Kilvrough Manor

The house was built for Rowland Dawkin, a member of the Gower family, in 1585. In 1820, Major Thomas Penrice of Great Yarmouth acquired the manor: in June 1831 he was ordered by the Marquess of Bute, Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, to tackle civil unrest associated with the Reform Bill. To his huge embarrassment, Penrice and his Yeomanry troops were disarmed by a large mob of rioters and, following an official inquiry, the local Yeomanry unit was re-organised by the Government. The house passed to Penrice's nephew and, through the nephew's daughter, to the Lyons family. In the 1930s it was bought by Arthur Thomas, a Swansea businessman, and in 1949 it was bought by the Oxfordshire Education…