Where was Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock series filmed? In a historic Welsh home that first appeared in Country Life a century ago

Llanvihangel Court, Monmouthshire, The seat of Mrs Attwood-Matthews was originally published in the May 20, 1916, issue of Country Life. It was written by H. Avery Tipping.

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Llanvihangel Court lies four miles north of Abergavenny town, and in medieval times was a part of that important lordship.

Its position at the foot of the picturesque Skirrid, or Holy Mountain of Monmouthshire, its noble seventeenth century avenues of fir and Spanish chestnut, its approach up stately flights of stone steps combine with its own considerable architectural merits to make it a place of distinction and charm.

The house has been subject to many changes and vicissitudes, but its main characteristics are those of the moderate sized manor house of the period that saw the close of Elizabeth's reign and the beginning of that of her successor. The feeling for symmetry was in the ascendant, but the medieval plan of entering the hall at one end behind screens was retained. When the whole of the central portion of the entrance elevation was taken up by the hall there could not be a central entrance door. It was therefore placed in the return side of a little gable set against one of the larger wing gables, and balanced by a similar gable at the other end of the hall.

This arrangement was discussed in the volume of English Homes dealing with this period of our architecture, and among the places cited in illustration Stanton Court in the Cotswolds will be found to have the same central recessed block and two pairs of gables as still compose the north elevation of Llanvihangel Court.

There is also evidence in the masonry of the original position of the door. But the Charles Il owner altered the arrangement to the fashion of his day and placed the door centrally in the hall. Of recent years a porch has been added as a convenience. Otherwise the front has been little altered since the reign of Elizabeth, when we are told that Rhys Morgan rebuilt the Court. That he merely altered and added to an existing fabric is clear from the survival at the back of the house of one or two windows of Henry VIII's time, if not also from the presence here and there in the interior of linenfold panelling. They are interesting reminders of the home of the family whose heiress was mother to Rhys Morgan the rebuilder.

The modern mind, resting upon the fixed surname system as a bedrock principle, is easily bewildered by Welsh medieval genealogies, and therefore no more will be said than that John a PG wilym Jenkin of Wernddu belonged to the same family as the Herberts, who were dominant about Abergavenny, where they still own estates, and of whom Herbert of Raglan, as the ancestor of the Dukes of Beaufort and of the Earls of Pembroke, is the best known.

In Henry VI's time Thomas ap Jenkin, a grandson of John ap Gwilym, held Llanvihangel, which his granddaughter carried to Philip Herbert, a base son of the Earl of Pembroke, to whom, or his successor, their son, William Herbert, acted as steward. His only child married a neighbour, William Morgan of Triley, and it was their son, Rhys, who largely superseded, in the style of his day, the 'older and inferior house' that he inherited.

The whole of the north side and its three gabled return towards the east were rebuilt by him. To the east side a building with two big bays has recently been added in front of the gables, and also a room beyond them to the south. But above the low roof of this room, in a gable facing south, may be seen a three-light window of the Henry VIII type, suggesting that at this point Rhys Morgan allowed the older fabric to remain.

Of such fabric the massive oak framed and slightly cambered ceiling of one of the bedrooms is an example. In Rhys Morgan's time ribbed plaster ceilings were in vogue, and he introduced them as may be seen in another bedroom ceiling. It belongs to the earlier period of such work where the ribs were small mouldings arranged in an involved geometrical pattern with masks, bosses or ornamented discs at the points of radiation.

It is interesting to note the similarity of Rhys Morgan's ceilings with those at Stanton Court, which has just been mentioned as closely resembling Llanvihangel in plan and elevation.

Rhys Morgan was succeeded by his son Anthony, who had married a Northamptonshire heiress and found no use for the Monmouthshire estates.

In I608 he sold both Llanvihangel and Triley, and the former after a few years' ownership by the Earl of Worcester passed by purchase Nicholas Arnold. Above the Henry VIII window already alluded to may be seen a mural sundial. It has the initials N. A. and the date I627, which will mark the time when Nicholas Arnold made alterations to the house he had recently bought. These do not seem to have been considerable.

Colonel Bradney, the present historian of Monmouthshire, tells us that 'the stables appear nearly as old as the house and are larger and more roomy than stables of this date generally are.' As a matter of fact much finish was beginning to be given to stables in Jacobean days. The character of the fine posts and other woodwork features in the Llanvihangel stables are not beyond what we might expect, and are just as likely, judging from their style, to date from the Morgan as from the Arnold occupation.

