Series GCA6 - Letters to Sir Pryse Pryse, Sir Edward John Webley-Parry-Pryse, George Rice-Pryse, Sir Lewes Thomas Loveden Pryse and Gogerddan agents

Letters to Sir Pryse Pryse of Gogerddan, Sir Edward John Webley-Parry-Pryse, George Rice Pryse, Sir Lewes Thomas Loveden Pryse, Sir Pryse Loveden Saunders-Pryse, and the agents, Capt. Edward Howell, William Lloyd and Roger Lloyd, 1900-1949. Most files also contain printed official circulars, third party letters, occasional family letters and copies of outgoing correspondence. The correspondents are mainly estate tenants, agents of other estates, solicitors, banks, timber merchants, agricultural suppliers, electrical engineers, mining companies, local government officials, school boards and local vicars. They include Percy Wilkinson of Crosswood (Trawsgoed) estate office, Charles R. Kenyon of Glandyfi and Machynlleth, agent of the Gwynfryn estate, Roberts and Evans of Aberystwyth, Hugh Hughes, Gillart and Sons of Machynlleth, Bridges Sawtell and Company of London, J.E. James, auctioneer, Aberllefenni Slate Quarry, the Alliance Assurance Company, the Inland Revenue, W. Evans of Pomterwyd, collector, officials of Cardiganshire County Council, Cardiganshire Education Committee, Aberystwyth Corporation, Arthur Johnson Hughes of the Town Clerk’s Office, James Hughes, sanitary inspector for Aberystwyth Rural District Council, The General Post Office, Cambrian Railways Company, Edward Evans of Tal-y-bont, the Office of Woods and Forests, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Lands Improvement Company, the Small Holdings and Allotments Department, W.H. More of Harlech, Crown Receiver, Wales, D.J. Lloyd of the Crown Manors Office, Lampeter, John Jenkins of Llwynderw and the Garland family of Cwmsymlog. Recurrent subjects include routine affairs of the Gogerddan estate and occasionally Abernantbychan. Notable topics are the court leet of the manor of Genau’r-glyn; applications to The Lands Improvement Company, the Gogerddan Fox Hounds, gamekeeping; sporting rights in Llanbadarn Fawr in the manor of Perfedd, and at Ysbyty Ystwyth; lead and copper mining at Esgair Hir, Esgair Fraith, Bryn yr Afr, South Darren, East Darren, Leri Valley Mine (Penpompren), the Loveden Mine and Blaenceulan, repairs to the Dovey and Leri embankments, drainage on Cors Fochno, sea defences at Borth; the Hafan tramway; boundary fences on the sheepwalks of the Gogerddan esate and in the crown manor of Perfedd; improvement of the water supply at Craig y Penrhyn and elsewhere, lead pollution and other sanitary concerns; church business at Penrhyn-coch and Llanfihangel Genau’r-glyn; the supply of quarry stone and timber from the Gogerddan estate to the County Council; the establishment of telegraph offices at Taliesin and Eglwys-fach and subsequent financial deficiencies from 1905; proposals for the commercial extraction of peat from Cors Fochno for the manufacture of fuel; orders from the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for compulsory sheep dipping from 1906; the installation of electricity at Gogerddan from 1907, and telephone from 1909; the acquisition of land by Cardiganshire County Council under the Small Holdings and Allotments Act from 1908; the increased mechanisation of agriculture; the allocation of land at Bow Street and Devils Bridge for a Territorial Army training camp from 1909; insurance of employees and claims against the Railway Passengers Assurance Company; and the effects of World War I on the operation of the estate. A number of the letters illustrate the problems involved with the Pryse family settlements and the deteriorating financial position of the estate, mostly between 1918 and 1924.