Celtic Manor Resort

The Celtic Manor Resort is a golf-centric hotel and leisure resort in Newport, south Wales. It consists of two adjoining hotels, a country inn, two golf and country clubs, and a multi-purpose conference centre. It was the venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup, the first to be held in Wales.

Location

The resort, owned by Sir Terry Matthews, is located on the south-facing side of Christchurch Hill in eastern Newport, overlooking Junction 24 of the M4 motorway. The golf courses extend over the ridge and down the north-facing side of the hill into the Vale of Usk, with views up to the Wentwood escarpment. The resort covers of land.

Site history

The earliest record of a building on the resort site was 1634, when it was the residence of the High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, Lewis Van.

The Manor House was built in 1860 by Thomas Powell, the largest coalmine owner in the South Wales coalfield, the world's biggest coal exporter and the first coal millionaire. Powell's son, Thomas Powell Jnr, and his bride Julia Jenkins were given the mansion as a wedding gift when they married in 1859. They named it Coldra Hall.

After Thomas and Julia Powell's deaths on safari in Africa, Coldra Hall was leased to a number of tenants, including the Firbank family from 1900–1915. Charles Firbank was also a high sheriff of Monmouthshire and well known for his generosity, entertaining parties of a hundred or more blind and disabled people. On Mr Firbank's death in 1915, the hall was sold to Sir John Wyndham, a...
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