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Dowlais House

 
 

 

 

It is probable that John Josiah Guest had Dowlais House built around 1818, possibly as a home for his bride

Maria Rankin. It was a large, solid, well-proportioned structure.  Her early death left him a widower until his

marriage to Charlotte, daughter of the Earl of Lindsey, in 1833. Better known as Lady Charlotte Guest, she

described her first visit to Dowlais House in her diary.

 

‘ By the time we had reached the House it was quite dark and the prevailing gloom gave full effect to the

light of the blazing furnaces, which was quite unlike all I had ever before seen or even imagined. The interior

of the house was precisely what Merthyr’s sketch of it had taught me to expect. My first impulse was to establish

myself in the library, by far the pleasantest room in the house. We walked out as far as the limits of the garden,

round the house and stood without the gate – the furnace gate-upon the steps leading to the Works’.

 

It is here that she succeeded in translating the Welsh tales the Mabinogion into English and within the short

space of thirteen years she also gave birth to ten children in Dowlais House. No doubt it was partly on their

account that she encouraged her husband in 1846 to buy Canford Manor in Dorset. Cholera in Dowlais made it

essential for the young family to move from Dowlais House. However, on his death bed, John Josiah Guest

insisted on returning to Dowlais House in 1852 so that he could die where he was born, in his beloved Dowlais.

 

Dowlais House then became the Dowlais residence of G. T.  Clarke, Esq. who took over as the manager of the

Works. Dowlais House was converted to offices in 1894 after G.T. Clarke retired from the business residence.

The alterations which followed destroyed most of its older features as a private house, with the exception an

attractive balustrade running up a stairs. Its proximity meant that the House featured in many photographs of  the

Dowlais Works.  Prior to its demolition in the early 1970s, it was used as the employment exchange.

 

 

 

Carolyn Jacob

 
 
Dowlais House one time home to John and Lady Charlotte Guest C1860.

 
Dowlais House - 1905

 
Dowlais House - C1906

 
Dowlais House from the Engine House

 

Dowlais House as an Employment Exchange - 1962

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen Collection)

 
Dowlais House Customs & Excise and the Ministry of Transport, Vehicle Examiner's Office

 
Dowlais House from the High Street - 1969

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen Collection)

 
 

 

Dowlais House outstairs to Servant's Quarters - April 1973

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen collection)

 

Dowlais House Upstairs Lavatory - April 1973

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen collection)

 

 

 

 
 

Dowlais House, main bedroom corridor. April 1973

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen Collection)

 

Upstairs Sitting Room fireplaces, cast iron with a marble surround.

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen collection)

 

Dowlais House, Stables. April 1973

(Photograph courtesy of the John Owen Collection)

 
 
 

 

 

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