Introduction
Me and @V50jake visited this one on our recent exploring trip to Wales. We have seen it before but wanted to get some better photos and take another look.
History & Information
The Grade II Listed Mausoleum is situated on the 500-acre Vaynol Estate, this section of the estate is known as Vaynol Wood and is accessible to the public. The estate was owned by the Williams family in C16 and was later inherited by Thomas Assheton-Smith. Thomas was the owner of the Dinorwic slate quarries. Later, ownership was passed onto the Duff family.
The Assheton-Smith family commissioned the construction of the mausoleum during the later part of the 19th century. It was designed by Welsh architect Henry Kennedy. The building appears in several early OS Maps editions. The gates/fencing are quite unique with chamfered stone piers and pyramid-shaped caps, in addition to iron gates.
The mausoleum was constructed using a combination of snecked rubble and freestone dressings. It features a distinctive roof design with banded fish-scale and plain slate patterns and was built with an Early French Gothic design. There’s also an octagonal bell tower.
The interior of the building is almost empty with just a table present, there are two memorial plaques on the wall acknowledging the death of Laura Alice and Enid Mary. The site has suffered some vandalism over the years thanks to the nature of its location, there's quite a bit of graffiti and the stained glass windows have suffered over the years too. An internal door leads to a set of stairs and leads to a tunnel that goes around the sealed crypt, it does get a bit soggy further down and there isn’t anything down there, but there is a small passageway that goes further. I am not sure where this part goes, it would be possible to crawl through it (just!) but I didn’t fancy it.
The building appears on the OS Six Inch, 1888 OS Map, it also appears on several others:
The Explore
It was nice to visit again and the entrance to the building appears to be unchanged, as does the condition. It is a lovely old building and is well hidden although one of the paths goes directly past it. We spent the best part of an hour in and around the grounds of the site getting photos, then visited the nearby bridge afterwards which is nice to see.
Onto the photos...
The main entrance:
Round the back:
The bell tower, I didn't fancy climbing the ladder as it was pretty wobbly but I think Jake went up here with the camera and got a pic of the bell:
Some lovely details on the front:
Heading inside:
Looking up:
The nice tiled floor:
One of the memorial plaques on the wall:
Descending down the steps into the tunnel section which runs around the crypt, the crypt itself is fully sealed:
Thanks for looking!
Me and @V50jake visited this one on our recent exploring trip to Wales. We have seen it before but wanted to get some better photos and take another look.
History & Information
The Grade II Listed Mausoleum is situated on the 500-acre Vaynol Estate, this section of the estate is known as Vaynol Wood and is accessible to the public. The estate was owned by the Williams family in C16 and was later inherited by Thomas Assheton-Smith. Thomas was the owner of the Dinorwic slate quarries. Later, ownership was passed onto the Duff family.
The Assheton-Smith family commissioned the construction of the mausoleum during the later part of the 19th century. It was designed by Welsh architect Henry Kennedy. The building appears in several early OS Maps editions. The gates/fencing are quite unique with chamfered stone piers and pyramid-shaped caps, in addition to iron gates.
The mausoleum was constructed using a combination of snecked rubble and freestone dressings. It features a distinctive roof design with banded fish-scale and plain slate patterns and was built with an Early French Gothic design. There’s also an octagonal bell tower.
The interior of the building is almost empty with just a table present, there are two memorial plaques on the wall acknowledging the death of Laura Alice and Enid Mary. The site has suffered some vandalism over the years thanks to the nature of its location, there's quite a bit of graffiti and the stained glass windows have suffered over the years too. An internal door leads to a set of stairs and leads to a tunnel that goes around the sealed crypt, it does get a bit soggy further down and there isn’t anything down there, but there is a small passageway that goes further. I am not sure where this part goes, it would be possible to crawl through it (just!) but I didn’t fancy it.
The building appears on the OS Six Inch, 1888 OS Map, it also appears on several others:
The Explore
It was nice to visit again and the entrance to the building appears to be unchanged, as does the condition. It is a lovely old building and is well hidden although one of the paths goes directly past it. We spent the best part of an hour in and around the grounds of the site getting photos, then visited the nearby bridge afterwards which is nice to see.
Onto the photos...
The main entrance:
Round the back:
The bell tower, I didn't fancy climbing the ladder as it was pretty wobbly but I think Jake went up here with the camera and got a pic of the bell:
Some lovely details on the front:
Heading inside:
Looking up:
The nice tiled floor:
One of the memorial plaques on the wall:
Descending down the steps into the tunnel section which runs around the crypt, the crypt itself is fully sealed:
Thanks for looking!
