T H E D E R E L I C T M I S C E L L A N Y

Trecastle Services
Greystones Motel

Standing by the side of the A40 (T) between Trecastle and Llandovery is a sad, decaying eyesore. No-one seems to know much about Greystones - when it was opened, when it closed or what is going to happen to it now. At one time this motel must have seemed innovative and modern, but now it is just a reminder of a failed architectural fad that most of us would rather forget, its history lost in a chorus of shouts of 'eyesore' and 'tear it down.' Of course, it was not always so, and for some at least, Greystones evokes more positive sentiments, having provided holidays for countless people who otherwise could not have afforded them, a source of local income or even just a stop off on a journey to somewhere more exciting. Even to me, the vandalised services are a prominent landmark on my frequent trips between Sussex and Ceredigion.

The buildings comprise a petrol station, a restaurant (incorporating a house, possibly for the owner or staff) a toilet block and two blocks of en-suite accommodation, rooms 1-10 and 11-20 respectively (superstition seems to have prevented the owners from including a room numbered 13, so there are in fact nineteen, not twenty rooms).

All of the buildings scattered about the site are draughty, damp and unpleasant - I'm told that during the Foot and Mouth Disease Crisis of 2001 Greystones was used as a police base, but when the police left it was taken over by protesters against the burning of infected livestock on the nearby Epynt ranges. Exactly what either party did with it I don't know, but it couldn't have been one of the nicest places to spend one's summer.

Interconnected rooms in the second block.

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