IN THE twelfth century AD, a Cistercian Monastery was founded at Llantarnam, which was a ‘daughter’ monastery of Strata Florida (Vale of Flowers) Abbey near Tregaron in Ceredigion.
The monastery continued and flourished at Llantarnam for 400 years until Henry VIII’s Act for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.
Following its dissolution, the property and its monastic farm lands and facilities were sold to the Morgan family who built a new mansion house and lived there intermittently for nearly a century.
The house and grounds were sold to Reginald Blewitt, who rebuilt the mansion house in the Tudor Revival style in the 1830s.
Llantarnam was sold on again in 1895 to Sir Clifford Cory who lived there until his death in 1941. The mansion house was then used during the rest of WWII as a depot for the American Army.
Following the war, in 1946 the property once again became a religious institution as a convent for the Sisters of St Joseph, who still live in the Abbey today.
Nostalgia is provided by Torfaen Museum.
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