My decade of dust, sweat and stone Welsh treasure

From the moment he first climbed the delapidated mansion’s tower, renovating the Grade IL-listed property has been a labour of love for Jed de Gregory, as property editor Joanne Ridout reports

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From top: Jed de Gregory with partner Caroline Ollier; when Jed bought the house a huge central chunk of it had been demolished; Jed's architect brother designed a new internal section Bryngwenallt Hall, near Abergele, dates back to 1867

‘ANY people view a property for sale out of interest, while not necessarily looking for a new home and, despite trying to fight ‘the feeling} end up unexpectedly falling in love with the captivating abode.

When businessman Jed de Gregory and his wife saw an advert for Grade IF-listed Bryngwenallt Hall, Abergele, they decided just to view it out of curiosity, but that was the first step in a renovation project that has taken more than 10 years just to get the house structurally revived, including building back a section of the mansion that had previously been demolished.

Jed, from Prestatyn, who runs his own fashion business called Red Alert in Manchester, said: “It was in a terrible, terrible state.

“The garden was overgrown, the laurels had taken over. There are some wonderful trees here, giant redwoods and 160-year-old trees that are beautiful but they were all obscured by the laurels”

‘Then the couple were shown the internal spaces and it was the tower of this historic house, dating back to 1867, that sealed the couple making an offer.

Jed recalled: “We had a look around the house and a lot of it looked in a very, very sad state.

“Then we walked up the tower and looked at the views - we both looked at each other and knew we'd both fallen in love with it.

“We just said ‘we have to have it’:

“There was something about it, it just took us over really. Standing at the top of the tower is when we first looked at each other and made the decision that we had to buy it because looking over at the sea and the gardens below it’s a wonderful, wonderful place.”