High up on the hill above Trefriw, where the ground levels a little and slopes gently up to Llyn Cowlyd, sits the cottage of Penrallt Inco. For the name I'm using the form found on the 1888-1913 map, because various accounts have it as Penrallt Inco, Penrallt Ynco, Pen’ralltdinco, and Tanrallt Digwm. Rather ominously, the majority of the information about the place comes from newspaper reports in 1877 about a possible murder, and the crime of sending threatening letters.
The house is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 77140 65761, directly on a public footpath that leads down to the valley.
Walking down towards Penrallt Inco from the road. Formerly a track would have passed the house, but there is little to no evidence of this now. The track is remembered in the line of the public footpath.
Penrallt Inco can be seen at the centre of this section of the 1888-1913 Ordnance Survey map, with an established track running down from the now-metalled road above, all the way to the valley floor near Dolgarrog. Not far away is Tyddyn Wilym, erstwhile home to Gwilym Cowlyd, a noted local poet. Nothing appears to remain of his home under modern barns.
The house of Penrallt Inco is so lost in a jungle of bracken and overhanging trees that it's almost impossible to decipher. The map above shows two distinct buildings, and there's an implication in records that an older house was abandoned for a newer one - a 1907 newspaper article states 'Pen'rallt (now re-built), thirty years ago was a dilapidated farm', but I found nothing more modern looking than boulder-built structures on the site. This may be the most recent structure, since it's shown as roofed on the map above, but it has obviously been abandoned for a long time. However, the vegetation was so thick I could have missed a mansion a few yards away.
I hadn't been particularly aware of this ruin until I read the reminiscences of John Owen from the early twentieth century, when he lists various houses of yr Allt Wyllt, and comes to a house called Lletty. Owen writes:
Lletty. – This is a cottage situated close to Gwyndy, where Mr. John and Mrs. Catherine Roberts lived. They had two sons, named Robert and Rhys. This Catherine Roberts was a maid servant at “Pen’ralltdinco” at the time of the disappearance of the old maid “Jane Griffiths” (otherwise called “Siani Siag”). This unusual incident created a great disturbance in the Valley. Jane Griffiths was a house-keeper to a farmer. One day the house-keeper disappeared. The police were informed, and a careful search was made throughout the district. Bloodhounds were used, and divers engaged to search the lakes and ponds of the district, but no trace of the old lady was found.
Newspaper accounts of the incident expand the facts. Jane Griffiths was actually Jane Owen, forty-five, working in 1877 as housekeeper for a farmer named David Robert Griffith. She was evidently something more than housekeeper, since she had supposedly given birth to two children fathered by Griffith, one which died and one which was adopted by a family in England. She was possibly pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
At around five in the morning of 19th April she had given her notice to Griffith, after working for him for four years, and left the house. Supposedly she had £120 with her, paid to her by Griffith; £48 for her six mountain ponies and possibly some sheep, £30 to clear a mortgage she had on the farm, and the rest debts due to her from neighbours. Griffith seems to have told police either that she was met by a man, or that he last saw her alone at a stile some three hundred yards from the house, in the direction of Rowen. Other reports, however, state that she was a cripple on crutches, and unable to walk far. They also say that she was a bad tempered woman, and the relationship between the two was often stormy.
After Griffith reported her missing, sixty men aided in the search. Searches continued for some time, with cliffs being scaled, lakes being dragged, and bloodhounds used, but all to no avail. Jane Owen was never seen again.
The
story concerning Jane Owen became more complicated when David Robert Griffith was arrested
the following May for sending a threatening letter. He was described as an intelligent man, an avid reader who
could read and write in both Welsh and English. He was known as a
farrier and for his understanding animal disorders. It's said that he
was a kind neighbour, but not if his enmity were roused. Neighbour
Gwilym Cowlyd stated that he carried a gun with him when he walked in
the area for fear of him.
Allegedly Griffith had
written a letter in September 1876 to Edward Elias of Gorswen, near
Rowen. The letter (translated from Welsh by the newspaper) read:
Edward Elias. – Sir, – If you don’t get the wife of Cowlyd to divide the sheep that are between her and Moses Ardda, we shall destroy you all, and kill you, as the Lord liveth, and shall destroy all that she has as well. Moses, Tynwyd, Dolgarrog, must divide also or else we shall fire him into flames to the devil, like Griffith Rowlyn. Moses is stealing our sheep fearfully, and if you don’t make them up without delay, you shall see something fearful in haste. Send a man to Cowlyd without delay, or else take your chance. – Rebecca and children.
