After
a sleep in, showers and breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we packed the car
again and walked the short distance to the Cardiff Castle, where we spent the
morning exploring. We did a guided tour of part of the castle and a self-guided
tour of the rest.
Cardiff Castle
(Welsh: Castell Caerdydd) is a medieval castle and Victorian
Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff. The original
motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders
on top of a 3rd-century Roman Fort. The castle was commissioned by either William
the Conqueror or by Robert Fitzhamon, and formed the heart of the medieval town
of Cardiff and the Marcher Lord territory of Glamorgan. In the 12th century the
castle began to be rebuilt in stone, probably by Robert of Gloucester, with a shell
keep and substantial defensive walls being erected. Further work was conducted
by Richard de Clare in the second half of the 13th century. Cardiff Castle was
repeatedly involved in the conflicts between the Anglo-Normans and the Welsh,
being attacked several times in the 12th century, and stormed in 1404 during
the revolt of Owain Glyndwr. After being held by the de Clare and Despenser
families for several centuries the castle was acquired by Richard de Beauchamp
in 1423. Richard conducted extensive work at the castle, founding the main
range on the west side of the castle, dominated by a tall, octagonal tower.
Following the Wars of the Roses the status of the castle as a Marcher territory
was revoked and its military significance began to decline. The Herbert family
took over the property in 1550, remodelling parts of the main range and
carrying out construction work in the outer bailey, then occupied by Cardiff's
Shire Hall and other buildings. During the English Civil War Cardiff Castle was
initially taken by Parliamentary force, but was regained by Royalist supporters
in 1645. When fighting broke out again in 1648, a Royalist army attacked
Cardiff in a bid to regain the castle, leading to the battle of St Fagans just
outside the city. Cardiff Castle escaped potential destruction by Parliament
after the war and was instead garrisoned to protect against a possible Scottish
invasion. In the mid-18th century, Cardiff Castle passed into the hands of the
Marquesses of Bute, John Stuart, the first Marquess, employed Capability Brown
and Henry Holland to renovate the main range, turning it into a Georgian
mansion, and to landscape the castle grounds, demolishing many of the older
medieval buildings and walls. During the first half of the 19th century the
family became extremely wealthy as a result of the growth of the coal industry
in Glamorgan. The third Marquess, John Crichton-Stuart, used this wealth to
back an extensive programme of renovations under William Burges. Burges
remodelled the castle in a Gothic revival style, lavishing money and attention
on the main range. The resulting interior designs are considered to be amongst
"the most magnificent that the gothic revival ever achieved". The
grounds were re-landscaped and, following the discovery of the old Roman
remains, reconstructed walls and a gatehouse in a Roman style were incorporated
into the castle design. Extensive landscaped parks were built around the
outside of the castle.
In
the early 20th century the fourth Marquess inherited the castle and
construction work continued into the 1920s. The Bute lands and commercial
interests around Cardiff were sold off or nationalised during the period until,
by the time of the Second World War, almost only the castle remained. During
the war, extensive air raid shelters were built in the castle walls, able to
hold up to 1,800 people. When the Marquess died in 1947, the castle was given
to the city of Cardiff.
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| a down pipe on one of the buildings |
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| the banquet hall |
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| one of the bedrooms |
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| the roof top garden |
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| a couple of criminals I saw in the stocks |
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| one of the buildings |
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| the twelve sided keep |
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| that is Keith & Alison up the top |
The
future site of Cardiff Castle was first used by the Romans as a defensive
location for many years. The first fort was probably built about AD 55 and
occupied until AD 80. It was a rectangular structure much larger than the
current site, and formed part of the southern Roman border in Wales during the
conquest of the Silures. When the border advanced, defences became less
important and the fort was replaced with a sequence of two, much smaller,
fortifications on the north side of the current site. A fourth fort was built
in the middle of the 3rd century in order to combat the pirate threat along the
coast, and forms the basis of the Roman remains seen on the castle site. The
fort was almost square in design, approximately 635 feet (194 m) by 603
feet (184 m) large, constructed from limestone brought by sea from Penarth.
