History of Tredegar House

17th century Tredegar

Writing in 1540, the antiquary John Leland described the house at Tredegar as ‘a very faire place of stone’. By 1664, the social status of William Morgan (c. 1640-80), MP for Monmouthshire and his wife Blanche (d. 1673/4) was such that they required a new house to match.  

The house took almost eight years to complete and was built on a grand scale, engulfing its stone-built Tudor predecessor, parts of which are still evident. The new Tredegar House was built of brick – a rare building material in Wales at the time – with stone embellishments. Quadrangular, its elevations and interiors were remodeled using baroque detailing and a new, grand entrance was created. Facing the house across a formal courtyard, the Stables are of equally imposing scale and highly ornamented.  

The architect is not known but Tredegar bears stylistic similarities to the work of Sir Roger Pratt at Kingston Lacy and Coleshill (now lost). The architectural historian John Newman described the house William and Blanche built as one of the ‘outstanding houses of the Restoration period in the whole of Britain.’  

Research continues into the sources of the Morgans’ wealth in the 17th century.  Shortly after the new house was built, the Morgans commissioned a ship, the Tredegar of Newport, which traded with Barbados in 1676, returning to Bristol with a cargo of sugar.  William and Blanche’s son, Thomas Morgan (1664-1700) owned shares in the Royal African Company, the mercantile company set up by City of London merchants in 1660, to trade along the West Coast of Africa.  

Industrial age  

The male line of the Morgan family of Tredegar died out following the death without children of John Morgan (1742-92), who had married Louisa Pym Burt (d. 1815) in 1788.  Louisa brought money raised from the sale of her father’s estates and plantations on Nevis and St Croix to Tredegar.  Having no children, John was succeeded by his eldest sister and co-heir, Jane (1731-97), wife of Sir Charles Gould (1726-1806), lawyer and MP.  Gould was made a baronet in 1792 and changed his surname to Morgan.  By that time, the Tredegar estate spanned more than 40,000 acres, incorporating the surrounding hills of Cardiff, Brecon and the Valleys.  

Sir Charles realised that the estate was rich in minerals and had enormous industrial potential.  He capitalised the estate, and leased the land to mine owners, as well as establishing the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.  His son, Sir Charles Gould Morgan, 2nd Baronet (1760-1846), expanded these commercial and industrial projects, and virtually established Newport as an important trade centre.  As MP for Monmouthshire, the 2nd Baronet presented his constituents’ petitions for the abolition of West Indian slavery on 10 February 1826.  

Chartist uprising  

Owning such a vast estate came with great responsibility, and in the 1830s the Morgan family became a focus of the Chartist movement, a protest to increase the political rights of the working classes, culminating in the Newport Rising of 1839. 

Changes at Tredegar 

Minor changes were made to the house during the 19th century, when the roof was lowered, its cupola and balustrade removed, and the Great Staircase remodeled. The estate buildings and garden were largely untouched and survive today very much as they were in the late 17th century.

The local favourite  

The Morgans continued to hold significant political influence throughout the years that followed, with several generations of the male members of the family serving as MPs as their ancestors had done. In 1859, Sir Charles Morgan Robinson Morgan, 3rd Baronet (1792-1875) was created 1st Baron Tredegar of Tredegar.  His son Godfrey Charles Morgan (1831-1913) was created Viscount Tredegar in 1905.  Inheriting Tredegar in 1875, he is widely remembered as ‘Godfrey the Good’. As befitted a very wealthy man of the period, Godfrey was a public benefactor. He gave away parts of his land, including what is now Belle Vue Park and the Royal Gwent Hospital. He also reduced rent for his tenants in times of hardship. 

The end of an era  

Godfrey’s great-nephew, Evan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar (1893-1949), was the last Morgan to live out his life at Tredegar. Wild at heart, he was known for his extravagant parties, keeping a menagerie of animals, and his attempts at the practice of ‘black magic’. Evan was friends with many of the leading artistic figures of the era including Augustus John, Charlie Chaplin and Aldous Huxley.  

Evan died in 1949, leaving a wealth of lively anecdotes but a financial burden that meant Tredegar House had to be sold by the Morgans in 1951.  

Tredegar House today  

When the house was sold it became a Catholic girls’ school. In the 1970s, Newport Council bought the house and transformed it into a museum that reflected the unique story of the mansion house. 

In 2012, the council leased the house to the National Trust who now care for its historic buildings, gardens and parkland. Today, Tredegar welcomes over 500,000 visitors a year including many from the neighbouring Duffryn Estate and Newport’s wider communities.