A BLACKWOOD manor house with links with the buccaneering Morgan family of Tredegar has been put up for sale.

Penllywn Manor in Pontllanfraith was built in the 16th century by Thomas Morgan of Machen.

And it was a home to Henry Morgan, before he travelled to the Caribbean in the 1650s and became one of the most famous privateers in history for raiding Spanish settlements.

He has been used as the inspiration for Hollywood blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean and was sometimes known as Blackbeard.

The Morgan family also has links to Tredegar House in Newport.

The manor house has been a convent, a welfare clinic and was until recently a pub and a restaurant, the Penllywn Arms.

The property is made out of solid stone and retains many of its original features such as fireplaces and an original A-frame roof with original beams.

It is up for sale for £225,000 and also comes with an acre of land.

Brinsons, who are acting as the property’s estate agents, said that the size of the building and history were proving an appealing draw for potential buyers.

Dan Jones, who works for Brinsons, said: “This is a unique property, steeped in history. Blackwood has not seen the sale of such a historic property since Maes Manor.

Henry Morgan was a particularly active privateer along the Spanish Main coast, which includes modern day Florida, the western shore of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Mexico and central America.

But he was aware of his reputation too. He successfully sued two authors who wrote of his ruthlessness.

That reputation has been portrayed in Hollywood films. Errol Flynn played Henry Morgan in the 1935 film Captain Blood which was adapted from Rafael Sabatini’s novel of the same name.

And Morgan is mentioned in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End as a pirate who had created the Brethen Court’s Pirate’s Code.