Series E2 - Wynnstay estate letter books

An original series of volumes containing typescript copies of letters sent out from the office of Longueville and Co. on behalf of the Wynnstay estate, 1928-1957. The letters are addressed to the Wynnstay estate agents, other solicitors’ firms, private individuals, Wrexham Rural District Council, Denbighshire County Council, Machynlleth Urban District Council, Ceiriog Rural District Council, Cefn Mawr Parish Council, Penllyn Rural District Council, the County Council of Salop, utility companies, mining agents, land agents, the Coal Commission, insurance companies, banks, vicars, St Asaph Diocesan Registry, the War Agricultural Executive Committee (WAEC), the Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Forestry Commission, members of the Williams Wynn family and the trustees. The contents reflect the routine work of the solicitors’ practice, referring to estate sales and purchases; leases; financial management under the Wynnstay family trusts; tithe rent charges and chief rents; charities; sporting rights; mineral rights; manorial rights; and sales of Wynnstay land for housing, public utilities, amenities and commercial purposes. Most of the transactions concern the main Wynnstay estate and Llangedwyn estate in Denbighshire, Machynlleth, Cemais and Llanbryn-mair in Montgomeryshire, Llanuwchllyn and Bala in Merioneth, and Llanforda and Trefonnen near Oswestry, Salop. Notable land sales include Plas Kynaston Hall and estate, 1935-1947, 1951. Purchases include the Bryngwalia estate, Denbighshire, 1951-1954. Projects involving former Wynnstay lands are Liverpool Corporation waterworks and the Vyrnwy Aqueduct, 1930-1936, the Great Western Railway and Plas Madoc Branch, 1930-1934, the Swansea to Manchester Trunk Road, 1953, 1957, and the Dovey Valley Water Scheme, 1954-1957. Some of the contents demonstrate the local effects on the Wynnstay estate of various Acts of Parliament, such as the Housing Acts 1930, 1936 and 1949, the Tithe Act 1936, the Coal (Registration of Ownership) Act 1937, the Coal Acts 1938 and 1943, the Hill Farming Act 1946, the Town and Country Planning Acts 1947 and 1954, the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948; National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949; and the effects of the Second World War such as Defence Regulations 1939-1946, requisitioning by the WAEC, 1943, and the evacuation of [Hawtreys] School to Llangedwyn Hall, 1944-1946. Letters following the deaths of Sir Herbert Lloyd Watkin Williams Wynn in May 1944 and his son, Watkin Williams Wynn in May 1949, discuss the subsequent legal business under the terms of the will and the family trusts; recurrent themes are the separate trust of the Llanbryn-mair estate, death duties and the family heirlooms. The financial decline of the Wynnstay estate is perceptible in the negotiations for the sale of Llwydiarth, Glan-llyn, Aberhirnant, part of the Cefn estate, Eglwyseg, Erbistock Hall, Wynnstay Hall and its contents, Llandysilio Moor, Plas Isa, parts of the Llangedwyn and Llanforda estates, and many other individual properties, 1944-1957; the demolition of Llanforda mansion is recorded, 1949.