Qualla: Ty Newydd

Ty Newydd: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

David Lloyd George died in the library of Ty Newydd on the evening of 26 March 1945, with his second wife Frances beside him and the spring light coming off Cardigan Bay through the window the architect Clough Williams-Ellis had put in for him three years earlier. He was 82. The radical from Llanystumdwy who had become Prime Minister and led Britain through the First World War had come home to the Welsh village where he grew up. He is buried about a quarter of a mile away beside the River Dwyfor, in a grave Williams-Ellis also designed. Since 1990, the house where he died has been the National Writing Centre of Wales -- the place where Welsh literary culture, in both languages, sends people to learn how to write.

Read more: Ty Newydd on Qualla

Ty Newydd: The House Before the Politician

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ty Newydd means simply New House, which is funny because the bones of it are older than the Tudors. The Grade II* listed building was raised in the fifteenth century -- six bedrooms, two libraries, a large dining room. Behind a sober Welsh stone exterior, the interior carries sur...

Read more: Ty Newydd on Qualla

Ty Newydd: Lloyd George Comes Home

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1942 Lloyd George and Frances bought Ty Newydd and hired Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the eccentric Welsh architect best known for inventing the Italianate fantasy village of Portmeirion, to renovate it. Williams-Ellis added the library window that opens onto Cardigan Bay, fitte...

Read more: Ty Newydd on Qualla

Ty Newydd: Wales Learns to Write

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Robert Minhinnick, the Welsh poet who would later become editor of Poetry Wales, taught the first course at the converted centre alongside Gillian Clarke, the future National Poet of Wales. Both credit Sally Baker with the original idea -- a residential writing centre for Wales, ...

Read more: Ty Newydd on Qualla

Ty Newydd: Cardigan Bay Through the Window

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The view from the library window is part of the point. Williams-Ellis insisted on it when he was working on the room for Lloyd George. The grounds drop away to the south, past trees, toward the long sweep of Cardigan Bay. On a clear day you can see the Cambrian mountains across t...

Read more: Ty Newydd on Qualla