GRIFFYDAM HISTORY

This large white house, on The Tentas next to the graveyard, was for many years closely associated with the Wesleyan Chapel on Elder Lane. 

 

In 1813, William Garner, a local builder, sold the building and land of 1.215 acres on which it sat, to the Chapel Trustees for £6.  See plan of sale below. He had previously been involved in building the Chapel in 1778.

 

It was owned by the Chapel Trustees for over a hundred years and is thought to have been used as a Manse or residence by the Ministers but we have no evidence of this. Manses were owned by circuit trustees, not directly by the Chapel.

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we believe that the Reverend William Stokes may have lived here. His wife, Elizabeth Stokes, tragically died in 1829 aged 26.  Her grave can be seen in Griffydam graveyard  near the Chapel along with a plaque inside the Chapel which has been preserved.

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In 1919 William Hopper (Wesleyan Minister) witnessed the sale of the house to local pipe-worker Matthew Henry Rowell for £190. In 1911, he lived in the Post Office on Middle Road. The Trustees named in this sale are: Herbert Rowell (baker), John Wardle (farmer), John Adcock (miller), John Wells (general dealer) and Joseph Lager (farmer).

 

By 1959 The Rowell Family had sold the house to William Boseley who sold it on to Dorothy Jackson.  Under her ownership and subsequent owners, the house became used as a business. First, as a lorry park and later, as a haulage business. There is a story that on one occasion in living memory, a heavily laden coal lorry suffered brake failure on the hill on The Tentas, rolled down and crashed at the bottom of the hill.  It was recovered with great difficulty.

 

The house reverted to being a residence only and was owned in the 1970s by Malcolm Abbott formerly of the Traveller’s Rest. 

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The house is built in an early nineteenth century style.   A rear extension was added in 1985 and the front porch is a more recent addition. Formally known as the "White House", the house was recently renamed "Tentas House". ​

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