After crossing the Rhondda, the road rises out of the valley in a southerly direction nearly due south to Castellau. Castellau is located less than a mile north-west of Beddau.[4] A forge was situated in a small valley, Darren Ddeusant,[5] extending upwards by the mansion, Castellau House, into the hills to the north of Llantrisant.[6] This hamlet contains some coal works, part of the produce of which is shipped for Ireland.[2]
History
Scenery
While the name imports a fortified place, nothing is known of its history. It might have formed an outpost to the castle of Llantrisant.[1] The Traherne family lived for several centuries at Castellau. They are descended through Sir George Herbert of Swansea, son of Sir Richard Herbert.[7] It was later owned by a Mrs. Smith.[8]
Castellau
Built in the late Classical Regency style, Castellau probably predates 1807. The large two-storeyed house[9] is a remodel from a 17th-century three-unit house. The interior has a semicircular staircase, square hall, bow-ended dining room, Ionic columns, marble chimneypiece, cast iron balustrade. The white house's exterior features bowed ends, a six-bay facade, central doorway, slate roof, cantilevered eaves, and a cast iron veranda.[10]
Chapel
Chapel Castellau Independent was built in 1842 or 1843 and a renovation occurred in 1877. It was not used only as a place of worship. In 1851, Joshua Evans of Cymmar was its minister while in 1865, Henry Oliver served as minister.[11] The chapel is located 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the house; featuring angled pinnacles and transomed lancets, the interior has galleries on three sides and a polygonal pulpit.[10]
References
^ abBrayley, Edward Wedlake; Britton, John (1815). The Beauties of England and Wales, Or, Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive, of Each County: South Wales (Now in the public domain. ed.). Printed by T. Maiden, for Vernor and Hood. pp. 651–52.
^ abcLewis, Samuel (1833). A topographical dictionary of Wales: comprising the several counties, cities, boroughs, corporate and market towns, parishes, chapelaries, and townships, with historical and statistical descriptions: embellished with engravings of the arms of the cities, bishoprics, corporate towns, and boroughs; and of the seals of the various municipal corporations. With an appendix describing the electoral boundaries of the several boroughs, as defined by the late act: also illustrated by maps of the different counties, and a map of north and south Wales (Now in the public domain. ed.). S. Lewis. p. 218.
^Cambrian Archaeological Association (1863). Archaeologia cambrensis (Now in the public domain. ed.). W. Pickering. pp. 92–. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
^Joseph Jackson Howard, ed. (1884). Miscellanea genealogica et beraldica. Vol. IV (Now in the public domain. ed.). London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. p. 102.
