. John, 1932 and invested with the Croix de Guerre, 1919. He married 1st, 27 February 1919 (div. 1939), Victoria Mary Enid Ann (k/a Vera) (1896-1973), only daughter of Lt-Col. Frank Dugdale CVO and 2nd, 17 March 1942, Margaret Eldrydd JP (1913-2002), daughter of Maj-Gen. Thomas Herbert Shoubridge CB CMG DSO, and had issue:
(2.1) The Hon. Dame (Elizabeth) Shân Josephine Bailey (b. 1943) (q.v.).
He was given the extensive Glanusk Park estates by his father in 1923. He sold Hay Castle in 1937. At his death the remaining properties passed to his widow for life and then to his daughter. His widow demolished Glanusk Park in 1952-54, but built a new house on the estate in 1978. She also sold Trebarried, Trebinshun House and Peterstone Court.
He died 12 January 1948, when the peerage and baronetcy passed to his first cousin, David Russell Bailey (1917-97), 4th Baron Glanusk, whose son is the present peer. His will was proved 16 April 1948 (estate £454,781). His first wife married 2nd, Jul-Sep 1944, Philip Beaumont Frere (1897-1981), and died at Netherhampton House (Wilts), 21 August 1973; her will was proved 4 January 1974 (estate £66,243). His widow was appointed JP for Breconshire, 1958; elected County Councillor, 1955-61; and appointed High Sheriff of Powys in 1977. She married 2nd, 24 March 1966, William Sidney (1909-91), 1st Viscount de L'Isle, and died 22 January 2002; her will was proved 11 June 2002.

Dame Shân Legge-Bourke

Bailey, The Hon. Dame (Elizabeth) Shân Josephine (b. 1943). Only child of Wilfred Russell Bailey (1891-1948), 3rd Baron Glanusk, and his second wife, Margaret Eldrydd JP, daughter of Maj-Gen. Thomas Herbert Shoubridge CB CMG DSO, and later wife of 1st Viscount de L'Isle, born 10 September 1943. Lady in waiting to HRH The Princess Royal, 1978-98; High Sheriff of Powys, 1992; Lord Lieutenant of Powys, 1998-date. She was appointed DCVO, 2015 and a Commander of the Order of St. John, 1999. In 2006, she was the subject of a BBC television series entitled The Lady of Glanusk. She married, 2 June 1964, Capt. William Nigel Henry Legge-Bourke DL (1939-2009), son of Maj. Sir Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke, and had issue:
(1) Alexandra Shân (k/a Tiggy) Legge-Bourke (b. 1965); educated at Heathfield School, Ascot,  Institut Alpin Videmanette, Rougemont (Switzerland) and St Nicholas Montessori Centre; established Mrs Tiggywinkles nursery school, Battersea (London); nanny and later companion to HRH Prince William and HRH Prince Harry and personal assistant to HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993-99; appointed MVO, 2001; now runs a bed & breakfast business on the Glanusk estate; married, 16 October 1999, Charles E. Pettifer (b. 1965), security consultant, and had issue two sons;
(2) Zara Victoria Legge-Bourke (b. 1966), born 26 May 1966; married 1st, May 1985 (div. 1997), Capt. Richard Grosvenor (Plunkett-Ernle-Erle)-Drax MP of Charborough Park (Dorset), and had issue two sons and two daughters; married 2nd, 19 December 2003, Angus Charles Gordon-Lennox (b. 1964) of Gordon Castle (Aberdeens.);
(3) Harry Russell Legge-Bourke (b. 1972), born 20 February 1972; Page of Honour to HM Queen Elizabeth II, 1985-87; an officer in Welsh Guards (2nd Lt., 1993; Lt.; Capt., 1997; retired, 2001) (mentioned in despatches, 1994); aide de camp to Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank; Hon. Col. of Powys Army Cadet Force, 2001-06; married, 9 December 2000, Iona Charlotte (b. 1969), daughter of Lachlan Roderick Maclean and had issue one son and one daughter.
She inherited the Glanusk and Penmyarth estate on the death of her mother in 2002.
Now living. Her husband died at Penmyarth, 3 March 2009; his will was proved 22 July 2009.

Crawshay Bailey (1789-1872)

