Hean Castle
The original fortified place - called retrospectively 'Yr Hen Gastell' ('The Old Castle') when people still spoke Welsh in the parish - gave the estate its name.
Its various owners in recent centuries were involved in industrial development. There was a colliery, probably a Wogan enterprise, near Coppet Hall by 1764. In the first half of the 19th century, Thomas Stokes worked coal and iron ore and established a brickworks.
Charles R Vickerman's purchase of the Castle in 1863 confirmed his local importance. A Londoner, he was the son of the Treasurer of the Saundersfoot Railway and Harbour Company, and step by step he came to dominate local industry. Charles Vickerman also reconstructed Hean Castle in red sandstone with dressings of Forest of Dean stone in the Elizabethan manner.
However, reverses followed and at the time of his death in 1897, his industrial interests were in decline. In 1899 Hean Castle was sold to Sir William Thomas Lewis, the first Baron Merthyr of Senghenydd, and has continued in the hands of his descendants.
