Post House Garden Holiday Cottages
Dog friendly self-catering holidays in South West Wales
History of the Site - From Corn Mill to Holiday Cottages
Post House Garden Holiday Cottages stand on the site of a former water powered corn mill. The original construction date of the mill is unknown but water mills would have been commonplace in the period leading up to the industrial revolution.
Here in West Wales, mills would have been the centre of farming communities, with the cluster of buildings around the Cwmbach mill (including school house, Methodist chapel and village inn) springing up to form the hub of the local community, tracks radiate outward to the surrounding farms.
On this map from the mid 1800s, the green line marks the boundary of what is now the Post House Garden.
Towards the northern end of the garden, the map shows a small pond which would have been fed from the river via a weir. The pond was enlarged in the 1980s to form an ornamental feature that still exists today.
Moving south, the map shows a mill race alongside the river. Today this has been filled in to form a riverside path that runs the length of the garden.
At the southern end of the garden, a second mill pond is shown. This no longer exists but its location can be made out as it is now one of few flat areas within the garden.
An image of the mill from the 1920s shows how it appeared at that time, outside the mill are steps leading up to the working area inside.
This artist's impression gives some indication of what the internal workings of the Cwmbach Mill may have looked like.
Little remains of the water mill today, only a partial outline of the building can be seen in what is now an outside seating area. Just a few features in the slate walls and part of a cast iron wheel that would have held wooden gear pins, remain visible.
The pit that housed the water wheel has been filled in but the course of the mill race that fed water from the mill pond to the water wheel, can be traced in the contours of the rock face.
Today the old mill stones are ornamental features that gather moss at the entrance to the garden.
The site was also home to a village store, it would have been common at the time for mill owners to trade from a shop near the mill.
This picture, taken in the 1920s, shows the shop on the left with a warehouse next to it and a truck parked in front.
Trucks were used from 1925 to 1950 to deliver butter, eggs and rabbits to Cardiff and the South Wales Valleys on a weekly basis. The son of the mill owner tells us that his father and a mate would sometimes set out at 3:00 am and not return home until midnight, particularly in bad weather or during the war years when lighting on the truck had to be dimmed.
Trucks used were a Bedford and an ex US army, left hand drive, Dodge. The vehicle shown is believed to be the Bedford.
Today the shop has become a games room for holiday cottage guests to enjoy, and the warehouse is now Red Kite Cottage.
The building towards the back of this image is no longer standing but its outline can be seen on the ground. The building to the right (only a corner of it can be seen) is now Kingfisher Cottage.
Behind the shop was a small dairy where local women were employed to process butter.
Unsalted butter was collected from surrounding farms to be processed, packed and sold as Welsh, Salted “Shir Gar” butter.
The brand was sold to Cow & Gate in the late 1950s and can still be found on supermarket shelves today.
Mains electricity was not connected until 1962, an electricity pole can be seen in this aerial image so it is believed to have been taken sometime after. The mill can be seen behind the main house with two smaller buildings to the left of it. The smaller buildings were removed in the 1980s to make way for a modern double garage and workshop.
To the front of the Post House is a telephone box which served local villagers until the 1980s.
Fuel was sold from the village store, next to the phone box is an enclosure (possibly for the sale of paraffin) and two petrol pumps.
The greenhouse to the foreground was constructed on an old footbridge over the river. Neither greenhouse or bridge remain today.
The image below is believed to date from the 1980s as the edge of the telephone box can still be seen on the right. It shows the shop as it would have appeared up until closure in the early 1990s, above the shop door is a post office sign.
The brick building to the right of the image has been used for various purposes, including a post sorting office, a vehicle repair shop, a tea room and a gymnasium. It is now Kingfisher holiday cottage.
Around the time the above image was taken, The Post House Garden was opened up to the public through the National Garden scheme, attracting visitors from far and wide.
Finally an image of Post House, with Red Kite and Kingfisher Holiday Cottages as they appear today...
