Pant-yr-Ochain
Pant-yr-Ochain is a historic country house and public house, near Gresford, Wrexham, in North Wales.
The Grade II listed building is located in hilly terrain north-east of Wrexham, next to a series of shallow lakes, which also takes its name. There is a locally run miniature railway next to the building.
The current building is largely in the neo-Jacobean style, with the building dating to a building on the site from the 1530s–1550s known as Pant Iocyn, around the time it was under the ownership of Edward Almer. It was largely modified in 1805 and 1835 under the Cunliffes ownership, until 1878 when it became part of the Acton Hall estate.
From the 1960s to the 1990s it became a hospitality venue, becoming a restaurant, hotel and pub in stages, and a sports bar in the early 1990s. The building is largely now a pub, operated by Brunning & Price since 1994.
Description
Grounds
Pant-yr-Ochain is situated within its grounds, overlooking a small lake, while surrounded by "hills and hollows". The grounds also contain a lawn with picnic benches, parasoled terraces, and a garden. On a Ordnance Survey 1899 map, the garden contained a carriage drive, a walled garden, a kitchen garden, woodland, parkland, lakes, walkways, a lodge, a conservatory and possibly a formal garden.Main building
The main current building largely dates from a 19th-century remodelling in 1835, which incorporated elements of the earlier structure. The house is described as "remarkable" due to its neo-Jacobean shaped gables, perhaps partly from the original structure.The building is a manor house, or a country house, with a drive, and now houses a pub. The pub is largely situated in the 19th century part of the building. Alfred Neobard Palmer, a local historian, described it as "the chief house in Gresford", and more important than Acton Hall.
The existing building is in the Jacobean style of the Regency era with a slate roof and rendered chimneys. The building has timber framing, with some of the framing at the building's rear dating to the 17th century, while significant framing was applied in the 19th century. It is two storeys and situated in a L-shaped plan. A Cunliffe coat of arms is present on the building with the year 1835.
The interior was remodelled in the 20th century, but retains some 19th-century features such as panelled doors and shutters and a 16th-century inglenook fireplace. Some of the 17th-century timber framing is visible on the ground floor walls, and on the rear from the lawn. The pub's central room is dominated by a large double-front bar. There is also a garden room and a small snug.
Sketches of the house are held in Wrexham Museum.
Farmhouse
Behind the main building there is a farmhouse which pre-dates the 17th century. The farmhouse has separate access from Old Wrexham Road and is hidden from view from the hall by a long brick wall.Etymology
Pant-yr-ochain means the "hollow of lamentation", with the Ochain possibly linked to a feudal lord of the same name who lived in the area, but with no surviving evidence. It originally was known as. Iocyn, was a popular medieval Welsh Christian name, possibly derived from Latin, meaning "happy". There is no information on the particular Iocyn the building is named after, but possibly they may have been an early Welsh settler who came to the area in the early Middle Ages. The name Pant-yr-ochain first appeared in the 1830s, later adopted by the Ordnance Survey, although various forms of the older name remained in use until recent times. In maps from 1577 and 1610, the form Pentiocken was used, while in 1587 Pantyokin was used once.It is sometimes nicknamed "the Pant", with Pant being a Welsh name referring to the hollow it sits in.
History
The area was a Welsh settlement by the late 12th century, under Owain Gwynedd, and part of Powys Fadog.There has been a building present on the site since the 13th century, and during the medieval times, a feudal lord known as Ochain lived there, although no recognisable evidence survives.
The building can trace its heritage to the 1530s; Tudor wattle and daub timber-framed walls of this era are visible from the modern-building's inglenook fireplace.