It seems that the letter was designed to incriminate one of Griffith's neighbours, Moses of Ardda, against whom Griffith bore a grudge because Moses had been telling people that Griffith's son was the father of his servant girl's child.
Moses Thomas of Ardda, Dolgarrog parish, was 41 in the 1871 census, living with wife Anne, 35, and son William, 4. By 1881 they had two more children, Mary Jane, 8, and Grace, 3. Griffith Rowlyn was likely Griffith Williams of Rowlyn Uchaf, 74 in 1881, and, if my conclusions about Jane Owen are correct, living on the same site as Jane's family - there are two entries for Rowlyn Ucha in the censuses of this time. I haven't identified Tynwyd, or the 'wife of Cowlyd,' who is named as 'Mrs Edwards', 'formerly Mrs Jones of Cowlyd' in a newspaper report. Who 'Rebecca and children' are in all this is also unknown. The only Rebeccas I can find in the surrounding parishes live in Maen y Bardd township, which covers the Rowen area.
Griffith denied the charges put to him, but by July he was
serving 18 months hard labour in Caernarfon Gaol for the offence. Whether he returned to Penrallt Inco is unknown, but had certainly moved on by the 1881 census, and he died about twelve years later, in George Street, Llanrwst. Supposedly his house was looked after by a man, Robert Davies, as no woman could come near him. His death is recounted by Davies in a 1907 newspaper article:
Bu yn wael am rai wythnosau cyn marw. Holasom lawer ar Robert Davies a oedd David Griffith wedi dadlenu rhywbeth yn nghylch diwedd “Shian,” ac y mae geiriau yr hen wr pert a duwiol yn fyw ar ein cof – “Marw mawr, welwch chwi! ie wir, marw mawr! Faswn i ddim yn licio marw yr un fath: na faswn wir! Be ydi ‘dihofryd,’ deudwch?” – “‘Diofryd,’ ydych yn ei feddwl?” – “Ie, dyna fo reit siwr. Yr oedd o (David Griffith), yn fy nhyngu ar ‘ddiofryd’ na nawn i ddim deyd ei fod o wedi deud wrtha i mau y fo ddaru.”
(Unfortunately my Welsh isn't good enough to translate this accurately, but Ann Corkett has kindly translated it:
He was ill for some weeks before he died. We questioned Robert Davies a lot as to whether David Griffith had revealed something about “Shian”’s end, and the (?)pleasant/dapper and Godly old man’s words live in our memory – “A (?)frightful death, you see! yes indeed, a frightful death! I would not like to die like that; I wouldn’t indeed! What is ‘dihofryd’, tell me?” – “Do you mean ‘diofryd’ (oath)?” – “Yes, that’s it I’m sure. He (David Griffith) swore me on oath that I wouldn’t tell that he had told me that he did it.”)
Jane Owen's story resurfaced a couple of times in local newspapers after the excitement of Griffth's trial died down. In 1881 a woman living at Aber Llyn, between Llanrhychwyn and Betws y Coed, saw some children playing with tresses of grey hair near a small stream near Llyn Parc. She took little notice, until she realised the hair appeared to have scalp attached. After she raised the alarm, the lake was investigated by a diver from Holyhead, who thought he saw some bones. The lake was then dragged, and bones discovered, but nothing conclusive was proven.
In 1907 the story came to the fore again, when bones were found near Coedty, Dolgarrog, about three quarters of a mile from Penrallt Inco. John Williams, working for the Aluminium Works in Dolgarrog, was blasting with some other men when he discovered bones hidden under a slab in a hole in the rocks. Although some of the bones crumbled to dust, a piece of skull and a left thigh bone were identified. These were examined by a doctor and said to be from a small person, who showed signs of rickets.
Perhaps modern DNA examination could have told us who the bones belonged to. As it is, there's no way of telling if these were the bones of Jane Owen. Perhaps more interestingly, if the bones found in Llyn Parc were from a different person, there are the remains of at least two unsolved deaths in the hills.
There are, of course, multiple possibilities for Jane Owen's disappearance. The obvious thought is that she was murdered by her employer, an apparently vindictive man who struck fear into the hearts of his neighbours. But she was supposedly leaving his house with a large sum of money. If she did meet a man, as Griffith claimed, this man could have killed her for her money. She could have left alone, pregnant and disabled, and met by some kind of accident. She could have crawled into shelter in the rocks near Coedty if the weather had turned bad - a distinct possibility in a Welsh April - and died there. There is nothing conclusive about this story except that she is certainly dead by now.
