History

Steeped in history, Waunifor was once a thriving estate of over 1000 acres. The earliest historical record is in a dispute over legal ownership in court records of 1605. By 1760 Waunifor had become the seat of the Bowen family. Thomas Bowen, the squire of Waunifor built a Methodist chapel for the use of the local populace, close to the main buildings of the estate. The principal families of Waunifor had a history of humanitarian and charity work and would regularly make emergency grants to the poor, helping to set up mutual societies and donating towards repairs to the church and local bridges.

The estate passed by inheritance to the Lloyds, Charles Lloyd was a Justice of the Peace for Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire (now Ceredigion) and a devout churchman. His descendent Alistair Lloyd wrote in a letter ‘Waunifor was an old house possibly mentioned by Wordsworth, which has been enlarged from time to time’. The poem ‘Simon Lee’ is about a huntsman and could quite possibly be referring to Waunifor in the first few lines as Ivor-Hall as there are no other Ivor-Halls in the area and Waunifor means Ivor’s Meadow..

“In the sweet shire of Cardigan,
Not far from pleasant Ivor-Hall,
An old man dwells, a little man,
Tis said he once was tall.
Full five and thirty years he lived.
A running huntsman merry;
And still the centre of his cheek
Is red as a ripe cherry”.