CEFN BRYNTALCH The one-time home of Philip Heseltine - Peter Warlock Cefn Bryntalch, set in spacious grounds not far from Abermule in Montgomeryshire, in the middle of the Severn valley. Talch in Welsh means fragment, bryn means hill, and cefn means ridge, the house is therefore on the `ridge of part of a hill'. The room - bottom right, canopied with wisteria, is the one in which Peter Warlock composed.
Letter-writing he preferred to do in the attic! Photograph and description courtesy of Rhian Davies to whom I offer my grateful thanks. Philip once wrote helpfully to a friend that it was pronounced `Keffen Brüntach, the ch being aspirate'. [Heseltine to Cecil Gray, 14 June 1922.] Built by G. F. Bodley and Philip Webb in 1869, it is regarded as marking the beginning of the Georgian revival of the 1870s. It is a large and imposing building with an exterior of cleanly detailed red brick and three big gables on the south - east front. The side face of the house - front door and bell tower. Photograph courtesy of Rhian Davies The interior is largely in the neo-Georgian style - one of the most impressive features being the imposing, broad staircase leading towards a Venetian window and then dividing into two flights which double back to a gallery. Used by kind permission.
of the music and spirit of Peter Warlock. |
Cefn Bryntalch (left)
Cefn
Bryntalch - right