The dog rose rambling over the walls seems to speak something of domestication in this area.
At first I had thought I couldn't find Penrallt Inco in the censuses, except for in the 1911 census, where it's listed in Llanrhychwyn parish as being uninhabited. The map boundaries would seem to indicate the house was in Llanrhychwyn parish, and should fall somewhere near Tyddyn Wilym and others in the area. However, in earlier censuses the house appears in the Trefriw parish census. In 1841, the first preserved census, the place is lived in by farmers Robert and Margaret Griffith, 55 and 50 respectively, and their twenty year old son David - the David Robert Griffith of the story above. Interestingly, under 'place of birth' in the 1851 census all three are down as simply 'British Subject.' I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this but perhaps it indicates a reluctance to give information to the census taker. It's only in this census that the house is named as Penrallt Inco. In all others it is simply Penrallt.
By 1861 the census says that all three were born in Trefriw. Robert, now 74, is a farmer of 72 acres, and his and Margaret's son still lives with them. In this and the previous census David - now down as 'David R.' - is listed as married, but no wife ever appears.
By 1871 Robert Griffith is widowed, aged 84, and blind of old age, but he's still listed as a farmer of 62 acres. Although he's lost his wife the household has expanded. David R., now 52, is still living with his father, but Robert's grandson 'R. D' - presumably the son of David Robert mentioned as impregnating a servant girl in one of the newspaper reports - is also living there. At the age of 18, he's listed as a scholar, which is relatively unusual for a boy of that age in this era. David Robert is also marked as widowed at this point. The other two household members are Robert Davis, a 49 year old labourer visiting the property, and Ellenor Jones, a 20 year old servant. All are listed as having been born in Trefriw.
It's after this that the property disappears from the records, apart from the one mention of it as uninhabited in the 1911 census. It would be harder to distinguish from other Penrallts once the family left the property because there's no continuity, but I don't believe it appears. Presumably in this time Jane Owen has come to work for David Robert Griffith, and perhaps servant Ellenor had moved on. The implication in the newspaper reports is that his son still lives with him - they speak of David Robert visiting neighbours along with his son. It seems likely that the place was lived in until David Robert Griffith was committed to prison in 1877, and perhaps then abandoned.
In the 1881 census David Griffith, 62, and son Robert D Griffith, 28, are both living in Pandy, Trefriw, as two of six boarders of William and Margaret Evans. David is of independent means, while his son is a labourer.
As for other records - David Robert Griffith was baptised in the Llanrwst Tabernacle chapel, the son of Robert and Margaret Griffith of Berthllwyd, Llanrhychwyn, on 5th February, 1818, having been born on 23rd January. He’s listed in the Trefriw parish burials as David Griffith of George Street, Llanrwst, buried 24th November, 1888, aged 70. A probate report for 14th December, 1888 tells us that his personal estate on death was worth £213 11s 6d. He is described as ‘Veterinary Surgeon a Widower who died 21 November 1888 at 4 George-street’, and administration was granted to Robert David Griffith of 63 Dorrit-street off Park-road Liverpool, ‘Railway Checker the Son and only Next of Kin.’
There's so little information about Jane Owen that she is impossible to trace conclusively. The implication in the newspaper reports seems to be that she was local, and there is a Jane Owen of the right age living in Rowlyn Ucha from the 1841 through to the 1861 censuses, the daughter of Anne Owen, a widowed farmer. In 1861 she is still unmarried at the age of 29. Rowlyn Ucha is relatively close to Penrallt Inco, so perhaps this is the right person. Her family offered money for news of her fate, so it's obvious that she still had a concerned family around her at the time of her disappearance.
Another titbit from the John Owen accounts perhaps suggests an origin for the house name of Penrallt Inco.
"Dolygarrog- This place took its name from Carrawg Ynyr, The plain was
called Dol Carrawg and the cliff above is Clogwyn Ynyr, which in later
times became known as the Inco Cliff. Tradition has it that it was in a
farmhouse at the top of this cliff that Inigo Jones, the famous builder,
devoted himself to his English expedition during the Civil War."
This is possibly another small window, now blocked.
These conifers are typical of the area around these upland houses, where ruins are often marked by conifers of various types, presumably planted by the inhabitants as wind breaks or for fuel.