The fort's irregular shape was determined by the River Taff that flowed along
the west side of the walls. The sea would have come much closer to the site
than is the case in the 21st century, and the fort would have directly
overlooked the harbour. This Roman fort was probably occupied at least until
the end of the 4th century, but it is unclear when it was finally abandoned.
There is no evidence for the re-occupation of the site until the 11th century. The
Normans began to make incursions into South Wales from the late 1060s onwards,
pushing westwards from their bases in recently occupied England. Their advance
was marked by the construction of castles, frequently on old Roman sites, and
the creation of regional lordships. The reuse of Roman sites produced
considerable savings in the manpower required to construct large earth
fortifications. Cardiff Castle was built during this period. There are two
possible dates for the construction; it is possible that William the Conqueror
built a castle at Cardiff as early as 1081 on his return from his pilgrimage to
St Davids. Alternatively the first Norman fortification may have been
constructed around 1091 by Robert Fitzhamon, the lord of Gloucester. Fitzhamon
invaded the region in 1090, and used the castle as a base for the occupation of
the rest of southern Glamorgan over the next few years. The site was close to
the sea and could be easily supplied by ship, was well protected by the Rivers
Taff and Rhymney and also controlled the old Roman road running along the
coast. Cardiff Castle was a motte and bailey design. The old Roman
walls had collapsed and the Normans used their remains as the basis for the
outer castle perimeter, digging a defensive trench and throwing up a 27-foot
(8.2 m) high bank of earth over the Roman fortifications. The Normans
further divided the castle with an internal wall to form an inner and an outer
bailey. In the north-west corner of the castle a wooden keep was constructed on
top of a 40-foot (12 m) tall earth motte, surrounded by a 30-foot
(9.1 m) wide moat. The motte was the largest built in Wales. The overall
size of the castle was around 8.25 acres (3.34 ha), with the inner bailey
being around 2 acres (0.81 ha) in size. Mills were essential to local
communities during this period, and the castle mill was located outside the
west side of the castle, fed by the River Taff; under local feudal law, the
residents of Cardiff were required to use this mill to grind their own grain. The
conquered lands in Glamorgan were given out in packages called knights' fees,
and many of these knights held their lands on condition that they provided
forces to protect Cardiff Castle. Under this approach, called a castle-guard
system, some knights were required to maintain buildings called
"houses" within the castle itself, in the outer bailey. Anglo-Saxon
peasants settled the region around Cardiff, bringing with them English customs,
although Welsh lords continued to rule the more remote districts almost
independently until the 14th century. Cardiff Castle was a Marcher Lord
territory, enjoying special privileges and independence from the English Crown.
The medieval town of Cardiff spread out from the south side of the castle. FitzHamon
was fatally injured at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106 and died shortly
afterwards. Henry1 then gave the castle to Robert of Gloucester in 1122, the
king's illegitimate son and the husband of FitzHamon's daughter, Mabe. After
the failed attempt of Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, William the
Conqueror's eldest son, to take England from Henry I, Robert of Normandy was
imprisoned in the castle until his death in 1134. Robert held the castle during
the troubled years of the Anarchy in England and Wales and passed it on to his
son, William Fitz Robert Around the middle of the century, possibly under
Robert of Gloucester, a 77-foot (23 m) wide, 30-foot (9.1 m) high shell
keep was constructed on top of the motte, along with a stone wall around the
south and west sides Arundel Castle. The building work was probably undertaken
in response to the threat posed following the Welsh uprising of 1136. Tensions
with the Welsh continued, and in 1158 Ifor Bach raided the castle and took
William hostage for a period. A further attack followed in 1183. By 1184 town
walls had been built around Cardiff, and the West Gate to the town was
constructed in the gap between the castle and the river. William died in 1183,
leaving three daughters, one of whom, Isabel, Countess of Gloucester was
declared the sole heir to the estate by Henry 11. This was contrary to normal
legal custom in England, and was done in order that Henry could then marry her
to his youngest son Prince John and thus provide him with extensive lands. John
