Rheola House
Rheola House is a Grade II* listed country house between Glynneath and Resolven, in the Neath valley, South Wales. Designed by John Nash, it was built between 1812 and 1814 for Nash's cousin, John Edwards. It passed through inheritance to members of the Edwards, Vaughan, and Lee families, until in 1939, with the house becoming run down, it was bought by an aluminium company for use as offices, and part of the land was put to industrial uses. In 2012 an application was made for housing on the industrialised area, to enable restoration of the house and a leisure complex to sustain the estate. The application was granted in 2014. The gardens and park around the house are designated Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Origins
There was a water mill in the vicinity of the current house in Norman times or earlier, utilising the power of Rheola Brook. A later mill building still stands near the house, although it not certain that it is on the same location. In 1296 it was documented as having formerly been a grange of Neath Abbey, known as Hirrole Grange, forerunner of the present name. By the late 18th century, there was a farmhouse on the site, and was part of the huge estates of Sir Herbert Mackworth of Gnoll Castle.Edwards family
In 1800, John Edwards of Belvedere House, Lambeth, Surrey, an engineer with family links to the area, was able to buy 120 acres of land, including Rheola farmhouse, to provide himself with a Welsh estate, with extended family living around south and west Wales. His son, also named John Edwards, was a successful solicitor and land agent. He took on the task of developing the farmhouse into a picturesque villa, for which he used his cousin, the fashionable architect John Nash.John Nash
John Nash had begun a promising architectural career in London, but had become bankrupt in 1793. The following year he went to live in Carmarthen, where his mother was living, and over the next 13 years, established himself as an architect of provincial public buildings and private houses. During this time he got to know Uvedale Price, the enthusiast for the Picturesque. Also working in partnership with the landscape architect Humphry Repton, these influences gave Nash a new direction to his architecture. In 1794 he returned to London, and developed a practice as a fashionable exponent of the Picturesque style. John Edwards junior was by this point in close contact with Nash, handling all his legal affairs through his London solicitors practice. By 1809, when the Edwardses were looking to re-build Rheola farmhouse, it is John Nash that they turned to. This was one of his last private commissions, as from 1810 Nash was almost exclusively occupied in works for the Prince Regent.In 1811 John Edwards junior had a son, Nash Vaughan Edwards, named after both his cousin and a fellow lawyer who became the family's benefactor. The work on Rheola House itself did not begin until 1812, and was completed in 1814. The result was a 'rustic' villa-style building, which retained something of its cottage origins. Following principles of the picturesque, the house is asymmetric, and sits modestly within its wooded landscape. The building has two main facades, each with a full-height bay to one side, and a veranda along one front. The grounds too were given picturesque features. A stables, laundry and an icehouse were built closer to the lake.
Glamorganshire MP
In 1818 John Edwards senior died. John Edwards junior was now in sole possession of Rheola. He had married twice and both wives brought considerable inheritances with them which, added to his own inheritance and successful professional activities, meant he was a person of some substance. He had run for parliament to represent Glamorganshire in 1817 and failed to be elected. The local landed gentry, unimpressed by the idea of an outsider and a mere solicitor representing them, ensured a preferred candidate, Sir Christopher Cole, was elected. At the next year's general election, Edwards stood again, and Cole could not afford to run against him. Capitalising on his Neath valley residence and Welsh ancestry, Edwards stood as one who would stand up against the clique of landed gentry. He appealed to lesser gentry, industrialists and professional men, and was, uniquely for a county seat, elected against the interests of the leading landowners, who duly snubbed him. Two years later, when his term of office ended, he did not stand again, and chose rather to focus on the Wells constituency, where he served for two further years from 1830.John and Nash Edwards-Vaughan
One of the people who had backed Edwards' Glamorgan campaign was the barrister, William Vaughan of 'Glanelai',, Pontyclun, near Cardiff, after whom Nash Vaughan Edwards had been named. When Mr Vaughan died in 1829, he left father and son his estate, on condition that they took on the Vaughan surname. Thus they became John Edwards-Vaughan and Nash Vaughan Edwards-Vaughan, and acquired properties at Lanelay and at Clase, Llangyfelach, near Swansea.When Nash Vaughan died without children, the estate passed to his sister Jessie, who had married John Lee Hanning. Their son Vaughan Hanning Lee, took the additional surname Vaughan in 1874, and the various estates, including Rheola, passed to his eldest son Arthur Vaughan Hanning Vaughan-Lee in 1882.