Great Porthamel Farm and Gatehouse

The estate at Great Porthamel was established by Sir William Vaughan, created the first High Sheriff of Brecknockshire in 1539. The Porthamel Vaughans, a junior branch of the Vaughans of Tretower Court, came to prominence and wealth as minor personages at the Tudor courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Rowland Lee, Lord President of the Marches, wrote to Thomas Cromwell that William Vaughan was “a man to be cherished”. Sir William began building at the end of the 15th, or the early 16th centuries, and a contemporary account records the gatehouse forming the entrance to a "a strong wall-embatteled" enclosure. Cadw's Coflein record gives a date for construction of 1536. The farmhouse also dates…