later divorced Isabel, but he retained control of the castle until she married Geoffrey
de Mandeville in 1214. Upon Isabel's death in 1217 the castle passed through
her sister to Gilbert de Clare, becoming part of the Honour of Clare, an major
grouping of estates and fortifications in medieval England. The castle formed
the centre of the family's power in South Wales, although the de Clares
typically preferred to reside in their castles at Clare and Tonbridge. Gilbert's son, Richard, carried out building
work at the castle in the late 13th century, constructing the Black Tower that
forms part of the southern gateway seen today. On the ground floor the tower
contained the Stvell Oged and Stavell Wenn chambers, with three rooms
constructed above them. Richard was also probably responsible for rebuilding
the northern and eastern walls of the inner bailey in stone. The inner bailey
was reached through a gatehouse on the eastern side, protected by two circular
towers and later called the Exchequer Gate. The defensive work may have been
prompted by the threat posed by the hostile Welsh leader Llywelyn the Last. Richard's
grandson, Gilbert de Clare, the last male de Clare, died at the battle of
Bannockburn in 1314 and the castle was given to Hugh Despenser the Younger, the
controversial favourite of Edward 11. Poor harvests and harsh governance by the
Despenser family encouraged a Welsh rebellion under Llywelyn Bren in 1316; this
was crushed and Llywelyn was hung, drawn and quartered in Cardiff Castle in
1318 on Hugh's orders. The
execution attracted much criticism from across both the English and Welsh
communities, and in 1321 Hugh arrested Sir William Fleminge as a scapegoat for
the incident, first detaining him in the Black Tower and then executing him in
the castle grounds. Conflict between the Despensers and the other Marcher Lords
broke out soon after, leading to the castle being sacked in 1321 during the Despenser
War. The Despensers recovered the castle and retained it for the rest of the
century, despite the execution of Hugh Despenser for treason in 1326. Under a
1340 charter granted by the Despensers, the castle's constable was made the de
facto mayor of Cardiff, controlling the local courts. By the
15th century, the Despensers were increasingly using Caerphilly Castle as their
main residence in the region rather than Cardiff. Thomas Le Despenser was
executed in 1400 on charges of conspiring against Henry 1V. In 1401 rebellion
broke out in North Wales under the leadership of Owain Glyndwr, quickly
spreading across the rest of the country. In 1404 Cardiff and the castle were
taken by the rebels, causing considerable damage to the Black Tower and the
southern gatehouse in the process. On Thomas's death the castle passed first to
his young son, Richard, and on his death in 1414, through his daughter Isabel
to the Beauchamp family. Isabel first married Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl of
Worcester and then, on his death, to his cousin Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl
of Warwick, in 1423. Richard did not acquire Caerphilly Castle as part of the
marriage settlement, so he set about redeveloping Cardiff instead. He built a
new tower alongside the Black Tower in 1430, restoring the gateway, and
extended the motte defences. He also constructed a substantial new domestic
range in the south-west of the site between 1425 and 1439, with a central
octagonal tower 75-foot (23 m) high, sporting defensive machicolations,
and featuring four smaller polygonal turrets facing the inner bailey. The range
was built of Lias ashlar stone with limestone used for some of the details, set
upon the spur bases characteristic of South Wales and incorporated parts of the
older 4th and 13th century walls. The buildings were influenced by similar work
in the previous century at Windsor
Castle and would in turn shape renovations at Newport and Nottingham Castles;
the octagonal tower has architectural links to Guy's Tower, built at around the
same time in Warwick Castle. A flower garden was built to the south of the
range, with private access to Richard's chambers. Richard also rebuilt the
town's wider defences, including a new stone bridge over the River Taff guarded
by the West Gate, finishing the work by 1451. Cardiff Castle remained in the
hands of Richard's son, Henry and Henry's daughter, Anne until 1449. When Anne
died, it passed by marriage to Richard Neville, who held it until his death in
1471 during the period of civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses. As the
conflict progressed and political fortunes rose and fell, the castle passed
from George, the Duke of Clarence, to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to Jasper
Tudor, the Duke of Bedford, back to Richard Neville's wife Anne, back to Jasper
