Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1912-1914 / (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
i, 90 ff. Guarded and filed.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis was an architect and creator of Portmeirion village, with interests ranging from architecture, landscaping and preservation of the countryside to landscaping of trunk roads and writing.
Clough Williams-Ellis was born on the 28th of May, 1883, and educated at Oundle and Trinity College, Cambridge. He began training as an architect in London but within three months left for his first commission.
His most famous project was Portmeirion village in North Wales, but other major works include Llangoed Castle; Oare House; Stowe School; Bishop's Stortford College Chapel; the Lloyd George Mausoleum, Museum, and Westminster Abbey Memorial; Rhiwlas; Voelas; Nantclwyd Hall and Dalton Hall. He was also involved in many lesser projects, including churches, schools, village halls and civic amenities, smaller houses, hotels, monuments and garden follies.
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was a member of numerous committees, among them the National Parks Committee, National Trust Committee for Wales and the Trunk Road Advisory Committee. He was also the Vice-President of the Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales and a member of the Athenaeum Club in London.
A prolific writer, the following publications are but a few examples of his works: England and the Octopus (London, [1928]), The Architect (London, 1929), Town and Country Planning (1951), Portmeirion - the Place and its Meaning (London, [1963], Roads in the Landscape (1967), Architect Errant (London, 1971), and Around the World in Ninety Years (Portmeirion, 1978).
He died on the 8th of April, 1978.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
J. E. Young; Cricieth; Purchase; 1993
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Seventeen letters, 1912-14, from the architect Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978), mainly addressed to Charles Edward Breese (1867-1922), Porthmadog, secretary of the Ffestiniog Slate Quarry Owners Association, chiefly relating to the former's pamphlet, Roofs and their coverings. In praise of slates (London, [1913]), and his standard plans for cottages roofed with 'Portmadoc' slates from the Ffestiniog quarries; together with some sixty letters, 1913, to Charles Edward Breese, mostly from surveyors, architects, builders and local government officers in response to their receipt of copies of the pamphlet.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Bought with NLW MS 23119B.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23118E
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
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Description identifier
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Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
February 2009.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Bethan Ifans for the retrospective conversion project of NLW MSS. The following source was used in the compilation of this description: Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Volume IX (Aberystwyth, 2003);