Bailey, Crawshay (1789-1872). Youngest son of John Bailey (1747-1813) and his wife Susannah, daughter of William Crawshay and sister of Richard Crawshay of Cyfarthfa (Monmouthshire), born 24 October and baptised at Great Wenham, 8 November 1789. At the age of 12, he followed his brother Joseph to Cyfarthfa and worked in his uncle's company; when his uncle died in 1810, he was left a legacy of £1,000. In partnership with his brother at Nantyglo ironworks from 1820; and after his brother retired from active involvement in the business in 1830, he became the managing partner. Until about 1825, he also ran the ironworks at Rhymney, and while there he constructed a tramway between Rhymney and Bassaleg near Newport. In 1833 he and his brother purchased the Beaufort Ironworks for £45,000, and this was subsequently run as one concern with Nantyglo.  In 1837 he purchased the coal-rich Aberaman estate (Glam.), and in the 1840s he established coal mines and ironworks on this property. He later invested in railways, setting up the Aberdare Railway with Sir John Josiah Guest and promoting other lines in the Forest of Dean (Glos) and Monmouthshire. In 1864, winding down to retirement, he sold the Aberaman ironworks and mineral estate for £250,000 and in 1867 the Aberaman estate for £123,500. He was MP for Monmouth Boroughs, 1852-68; High Sheriff of Breconshire, 1837 and of Monmouthshire, 1850; JP and DL for Breconshire and Glamorganshire; DL for Monmouthshire, 1831; Freeman of Newport, 1829. He married, 3 September 1850 at Wandsbek near Hamburg (Germany), Ann (1809-65), daughter of Joseph Moore of Mitcham (Surrey) and previously wife of his brother, William Bailey (1778-1834), but had no issue by her. He had, however, previously had an illegitimate child by his housekeeper, Sarah Baker (1800-44), who became his principal heir:
(X1) Crawshay Bailey (1841-87) (q.v.).
He purchased the Aberaman House estate in 1837 but sold it again in 1864. He lived at Nantyglo House from the 1820s until he moved in the 1860s to Llanfoist House, where he built up a landed estate in the 1840s and 1850s.
He died at Llanfoist House, Abergavenny (Mon.), 9 January 1872; his will was proved 12 March 1872 (effects under £160,000). His wife died at Llanfoist House, 1 November 1865.

Crawshay Bailey (1841-87)

Bailey, Crawshay (1841-87). Illegitimate son of Crawshay Bailey (1789-1872) and his servant, Sarah Baker, born January 1841. JP and DL for Monmouthshire; High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, 1874. An officer of the Royal Brecknockshire Militia (Capt.). He was popular with his tenants and neighbours, owing to his "benevolent and genial nature" and generous support of charitable institutions and projects. He married, 29 September 1863 at St Luke, Cheltenham (Glos), Countess Elizabeth Selina Gwynne Maclaine (1842-1909), daughter of Jean Baptiste, Count Metaxa, of Cheltenham, and had issue:
(1) Clara Jane Isabella Bettina Bailey (1865-1924), born 1 January and baptised at St James, Paddington (Middx), 8 February 1865; married, 22 April 1884 at St Luke, Cheltenham, William James Gordon Canning (1857-1940) of Hartpury Court (Glos) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 4 December 1938; will proved 24 August 1939 (estate £256,998);
(2) Augusta Emily Selina Bailey (1866-1956); married, 11 September 1888 at Llandewi Skirrid (Mon.), Col. Sir William Edward Carne Curre (1855-1930), 1st bt., of Itton Court (Mon.), but had no issue; died 5 October 1956; will proved 7 December 1956 (estate £292,049).
He inherited and further consolidated his father's estate at Abergavenny (Mon.), which consisted of some 4,000 acres. He chose not to live at Llanfoist House, but instead rebuilt Maindiff Court, Abergavenny in 1875. When he became ill a few months before his death, he moved to Kingstown, Dublin, where he lived as a recluse, largely cut off from his family. After his death, his estate passed to his daughters, who maintained it until 1920, when it was sold.
He died 17 April 1887; his will was proved 10 August 1888 (effects £219,386). His widow died in Cardiff, 5 February 1909; administration of her goods was granted to her elder daughter, 29 March 1909 (estate £3,522).

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1972, p. 151; Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 2003, pp. 1561-63; P. Reid, Burke's & Savills Guide to Country Houses: vol. 2, 1980, pp. 22, 50; A. Brooks & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Herefordshire, 2012, pp. 475, 547-49; R. Scourfield & R. Haslam, The buildings of Wales: Powys, 2nd edn., 2013, pp. 558-59; http://orapweb.rcahms.gov.uk/coflein//C/CPG319.pdf; http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-BAIL-NAN-1789.html; 

Location of archives

Bailey family, Barons Glanusk: deeds and estate papers relating to Breconshire and Radnorshire, 1771-1918 [National Library of Wales, BRA1977]; deeds and estate maps, 19th cent. [Powys County Archives Office, B/D/GLN]; deeds and correspondence, 1836-1966 [Glamorgan Archives, Acc. 1999/49].

Coat of arms

Argent between two bars three annulets in fess gules, all between as many martlets of the last.

Can you help?

Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch. Can anyone:

• Provide a more complete account of the decline of Nantyglo House in the early 20th century?
• Provide an illustration or description of the houses that existed at Glanusk Park before 1825 and at Easton Court before c.1820?
• Explain the late 20th century history of Easton Court more fully, and especially how it comes to be abandoned and derelict.
• Elucidate the late 20th century ownership history of Pembridge Castle, Peterstone Court or Rowden Abbey.
• Provide fuller genealogical information about John Bailey (1747-1813) and his children.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 31 January 2018 and updated 5 December 2019, 24 February 2021 and 14 May 2023.