and finally to Prince Henry, the future Henry VIII. The ascension of the Tudor
dynasty to the English throne at the end of the wars heralded a change in the
way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule
eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result defensive castles
became less important. In 1495 Henry VII formally revoked the Marcher territory
status of Cardiff Castle and the surrounding territories, bringing them under
normal English law as the County of Glamorgan. The Crown leased the castle to Charles
Somerset in 1513; Charles used it while he was living in Cardiff. In 1550 William
Herbert, later the Earl of Pembroke, then bought Cardiff Castle and the
surrounding estates from Edward VI. The outer bailey contained a range of
buildings at this time, and extensive building work was carried out during the
century. The Shire Hall had been built in the outer bailey, forming part of a
walled complex of buildings that included the lodgings for the traditional
twelve holders of castle-guard lands. The outer bailey also included orchards,
gardens and a chapel. The castle continued to be used to detain criminals
during the 16th century, with the Black Tower being used as a prison to hold
them; the heretic Thomas Capper was burnt at the castle on the orders of Henry
VIII. The visiting antiquarian John Leland described the keep as "a great
thing and strong, but now in some ruine", but the Black Tower was
considered to be in good repair. In the inner bailey, the Herberts built an
Elizabethan extension to the north end of the main range, with large windows
looking onto a new northern garden; the southern garden was replaced by a
kitchen garden. In 1610 the cartographer John Speed produced a map of the
castle, and noted that it was "large and in good repair." In 1642,
however, civil war broke out between the rival Royalist supporters of King Charles
I and Parliament. Cardiff Castle was then owned by Philip Herbert, a moderate
Parliamentarian, and the castle was initially held by a pro-Royalist garrison.
It was taken by Parliamentary forces in the early period of the war, according
to popular tradition by a sneak attack using a secret passageway. The Royalist
commander William Seymour, the Marquess of Hertford, then attacked the castle
in turn, taking it in a surprise assault. Parliamentary forces and local troops
then immediately besieged the castle, retaking it after five hours of fighting
and reinstalling a garrison. In early 1645 Mr Carne, the High Sheriff, rebelled
against Parliament, taking Cardiff town but initially failing to seize the
castle. The King sent forces from Oxford, under the command of Sir Charles
Kemys, to reinforce Carne but Parliament despatched a naval squadron to provide
support to their forces from the sea. A small battle ensued before
the castle was taken by the Royalists. With the Royalist military position
across the country worsening, King Charles himself came to Cardiff Castle that
July to meet with local Welsh leaders. Relations between his commander in the
region, Sir Charles Gerard, and the people of Glamorgan had deteriorated badly
and when Charles left the castle, he was confronted by a small army of angry
locals, demanding to be given control of the castle. These clubmen then
declared themselves the "Peaceable Army" and increased their demands
to include near independence for the region. After negotiations, a compromise
was found in which the royal garrison would quit the castle, to be replaced by
a local Glamorgan force, commanded by Sir Richard Beaupré; in return, £800 and
a force of a thousand men were promised to Charles. In September, Charles
returned to South Wales and reneged on the agreement, disbanding the Peaceable
Army, but his military position in the region was collapsing. The Peaceable
Army's leaders switched sides and forced the surrender of Cardiff and the
castle to Parliament in mid-September. With the outbreak of fresh fighting in
1648, a Royalist army of 8,000 fresh recruits was mustered under the command of
General Rowland Laugharne and Sir Edward Stradling and, with the intent of
retaking Cardiff. Parliamentary forces in Brecon under the command of Colonel Thomas
Horton moved quickly to reinforce the castle, although with only 3,000 men they
were content to wait until a larger army under Oliver Cromwell could arrive
from Gloucester. With time against them, the Royalist army attacked, leading to
the battle of St Fagans just to the west of Cardiff, and a heavy Royalist
defeat. After the war, Cardiff Castle escaped the slighting, or deliberate
damage and destruction, that affected many other castles. Probably because of
the threat of a pro-Royalist invasion by the Presbyterian Scots, a
Parliamentary garrison was installed instead and the castle remained intact.