Edward Almer ownership (16th century)
By the 1550s, a house was built on the site known as Pant Iocyn. The site was under the ownership of Edward Almer, who served as the High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1553 and Member of Parliament for Denbighshire in 1555, with Almer possibly moving into the house on the site, following his election as an MP, in around 1555. Although the house was possibly owned previously by a family under the name Carrat.Almer either significantly modified an existing house on the site which was owned by the Carrats, or completely rebuilt the house. In the house's modification/rebuild Almer used materials belonging to his other house in Almere, located next to the River Dee, downstream of Holt. The house at Almere was low-lying and at risk of flooding, leading to Almer deciding to set up his gentry family at Pant Iocyn rather than at Almere, which Almer later sold, with it eventually ending up with the Puleston family. Although when he served as High Sheriff in 1553, Almer still stayed at Almere. Upon the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, he had moved into Plas Iocyn.
During Edward Almer's stay in the building, and that of his son William Almer, who also became MP in 1572, Plas Iocyn, was said to have been one of the "chief gentry houses" in the eastern parts of Denbighshire.
Just before moving into the building, in the 1540s, Almer was accused of removing parts of Holt Castle for building his home, as well as embezzling rents and other sources of income for it. Almer argued that the materials he took were not originally of Holt Castle itself, and instead came from the dissolved monasteries from Valle Crucis and Combermere. It is possible that some of the materials were at least taken to Plas Iocyn.
In 1577, the house appeared on maps by Christopher Saxton as Pentiocken, which was also used on William Kip's 1610 map.
Intermediate ownership (17th century)
This house was also recorded as being present in 1592. This house was owned at the time by William Almer, the son of Edward Almer. It was then passed down to his daughter Jane, who married Gilbert Gerard, son of William Gerard. Jane's and Gibert's son, also named William, was said to have been in financial difficulty and had mortgaged Pant Iocyn for £1,000, and later sold it for £1,200 in 1613 to Nathaniel Owens. In 1614, it was sold again for £1,300 to John Panton. In 1615, it was purchased by Bishop of Chester, George Lloyd for £1,400, who died the same year. Lloyd's family stayed in the building until 1630, with his son David living in the building in 1620. The Lloyd ownership lasted until it was sold by Lloyd's widow, Anne, in 1630 to Thomas Manley, due to financial problems. In the year before, the lands of the house were valued to be worth almost £50 annually. Manley later improved the house.In 1654, the house was sold to William Jones, who remained the owner by 1661, although the house was occupied by John Davies as its tenant by 1663. Upon Jones' death, it was sold to William Challoner, with Richard Challoner living in the house by 1668, the same year it was sold to Timothy Myddelton for £2,000. Myddelton's widow remarried Thomas Powell, and after her death, Powell remained living in the building until at least 1678. In 1670, hearth tax returns showed the house having fifteen hearths compared to Acton Hall's eleven, giving a possible idea of size between the two. Myddelton's daughter, Anne, married William Robinson in 1682, passing the house into Robinson ownership. During his ownership the house was listed in Edward Lhuyd's "list of notable houses in the parish of Gresford".
Originally in the 17th century, the building's grounds were surveyed to have contained a stable, brick kiln, three-bayed malt house, brewhouse, brick dove house, hop yard, a four-bay barn and a two-bay barn. While many of its fields had Welsh-language names, although the grounds in general were made of bogs and water-saturated. At the time it was surveyed the grounds contained two lakes, Pwll Gwenllian and Llyn Llongmere, which is overlooked by the house. The grounds were also surveyed in 1620, to be around 96 customary/203 statute acres.
Jeffreys of Acton ownership (18th century)
From 1708 to 1921, the house and farm became part of the Acton Hall estate, following the marriage of John, son of William Robinson and Anne Myddelton, to Elizabeth, daughter of Griffith Jeffreys of Acton Hall, in 1708. At the time of the marriage, the house itself was occupied by someone named Solomon Russell. John and Elizabeth lived in Plas Iocyn until 1730, leaving for Gwersyllt, and their departure marked the end of the building being used as a "gentleman's residence", instead becoming a mere, and increasingly unimproved, tenanted farmhouse on the Acton estate.Due to the Acton estate's inheritors being women, a 1745 private Act of Parliament, led to appointed commissioners, one of whom being Watkin Williams-Wynn, selling the families' estates, with Plas Iocyn sold in 1749 to Ellis Yonge for £1,395.