About
The Wyndham Arms Hotel and public house is a Grade II Listed Building. It was a coaching inn from 1792 and there is evidence that the property incorporates parts of an older structure. The building was not only used for coaches but also as a courthouse and a jail. It takes its name from the Wyndham family who hailed from Norfolk (their family estate was known as Wymondham) and who took residence in Dunraven Castle, Southerndown, in 1642. They became a prominent and influential family, producing two Members of Parliament for the region (Thomas Wyndham MP from 1789 to 1814 and Edwin Wyndham-Quin MP 1837 to 1851). The family formed an alliance through marriage (between Windham Henry Quin and Caroline Wyndham in 1810) to the Earls of Dunraven (and Mount-Earl in Ireland).
The Wyndham Arms Hotel is a Georgian style building, with an unusual shape that encompasses the corner position between Dunraven Place, Elder Street and Cross Street. The building has several distinctive design elements including the curved wall on Dunraven Place and the main entrance / porch area to the building. This is Tuscan in style with two pilasters on either side of the door with a white palisade wall above forming a curved balcony. It was here, at one time (the date of which is unknown), that election results were read out. The Wyndham Arms Hotel was, and still is, a popular meeting place for local groups and societies in Bridgend.