The Herberts continued to own the castle as the Earls of Pembroke, both during
the interregnum and after the restoration of Charles II. The castle's constable
continued to act as mayor of the town of Cardiff, controlling the meetings of
the town's burgesses, bailiffs and aldermen; the Herberts usually appointed
members of the more important local gentry to this position during the period. Lady
Charlotte Herbert was the last of the family to control Cardiff Castle. She
married twice, latterly to Thomas, Viscount Windsor and on her death in 1733
the castle passed to their son, Herbert. Herbert's daughter, Charlotte Jane
Windsor, married John Stuart, who rose to become the Marquess of Bute,
beginning a family line that would control the castle for the next century.
In 1776 the Marquess began to renovate the property with the intention of
turning it into a residence for his son, John. The grounds were radically
altered under a programme of work that involved Capability Brown and his
son-in-law, Henry Holland. The stone wall that separated the inner and outer
baileys was destroyed using gunpowder, the Shire Hall and the knights' houses
in the outer bailey were destroyed and the remaining ground partially
flattened; the whole of the area was laid with turf. Considerable work was
carried out on the main lodgings, demolishing the Herbert additions, building
two new wings and removing many of the older features to produce a more
contemporary, 18th century appearance. The keep and motte was stripped of the ivy
and trees that had grown up them, and a spiral path was laid down around the
motte. The motte's moat was filled in as part of the landscaping. A summer
house was built in the south-east corner of the castle. Further work was
planned on the property, including a reported proposal to roof the keep in copper,
insert new windows and turn it into an assembly room for dances, but these
projects were cut short by the Marquess's son's death in 1794. In 1814 Lord
Bute's grandson, John., inherited his title and the castle. In 1825 the new
Marquess began a sequence of investments in the Cardiff Docks, an expensive
programme of work that would enable Cardiff to become a major coal exporting
port. Although the Docks were not particularly profitable, they transformed the
value of the Butes' mining and land interests, making the family immensely
wealthy. By 1900, the family estate owned 22,000 acres (8,900 ha) of land
in Glamorgan. The
second Marquess preferred to live on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and only used
Cardiff Castle occasionally. The castle saw little investment and only four
full-time servants were maintained on the premises, meaning that cooked food
had to be brought across from the kitchens at a nearby hotel. The castle
remained at the centre of the Butes' political power base in Cardiff, however,
with their faction sometimes termed as "the Castle party". During the
violent protests of the Merthyr Rising of 1831, the Marquess based himself at
Cardiff Castle, from where he directed operations and kept Whitehall informed
of the unfolding events. The governance of the city of Cardiff was finally
reformed by an act of Parliament in the 1835, introducing a town council and a
mayor, severing the link with the castle constable. The third Marquess of Bute,
again called John, inherited the title and castle in 1848. He was then less
than a year old, and as he grew up he came to despise the existing castle,
believing that it represented a mediocre, half-hearted example of the Gothic
style. Bute engaged the architect William Burgess, to undertake the remodelling
of the castle. The two shared a passion in medieval Gothic Revivalism and this,
combined with Bute's huge financial resources, enabled Burges to rebuild the
property on a grand scale. Burges brought with him almost of all of the team
that had supported him on earlier projects, including John Staring Chapple,
William Frame and Horatio Lonsdale. Burges's contribution, in particular his
research into the history of the castle and his architectural imagination, was
critical to the transformation. Work began on Bute's coming of age in 1868 with
the construction of the 150-foot (46 m) high Clock Tower. The tower, built
in Burges's signature Forest of Dean ashlar stone, formed a suite of bachelor's
rooms, comprising a bedroom, a servant's room and the Summer and Winter smoking
rooms. Externally, the tower was a re-working of a design Burges had previously
used in an unsuccessful competition entry for the Royal Courts of Justice in
London. Internally, the rooms were sumptuously decorated with gildings,
carvings and cartoons, many allegorical in style, depicting the seasons, myths
and fables. The Summer Smoking Room rested at the top of the structure and was
two storeys high with an internal balcony that, through an unbroken band of
windows, gave views of the Cardiff Docks, the Bristol Channel, and the
Glamorgan countryside. The floor had a map of the world in mosaic. The
sculpture was created by Thomas Nicholls. As the rest of the castle was
developed, work progressed along the rest of the 18th century range including
the construction of the Guest Tower, the Arab Room, the Chaucer Room, the
Nursery, the Library, the Banqueting Hall and bedrooms for both Lord and Lady
Bute. In plan, the new castle followed the arrangement of a standard Victorian
country house quite closely. The Bute Tower included Lord Bute's bedroom and
ended in another highlight, the Roof Garden, featuring a sculpture of the Madonna
and child by Ceccardo Fucigna. Bute's bedroom contained extensive religious
iconography and an en-suite bathroom. The Octagon Tower followed, including an
oratory, built on the spot where Bute's father died, and the Chaucer Room, the
roof of which is considered by historian Mark Girouard to be a "superb
example of Burges's genius". The central part of the castle
comprised a two-storey banqueting hall, with the library below. Both are
enormous, the latter to hold part of the bibliophile Marquess's vast library.
