Plas Gunter Mansion restoration project

Restoration project

Plas Gunter Mansion has a remarkable history. With its hidden Catholic chapel and its gorgeous 17th century ceiling, this building could be one of the brightest jewels in Abergavenny’s tourism crown.

Dating largely from the 17th Century, Plas Gunter Mansion (37-39a Cross Street, Abergavenny) played a pivotal role in the history of Catholicism in Wales and is closely associated with Saints David Lewis and Philip Evans.

Today the mansion is in a poor state of repair and urgently needs refurbishment if it is to survive.

We want to turn this 17th century mansion into an historical, educational and community resource celebrating its local roots and attracting national and international visitors.

Ownership

During 2014 - 2015, the Welsh Georgian Trust (now Plas Gunter Mansion Trust) negotiated an option agreement with the owners to acquire the building for £150,000.

The Trust raised over £10,000 through a crowdfunding campaign and grants were also awarded by the Pilgrim Trust for £25,000 and by the National Heritage Memorial Fund for up to £125,000. This funding enabled the Trust to buy Plas Gunter Mansion in January 2017.

At the beginning of 2020, the Welsh Georgian Trust became Plas Gunter Mansion Trust and is focusing entirely on renovating the building and bringing it back to life. Find out more about the Trust.

Archaeological survey

During 2017 discussions took place with a number of interested parties and potential funders to agree the next steps. We realised we needed a better understanding of the building before we could confidently develop a full scheme.

Accordingly, successful grant applications were made in autumn 2017 to the Architectural Heritage Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund for investigatory works for £5,000 and £10,000 respectively.

The investigative works were undertaken during 2018 and the reports delivered in early 2019. You can read about the findings of the archaeological survey here.

Progress so far

In 2019 we submitted an Expression Of Interest to the newly renamed National Lottery Heritage Fund. This is the first stage all applicants must pass to become eligible to apply for Lottery funding. We were thrilled to find out we'd been accepted in summer 2019.

However, due to the pandemic, the Heritage Fund ceased all new applications and for two years, we just had to concentrate on survival.

When the Heritage Fund re-opened its doors, we immediately submitted a new Expression of Interest. It was accepted but the funding landscape had changed. There was stricter criteria, fewer available resources and stronger competition for funds.

We realised we needed to plug some gaps in our business plan to have any chance of obtaining the requisite large amount of funding. Our fundraisers advised us to run a small development project with the express intention of strengthening our application.

We obtained funding to run the Celebrating Tolerance project towards the end of 2022. You can find more detail about our thinking and what we hope to achieve here - Strengthening our plans.

Celebrating Tolerance project

We were awarded funding of £31,800 to run the Celebrating Tolerance project from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (£9,500), Abergavenny Town Council (£2,500) and the Architectural Heritage Fund (£19,800).

Our aim was to make our business plan for post-renovation activities in Plas Gunter Mansion as robust as it can be. It was imperative we pinned down how we will create a genuinely sustainable business plan for Gunter for the long-term.

The project gave us an opportunity to test exactly which activities will take place in the building. It also allowed us to explore whether the food history of the Gunters and our building could form a stronger part of our vision. (You may remember that Anne Gunter ran a London confectionary business in the 1770s which became The Pot & Pineapple and later Gunter's Teashop.)

The project allowed us to:

Engage with the local community to understand how Plas Gunter Mansion will meet current and future needs,
Establish who our potential partners might be in delivering the capital development, and more importantly,
What kind of activity might be delivered when the newly refurbished building is up and running

We worked with experienced consultants, Headland Design Associates, Chris Jones Regeneration and The Funding Centre.

The project enabled us to submit an Expression of Interest to the Heritage Fund followed by a full application for a £3.1 million development.

Dating Plas Gunter Mansion

On 18 October 2022, six timber cores were taken from the main house for tree ring width dating.

Read more about the technique and what was discovered - How old is Plas Gunter Mansion and how do we know?

Aims

Our vision for the renovation is four-fold:

To restore the building preserving its historical integrity
Ensure sustainability by generating an income
Engage the public and embed the project in the community
Help regenerate lower Cross Street

Three important themes will be woven through all our activities:

The history of the building and its occupants
The religious significance attached to the building
The persecution of minorities

We want to restore external and internal features of the early building and remove later inappropriate additions and alterations. The shops will remain but our intention is that the most historically important rooms will be available to visit. There will also be a visitors' centre and programme of community involvement.

We believe this arrangement will allow the building to be financially self-sustaining, while allowing the public to see the most significant rooms and embracing history in a modern context relevant to today.