page_title: Island House, Laugharne
section_title: Present day
hierarchical_section_title: Island House, Laugharne / Present day
caption_attribution_description: English: Island House, Laugharne
context_page_description: Island House is a Grade II* listed, partly Tudor, sub-medieval town house located in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, in south west Wales. Sitting below the castle with its frontage ranged along Wogan Street between the River Corran and a former mill stream, Island House is the oldest residence still standing in the township and has a listing status indicating a building of exceptional interest. The historical importance of the whole site is also reflected by separate Grade II listings of its garden, walls, and outbuildings.
  Principally built of stone, the oldest parts date from the 15th century, with later additions from the 16th and 19th centuries. The first owners may well have traded goods that were brought into and out of the adjacent Gosport Harbour, which could shelter 350-ton vessels at that time. Laugharne was a thriving seaport for many centuries before its capability to support navigation slowly diminished as siltation of the Tâf estuary inexorably reduced the tidal prism after the early 1600s.
context_section_description: Census returns from 1881-1911 show that the property continued to provide a prestigious, 20-room home for well-to-do families in Laugharne up to and including the inter-war years. Even after the period of economic recession and profound social change that followed WW1, two full-time gardeners were still employed by the retired Indian Army major, Claude Vivyan Congreve, who took up residence at the turn of the century and died in 1923. His widow Mary, an accomplished musician, was responsible for organising monthly dances and indeed most of the town's entertainment between the wars according to her neighbour Lt Colonel R.A.Tucker, whose mother had accompanied the family when they moved to Laugharne from London.  Caleb Rees, Deputy Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales, lived in the property from 1943 until his death in 1970. 
   The later twentieth century was not so kind to the buildings, which steadily deteriorated. After the owner died in 2004 it remained empty and has lain more or less derelict in recent times. Safety concerns led the County Council to apply for a Compulsory Purchase order in 2015 after several years on the 'at risk' register. In 2019 a public campaign  was launched to save Island House, by then on the brink of serious collapse,  which resulted in its acquisition by new owners.
caption: Island House, Laugharne in 2011
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