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Our History

Gwernyfed High School has had many owners and uses. It is built on what was formerly part of an estate of 3,500 acres owned by the Williams family of Breconshire. Prior to their ownership there are surviving earthworks from the Iron Age. The first house was built in Tudor times in the Elizabethan style



The construction of the house took three years beginning in 1877 and was designed to echo the style of Old Gwernyfed. It had a mock Elizabethan staircase that remains unchanged to the present day with a gilded ceiling, oak panelling and hand painted glass windows. The stable block had a courtyard with a central arch and an impressive bell tower with a beautiful clock above and partially timbered buildings, now the Art and Design and Technology Departments. The Latin inscription beneath the clock reads “Dum Spectas Fugio” – while you look time passes. The gardens were laid out formally, modelled in the Italian style.

The last family to own and live in the house were the Farquhar family.

Granville Farquhar bought Gwernyfed Park early this century from the Hore-Ruthven family. Guy Farquhar moved into the house in 1928 after he married Daphne Henry in July.

The War Office requisitioned the house in 1939 for use by the South Wales Borderers (of Zulu fame). Troops were billeted on the house and munitions were stored in the grounds. Over the years there have been many exciting events when unexploded ammunition has been found and destroyed.

The house was bought in 1948 by the local authority and was opened as a school in 1950 with 200 pupils.