Fonds GB 0210 MSBEHRENS - Behrens MSS

There are two residences called Ffrwd-fâl or Froodvale in the parish of Caeo, Carmarthenshire. Old Ffrwd-fâl stands on the west bank of the river Cothi, and is referred to in several genealogies. It became part of the Glanranell estate, and in 1720 Thomas Price of Glanranell released the messuage called Ffrwd-fâl to Howell Price of Penycoed, Talley. By 1795 Ffrwd-fâl was in the possession of Benjamin Davies (fl. 1795-1824). His son David Davies (1793-1864) appears to have owned Ffrwd-fâl by 1827. As was common practice among the minor gentry, David Davies acted as the agent for a number of surrounding estates. In 1856 David Davies's eldest son, Benjamin Davies of St James, Middlesex, MD, married Jane Eliza Evans, daughter of Pierce Evans of Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, esq. In 1883 Benjamin Davies was a doctor in medicine at Newport, Monmouthshire. Ffrwd-fâl passed to a younger son, John Morgan Davies (d. 1923), who in 1867-1868 built the new Ffrwd-fâl on slightly higher ground half a mile to the north of Old Froodvale. In 1888 John Morgan Davies is described as a land agent. John's son, Oswyn St Leger Davies, was killed in action in 1918, and on his death in 1923 John was survived by at least two daughters, Helen Elizabeth Behrens (fl. 1892-1938), wife of George Benjamin Behrens of Fron Yw, Denbighshire, and Miss A. M. Davies of Ffrwd-fâl. In 1924 the mansion was let to Herbert Tasman Davies, a company director from London, and most if not all of the estate was sold in 1925.