The last brochure produced for Pencerrig Country House Hotel & Pony Trekking Centre, containing information about the hotel’s history, its location and facilities for holiday makers seeking to visit Mid Wales and see the countryside on horseback.  

An earlier advertisement which possibly appeared in ‘The Field’ magazine around 1964.

The Pencerrig estate was sold by Jane Evan-Thomas in 1952 but the house was unoccupied until 1958 when it came on the market again, together with some adjoining land.  My parents, Phil and Margaret Carrel, were managing The Barley Mow pub in Builth Wells at the time but, having heard about the growing popularity of pony trekking, they saw this as an opportunity to buy a property which they could convert into a hotel and pony trekking centre.  It was a family business for 20 years and every member of the Carrel family had worked there in one capacity or another during that time.  Pony trekking was seasonal, so the hotel was open to residents between Easter and October.

In addition to pony trekking, the hotel facilities included table tennis, badminton, a 9 hole putting course and an outdoor swimming pool (unheated, of course, this was the 60s!).  There was just one TV, situated in the TV lounge, and this is where my sister and I had to go as children if we wanted to watch anything (provided the guests wanted to watch the same programme, of course!).  I remember how exiting it was when the black and white TV was replaced with a colour in 1972.

The hotel had 20 guest bedrooms, none en suite but they all had wash basins.  The demand for private bathrooms began in the late 70s but, until then, guests were happy to share one of the 6 bathrooms and 9 toilets available.  If that sounds shocking by today’s standards, I should mention, in the old servant’s wing, where 7 members of my family had initially slept, the bedrooms had washbasins but there was just the one toilet and we didn’t have a bathroom until 1969, so for 6 months of the year we would have to use one of the guest bathrooms on the next floor whenever we wanted a bath!

The hotel was renowned for its excellent food which made it a very popular venue for dinner parties in the winter months.  All meals were freshly prepared and cooked by my mother who was an exceptionally good cook.  Residential guests were served a full English breakfast every morning.  Trekkers had packed lunches consisting of two filled baps, an individual cheese portion, eg Dairylea, chocolate biscuit, eg Kitkat, and a piece of fruit, eg apple which, together with a tinned drink, they collected from the Changing Room before the trek departed.  It’s worth mentioning, with the arrival of our first microwave came cling film and this replaced the use of grease proof paper in the early 70s, which made wrapping baps a doddle!  Tea included cake, usually made by my mother but occasionally ordered in with the bread delivery.  Dinner, served at 7pm, and announced by the huge brass dinner gong next to the Dining Room door, was a four course set menu.  The main course would always include meat, eg roast Welsh lamb, braised Welsh beef, roast pork, etc (vegetarians were almost unheard of but my mother managed to cater for the occasional one we had staying!).  Builth butcher, Abram Davies, delivered the locally produced meat weekly.

Guests particularly enjoyed Pencerrig’s table water which came directly from a spring on Newmead Farm, situated on the West side of Carneddau, overlooking Pencerrig.  This source had been used by the Pencerrig estate for more than a century and there was a large storage tank in the field just above the hotel.  There were only two occasions when water was restricted and that was during the 1976 drought when we didn’t empty the swimming pool for two months, and a few years earlier when a sheep drowned in the Newmead spring!

Until the late 1960s, many guests travelled by train to Builth Road station where someone from the hotel would collect them and take them back the following Saturday.  The hotel waitresses and cleaners, who lived in nearby villages Cwmbach and Builth Road, also relied on hotel transport as few could drive.

Many guests returned each year and some became our friends, even long after the hotel was sold.  Generally, guests always said they felt at home in the clean and comfortable surroundings and they enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere my family had created.  The trekking aspect I will cover in more detail separately but, as with most adventure holidays, a bond grows very quickly among those who participate and pony trekking was enjoyed by all age groups.