But Colonel Bradney inclines to assign them to Nicholas Arnold, whom he describes as 'a breeder of horses importing stud horses from the Low Countries.' This may be true, but the authority is not given, and the only member of the family who is well known to have laboured in this field was Nicholas's grandfather, a much more distinguished man.

The Arnolds originally came from the Cardiff region, but members of the family established themselves in Bristol and Gloucester, where they acquired wealth. Thus the manor of Highnam, near the latter city, came to John Arnold at the dissolution of the monasteries, and he had a son: Nicholas, who was of the King's bodyguard in 1539, and was knighted under Edward VI. Favouring the reformers, he fell on evil times in Mary's reign and twice suffered imprisonment. But with Elizabeth's accession came the tide in his affairs, and he was Lord Justice of Ireland in 1564. After that Highnam appears to have been his headquarters, but he often represented the county in Parliament. Of him Harrison, in his contemporary Description of England, says: 'Sir Nicholas Arnold of late hath bred the best horses in England and written of the manner of their production.' We learn from the Dictionary of National Biography that 'no trace of such writings survive,' and then follow the words: 'but he is known as early as 1546 to have been engaged in importing horses from Flanders', which are almost the same as those used by Colonel Bradney, on what authority I know not, in reference to Sir Nicholas's grandson. His uncle was of Highnam, while his father is described as of Llanthony. He himself became of Llanvihangel about the time when he was returned to Parliament in 1626.

It was in the following year that, as we have seen, he set up his sundial, and in I633 he was sheriff. How he comported himself during the Civil War that followed does not appear. Tradition brings the much pressed King to Llanvihangel Court in I645, and therefore a room there is called King Charles' Chamber.

This tradition is unsupported by Symonds' Diary, as published by the Camden Society in 1859. Richard Symonds was a Royalist serving in the cavalry that was with the King, and his antiquarian leanings made him record points of interest in houses and their owners, as well as the actions of troops and the movements of the King.

Thus we find that Charles came from Hereford to Abergavenny on July I, 1645, and went to Raglan on the 3rd. Symonds and also Parry in his Royal Visits to Wales give full and careful itineraries of the King at this period, and only at Raglan did he 'lay' during the three visits he paid in that neighbourhood before he finally moved north on September I4.

Neither author makes any mention of Llanvihangel or of its owner, and yet faith in a royal visit there persists. Mrs Attwood-Mathews writes: "'There is a very large coat of arms of Charles I over the bedroom door where he slept, it was inlaid with mother-o'-pearl, and there is no doubt it was placed there at the time. I have the King's oak bedstead, which is still in the room. A sort of oak cradle used to be at the foot of the bed, and this was his valet's bedstead.'

Nicholas Arnold died in 1665 and was succeeded by his son John, who married one of his Highnam cousins. Like his father, he served as sheriff and parliamentary representative, and much more than his father did he set his mark on his country seat. When he succeeded to Llanvihangel the movement in favour of tree planting after the destruction of the Civil War was already afoot, and John Evelyn was at work on his Sylva.

Moreover, the fashion of immense formal layouts which Le Nôtre was developing in France was reaching England and taking the form of avenues and of lengthy lines of trees flanking wide open grass vistas.

John Morgan caught this spirit with results that have lasted till today. On the north side of the house, stretching out in the Hereford direction, he made such a vista by setting lines of firs wide apart. As this centred with the house, he moved his front door to the middle of the hall and constructed a set of terraces across which lay flagged landings and successive flights of steps as a descent to the carriageway.

The result at the present day is admirable. Whether we stand where the grass begins and look up at the house, or whether we go up to the front door and look down, the pictorial effect is most satisfying. The rise begins with half a dozen segmental steps spreading out their ample semicircle on to the carriageway, the crannies of the risers thick set with Adiantum trichomanes. Then the scene changes to steps confined between a parapet wall broken at each flight by plinths bearing great stone balls.

At the top rises the ruddy grey house of rubble walling with ashlar coigns and window frames, and roofs of mossy stone tiles. From its windows the broad grass vista is seen stretching out towards the hills and guarded by its veteran sentinels.

