This building has mistakenly been called Llantwit Castle. It is in fact the ruin of an Elizabethan manor house with two wings enclosing a paved courtyard. It was built in 1596 by Griffith Williams for his daughter and her husband Edmund Vann. They represented the rising class of minor gentry who had acquired their money from practising law and were loathed by other families in the area such as the Seys of Boverton and the Stradlings of St Donats. Vann was fined over£1,000 at the Court of Star Chamber for his part in an affray in the centre of Llantwit on a Sunday after church when he lead an attack on the Seys family. John Stradling claimed in 1596 that the house would collapse around Vann’s ears so badly had it been built. However it took slightly longer for this to happen – just over a hundred years.
(not Llantwit Castle, incorrectly labelled by mapping company)
