LADIES OF LLANGOLLEN

Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831) met in 1768 when Sarah was a teenager and Eleanor was in her late twenties. Both were members of wealthy families from the Irish aristocracy and both were set on not being married off, the usual fate for women of their social standing at the time.

They were so committed to their freedom that 10 years later they attempted to flee the country together, disguised as men. The escape was prevented by their families . After some discussion, the two women were allowed to leave Ireland for Wales. There, they travelled around for a while before settling down and ‘retiring’ in Llangollen, in 1780 at Plas Newydd (now aged 25 and 41). Here they would live for nearly fifty years with their servant Mary Carryl and a series of dogs.

When they moved in, their house was a tiny cottage with three windows and was named Pen-y-maes on the Afon Cyflymen. However, the Ladies had big plans for the place. They renamed it Plas Newydd (the New Palace in Welsh) and made big changes over many years. They a library and servants’ quarters, as well as employing a gardener and acquiring neighbouring plots of lands to develop fine gardens around their home. 

Eleanor and Sarah died within a couple of years of each other and are buried together in the graveyard of St Collen’s Church in Llangollen, alongside their Irish servant Mary Carryl who had died twenty years earlier. A memorial to all three women still stands in the churchyard and the carefully preserved house and gardens at Plas Newydd survive as a testament to the Ladies’ success in defying the customs of their time.

The House and gardens are now open to the general public. Their is amission to pay topicturesque house which nowbelongs to Denbighshire Council.  However the tea rooms

 and gardens are open to the public for free.  

Midlife Writer