There are gaps in the ranks and signs of age, occasionally reaching decrepitude, among the survivors, but the combination of dignity and picturesqueness arrests and retains the attention.

A second fir tree avenue lines the carriageway which runs west from the house to where the village lines the high road. This, however, was only the smaller section of the formal planting, for on the higher ground south of the house were set no fewer than seven avenues of Spanish chestnuts, many of which are still in their prime and have reached immense proportions.

So large and gnarled are many of these splendid trees that two and a half centuries appear less than the span of their life, and their setting has been put down to Rhys Morgan in Spanish Armada times. The scheme of planting, however, is of post-restoration character, and therefore it seems right to ascribe them to John Arnold.

Of him two dated traces remain. The one is a lead cistern (or what remains of it) bearing the letters IAM (John and Margaret Arnold) and the year 1673, while the other is a big iron fireback in the hall which dates from twenty-one years later.

Between those two dates John Arnold no doubt was busy with his various alterations and plantings, but he lived to see the eighteenth century open, when his son succeeded him. He was the last male of the family, and his daughters sold the place to Edward Harley.

He was younger brother to Robert Harley, who became Queen Anne's Tory Prime Minister and Earl of Oxford, with special remainder to his brother's line. In 1702 Edward Harley obtained the lucrative office of Auditor of the Imprest, which he retained until his death in 1735. In 1717 a charge of embezzling State funds was brought against him, but he proved that although thirty-six millions had passed through his hands, yet his accounts were correct within three shillings and fourpence mischarged by the inadvertency of a clerk.

Nevertheless, he became a rich man, whose chief home and estates were in Herefordshire, where, as well as at Llanvihangel, he maintained charity schools. His son succeeded his cousin as third Earl of Oxford in 174I, and Llanvihangel was a possession of his grandson, the fifth Earl, when, in 1797, Archdeacon Coxe visited the neighbourhood, making notes for his forthcoming History of Monmouthshire.

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Picturesque scenery had then become fashionable, and the agreeable sensations of awe and terror aroused by 'horrid crags' and 'dreadful chasms' were made the most of. Thus we hear little of the house but much of that very charming but not formidable detached hill, the Skirrid, which plays so excellent a part in the views from the park and appears in one of the illustrations. Coxe found — or rather lost — his way to the top on a hot afternoon after a morning excursion, and the tired body reacted on the mind: 'When I looked down from the narrow and desolated ridge, the boundless expanse around and beneath which suddenly burst upon my sight overcame me my spirits almost failed, even curiosity was suspended, and I threw myself exhausted on the ground.' However, in half an hour he had sufficiently recovered to descend: 'I walked across the meadows, along a gradual descent, through fine groves of oaks and Spanish chestnuts to Llanvihangel house, an old mansion belonging to the Earl of Oxford. It was the ancient seat of the Arnold family, and was sold in I722 to auditor Harley, ancestor to the present Earl. It is now inhabited only by a farmer and contains nothing but some old furniture, a few family pictures, and some good impressions of Hogarth's prints. The place is distinguished by avenues of Scots firs, the largest in England. From the grounds near the front of the house the Skyrid presents itself with peculiar effect, the fissure seems like an enormous chasm separating two mountains whose impending and craggy summits vie in height and ruggedness.'

An 'elegant collation' brought by friends and spread on the banks of the Honddy soon enabled the Archdeacon to forget the 'fatigues of the day.'

Fifty years later Mr Cliffe, another book writing visitor, comes this way, and he also is struck by the firs: 'The avenue is the finest of its kind in the kingdom; the firs are not of the common Scotch species, and about 40 years ago the Government offered 10,000l. for them. Of the house he merely tells us that it is 'a remarkable old mansion belonging to the Hon. W. P. Rodney.'

Two years after Coxe's visit the Earl of Oxford had sold Llanvihangel to Hugh Powell, treasurer of St Bartholomew's Hospital, whose family were connected with the parish, and when he died in I821 it passed to his godson, the Mr Rodney just mentioned. In 1003 his grandson parted with it to a neighbour, Mr Attwood-Mathews of Pontrilas Court.

He, however, died before the house, which needed renovation and addition, was ready for occupation. Mrs Attwood-Mathews therefore completed the work begun by her husband, and since then has largely resided at this very venerable and beautifully situated home.