Report due on condition of crumbling 200-year-old mansion

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

A report detailing the condition of a crumbling former mansion house is expected imminently, councillors have been told.

Council officials have been waiting for a structural report on the condition of privately owned Ty Mawr, also known as Bleanavon House, after securing a grant from Welsh historic buildings body Cadw in autumn last year.

Ty Mawr, which was last used as a care home which closed 20 years ago, is opposite Blaenavon’s World Heritage Centre but much of its roof has caved in and some walls have collapsed.

Plans to convert the 228-year-old, grade II-listed house to a boutique hotel failed to win support from the UK Government in 2022.

Councillor Joanna Gauden, Torfaen Borough Council’s cabinet member for the economy, was asked at the council’s May meeting to give an update on any progress to restore the building.

She said she was “worried” about the building and “it is showing worrying signs of deterioration” but said: “Officers are awaiting a final structural survey and proposals from the Cadw urgent works survey, that report is expected this week or next.”

Cllr Gauden said the report would help set out future options and stabilisation work and said, as she’d noted when Cllr Horler had raised the condition of the building in March, its restoration is identified as a key part of Blaenavon’s placemaking plan and the World Heritage Site plan.

Blaenavon independent councillor Nick Horler, who’d asked for the update, also said he was concerned at the future of the former Park Street School building which closed in 2012 and partly demolished in 2019.

Cllr Gauden said she was aware Cllr Horler has some potential, temporary proposals, for the former school and suggested a meeting should be organised for local councillors to consider its future and said though a previously proposed sale hadn’t materialised she suggested that could also be looked at.