Letters to the Editor

CASTLE HILL HOUSE

Sir,
In Vol. VII of The Carmarthenshire Historian there is an interesting short article about Castle Hill House, Carmarthen by Dr. C. F. Parry, but there are one or two slight amendments I would like to make.

The writer states that the first occupant was the Rev. David Archard Williams. Actually, at the time of the building of the house (1815) D. A. Williams was 19 and had not finished his education at the Carmarthen Licensed Free Grammar School. The Rev. D. Archard Williams became Headmaster of the Grammar School in 1824 and in his first advertisement in the Carmarthen journal, 3rd December, 1824 his address was given as John Street. On 15th April, 1825 his advertisement in the Carmarthen Journal read thus : 'Rev. D. Archard Williams having removed to a larger house (lately occupied by Mr. Maddocks) is enabled to announce a few vacancies for boarders' and the address was Castle Hill.

Thus for a period Castle Hill House was the home of the Headmaster of the Grammar School and also used for boarders of that School when it was in Priory Street.

One other correction: the Rev. D. A. Williams was responsible for the building (not rebuilding) of Christ Church, which celebrated its centenary in 1969.

T. L. EVANS,
35, St. Non's Avenue, Carmarthen.

TRAGIC FIRE RECALLED

Sir,
I have read with interest Miss Eirwen Jones's account entitled "Town and Castle Go Gay" in The Carmarthenshire Historian, Vol. VII, giving details of the celebrations at Dynevor Castle at the time of the coming-of-age of the Hon. Walter F. Rice in 1894.

My parents lived at the White Hart, which is not far from Dynevor Castle, from 1904 to 1928, and as a small boy, I can remember hearing some of the older people who then lived in the neighbourhood talking about these celebrations and stating that, as the guests were leaving the Castle late at night, they could see the White Hart in flames.

The house was totally demolished by fire, and of the Edwards family who then lived there, John Edwards and four children perished; his wife and two other children being saved. The father and four children are buried at the Tabernacle, Ffairfach, and I remember it being said that their funeral was one of the largest ever seen in this locality, the procession extending from Ffairfach Square to well beyond the town bridge.

The headstone over their graves has the following inscription:

John Edwards (37) died 14th September, 1894.
William (15)
Rees (9)
Joseph (7)
Henry (3)

"Canys pan ddywedant tangnefedd a diogelwch, yna mae dinistyr disynwth yn dyfod".

D. J. HUGHES,
Irlwyn,
Alan Road,
Llandeilo.
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