1761
people
A family before Avallenau
A marriage settlement for William Evan and Sarah Phillip begins the family sequence preserved in the Eaton Evans papers.
Open source · D-EE/8/1 ↗The Discovery room
Follow the record
Twenty starting points, from the land before the house to its years in public care. Every entry leads back to the catalogue or building record.
Chronology
A searchable history
These are catalogue-level findings, not a claim to be the last word. “Archive” entries describe records worth consulting; they do not imply that every item has been read in person.
1779–1802
people
The family Bible
Mary Eaton’s Bible contains family notes spanning her 1787 marriage to William Evan and the birth of Thomas in 1802.
Open source · D-EE/8/2 ↗1815
place
Nursery and named fields
A mortgage describes a house, gardens and nursery occupied by nurseryman John McEwen, with Long Park, Rock Park, Three Corner Park, Hayguard and Walled Close, between the Milford turnpike and Haylett Lane.
Open source · D-EE/62/9 ↗1831
people
William and Cecil marry
William Evans married Cecil Warlow on 13 January. Two infant sons died; Edward Eaton Evans, born in 1835, survived to inherit the house.
Open source · D-EE/8 ↗1839–1872
archive
Cecil Evans’s bills
A long run of bills and receipts names Haverfordwest jewellers, drapers, cabinetmakers, brewers, shoemakers, coal merchants, decorators and other traders. They illuminate Cecil’s local economic world, though not every purchase can be tied to the house.
Open source · D-EE/62/37 ↗1843–1872
place
The rental
A rental begins with William Evans, continues after his death under Cecil Evans, and from 1864 under Cecil and Edward Eaton Evans.
Open source · D-EE/8/7 ↗1845
house
Construction begins
The family catalogue says William Evans began building Avallenau in 1845. The Cadw record attributes its design and construction to William Owen of Haverfordwest.
Open source · D-EE/8 ↗9 Nov 1846
people
Moving day
William and Cecil moved into Avallenau after William’s first stroke. A second followed in April 1847.
Open source · D-EE/8 ↗1849
people
William Evans dies
The family overview gives 19 April; a separate probate catalogue entry gives 13 April. Both are retained as an unresolved archival discrepancy.
Open source · D-EE/8; D-EE/62/17 ↗1850s–60s
archive
A family chronicle
A surviving photocopy records family, Haverfordwest and world events from the late 1820s to early 1860s. The catalogue says the original remained with James Eaton Evans.
Open source · D-EE/8/28 ↗1865
people
Edward and Georgiana
Edward Eaton Evans married Georgiana Ann Stokes. A formal congratulatory address survives in the archive.
Open source · D-EE/8/22 ↗1872
people
Cecil’s estate
Cecil Evans, described as widow of William Evans of Avallenau, died on 27 April. Edward Eaton Evans was executor.
Open source · D-EE/8/11 ↗1888–89
people
A mayor at Avallenau
Edward Eaton Evans served as Mayor of Haverfordwest. He practised as a solicitor into his late eighties.
Open source · D-EE/8 ↗29 May 1894
house
Water from Dredgman Hill
A grant allowed Edward Eaton Evans to build a tank on Lower Dredgman Hill and lay a pipe to Avallenau; the catalogue notes an attached plan.
Open source · D-EE/8/26 ↗c.1900
house
The earliest catalogued views
Two photographs show Avallenau, described by the catalogue as the Eaton Evans family home for a hundred years.
Open source · D-EE/8/50 ↗1914–18
people
Recruiting during wartime
A postcard notes that William George Eaton Evans was officer in charge of recruiting at Haverfordwest at the outbreak of the First World War.
Open source · D-EE/8/36 ↗1924
people
Edward’s long life ends
Edward Eaton Evans died aged 89 after a legal career that the family catalogue traces from articles in 1851 to retirement in 1923.
Open source · D-EE/8 ↗After 1945
house
From family home to public care
James Eaton Evans moved out after the Second World War when Pembrokeshire County Council acquired the house. It became an old people’s home and later a children’s home.
Open source · D-EE/8 ↗1987
house
Listed at Grade II
The main house and stable range were listed separately on 29 October for their architectural interest and group value.
Open source · Cadw 13042 & 13043 ↗1990–2000
archive
Sales particulars survive
The national collection holds illustrated sales particulars from July 1990 and August 2000; Pembrokeshire Archives also catalogues auction records from 1979–97.
Open source · NMRW archives; D-ER/5/3 ↗No records match that search. Try a surname, a year, “water”, “care” or an archive reference.
Read the building
Classical order, local character
The official description makes the front in the supplied photograph legible: a restrained early Victorian country house, formal without being grandiose.
The house
- Rendered walls beneath hipped slate roofs, deep flat eaves and rendered chimneys.
- A five-bay north front, arranged 2–1–2 around a projecting, pedimented centre.
- Hornless twelve-pane sash windows, stone sills and a canted ground-floor bay.
- A three-bay Roman Doric entrance portico with paired columns, triglyph frieze and deep cornice.
- An arched stair light on the south side; twin hipped roofs and a service court to the rear.
Cadw listing 13042 ↗ · The interior was inaccessible when surveyed.
The stable range
- A long, roughly 1840 single-storey range with loft, standing on higher ground.
- Roughcast and render over rubble, with a slate roof and rendered stacks.
- A north cross-gable over a projecting pedimented centre, with sunk oculus and large arched recess.
- Possible remains of a cut-down clock turret and a sequence of blind arches.
- Listed separately for its group value with the main house.
Coflein records the house at National Grid reference SM9454814047 and describes it as a substantial early Victorian mansion. Its entry is based in part on July 1990 sale particulars. Open Coflein NPRN 21600 ↗
Archive trail
Records to request next
A practical shelf list for deeper research at Pembrokeshire Archives and the National Monuments Record of Wales.
Open questions
Where the record thins out
- Which death date is correct? One archive overview gives William Evans’s death as 19 April 1849; a probate catalogue entry gives 13 April. The discrepancy needs checking against the original probate and burial register.
- What came before 1845? The 1815 mortgage describes a nursery, gardens and named closes. A map-based comparison may establish how these relate to the later house and drive.
- What survives inside? The listing survey could not inspect the interior. A dated room-by-room photographic record would be valuable.
- Who lived and worked here? The family papers privilege owners. Census, staff, gardening and care-home histories can broaden the account.
- How did public care change the building? The sequence from old people’s home to children’s home is known, but dates, alterations and memories need documenting sensitively.