[1] The enormous cost of the house almost bankrupted the family and it was sold only 3 years after Colonel Watkins's death.

[3] John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins (1802–65) was a nineteenth century Welsh Liberal politician who sat Member of Parliament for Brecon.

[6] The cost of the house alone was over £33,000[6] and Allibone records that Watkins was obliged to "close (it) and live cheaply in a local hotel.

Privately owned from 1868 to 1947,[8] the house was then used as a school, the clubhouse to a golf club, a nursing home, an hotel and a rehabilitation centre.

[1] It has a three-storey main block,[1] a "colossal" entrance tower[6] with a belvedere top,[1] and a balancing conservatory wing which had a glass-domed roof, although this was replaced in 1899.