The Hendre The Hendre is Monmouthshire's only full-scale Victorian country mansion built for John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, most famous as the childhood home of Charles Stewart Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce.
History The mansion began as a shooting lodge, for John Rolls (1776-1837). His successor, John Etherington Welch Rolls, began the mansion's expansion, using Thomas Henry Wyatt as his architect. Wyatt extended the house in the period 1837-41, creating the great hall and improving the park, including the addition of the gate lodges on the Monmouth Road. The final two stages of expansion were undertaken by J E W Roll's son, J A Rolls. Raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Llangattock, Rolls employed first Henry Pope, who completed the dining room wing and, secondly, Sir Aston Webb, who added the Cedar Library. These additions took the mansion to its greatest extent and the late nineteenth century was also the house's social apogee, culminating in a visit from the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) stayed with Lord and Lady Llangattock at the Hendre in late October - early November 1900. The Duke and Duchess were taken on motor car excursions by Charles Rolls, probably the first time that the royal couple had been in a car.
Lord Llangattock died in 1912, Charles Rolls having pre-deceased him, dying in an air crash in 1910. Lord Llangattock's heir died at the Somme in 1916 and the barony became extinct. The family continued to live at The Hendre until the 1980s when, following a failed time-share operation, it passed out of their hands. The mansion is now the club house to a golf club.
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