The house, first known as Camden Cottage, was built in approximately 1862 on land leased to Mr Mordecai Jones by the 2nd Marquis of Camden and Earl of Brecknock (pictured above), who owned much of the land around us in Brecon at the time.

Mordecai Jones was the Lord Mayor of Brecon in 1854. His father was a canal freight carrier and Mordecai made his fortune by developing farms in the Merthyr valley into hugely profitable coal mines, the Maerdy Pits, and also by investing in the Brecon and Abergavenny Gasworks.

He was a staunch Presbyterian, and there is a link between him and the Watton Presbyterian church. Unusually, he also founded the Breconshire Brewery; the name is still used today. although the present brewery has only been running since 2003.

Mordecai died at Morgannwg House on Glamorgan Street, next to the Ursuline convent in 1869.
After passing through the hands of several local families, and a change of name to the Camden Grange, in the 1970s, the house was used as a Guest House, narrowly avoiding being demolished as a semi derelict building in 1974 as part of the Brecon road improvements!

Luckily the house survived, was reborn as the Grange Guesthouse, and is now a Grade 2 listed building within the Brecon Beacons National Park and Brecon conservation area.

We are actively researching the history of the house and if you know anything then please get in touch. We are particularly keen to find a photo of Mordecai Jones and if possible original plans for the house!

In January 2006 while stripping wallpaper in the hallway we came across this inscription

:

"William Phillips, Paster to Daff Boxhall Feb 26th 1911". Daff Boxhall, who we now know was a painter and decorator by trade, turned out to be the great grandfather of a local friend.

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