Both included elaborate carvings and fireplaces, those in the banqueting hall
depicting the castle itself in the time of Robert, Duke of Normandy. The
decoration here is less impressive than elsewhere in the castle, as much of it
was completed after Burges's death by Lonsdale, a less talented painter. The
Arab Room in the Herbert Tower remains however one of Burges's masterpieces.
Its jelly mould ceiling in a Moorish style is particularly notable. It was this
room on which Burges was working when he died and Bute placed Burges's
initials, and his own, and the date 1881 in the fireplace as a memorial. The
central portion of the castle also included the Grand Staircase, recorded in a
watercolour perspective prepared by Axel Haig. Burges's interiors at Cardiff
Castle have been widely praised. The historian Megan Aldrich considers them
amongst "the most magnificent that the gothic revival ever achieved",
J. Mordaunt Crook has described them as "three dimensional passports to
fairy kingdoms and realms of gold", and John Newman praises them as
"most successful of all the fantasy castles of the nineteenth
century." The exterior of the castle, however, has received a more mixed
reception from critics. Crook admires the variegated and romantic silhouette of
the building, but architect John Grant considered them to present a
"picturesque if not happy combination" of varying historical styles,
and Adrian Pettifer criticises them as "incongruous" and excessively
Gothic in style.
Work
was also carried out on the castle grounds, the interior being flattened
further, destroying much of the medieval and Roman archaeological remains. In
1889, Lord Bute's building works uncovered the remains of the old Roman fort
for the first time since the 11th century, leading to archaeological
investigations being carried out in 1890. New walls in a Roman style were built
by William Frame on the foundations of the originals, complete with a
reconstructed Roman North Gate, and the outer medieval bank was stripped away
around the new walls. The grounds were extensively planted with trees and
shrubs, including over the motte. From the late 18th century until the 1850s
the castle grounds were completely open to the public, but restrictions were
imposed in 1858 and as a replacement the 434 acres of land to the west and
north of the castle was turned into Bute Park. From 1868, the castle grounds
were closed to the public altogether. Stables were built just to the north of
the castle, but only half were completed during the 19th century. The Animal
Wall was built along the south side of the castle, decorated with statues of
animals, and the Swiss Bridge – a combination of summerhouse and river-crossing
– was erected over the river by the West Gate. Cathays Park was built on the
east side of the castle, but was sold to the city of Cardiff in 1898. John, the fourth Marquess, acquired the castle
in 1900 on the death of his father, and the family estates and investments
around the castle began to rapidly reduce in size. Cardiff had grown hugely in
the previous century, its population increasing from 1,870 in 1800 to around
250,000 in 1900, but the coal trade began to diminish after 1918 and industry
suffered during the depression of the 1920s. John only inherited a part of the
Butes' Glamorgan estates, and in the first decades of the 20th century he sold
off much of the remaining assets around Cardiff, including the coal mines,
docks and railway companies, with the bulk of the land interests being finally
sold off or nationalised in 1938. Development work on the castle continued.
There was extensive restoration of the medieval masonry in 1921, with architect
John Grant rebuilding the South Gate and the barbican tower, and reconstructing
the medieval West Gate and town wall alongside the castle, with the Swiss
Bridge being moved in 1927 to make room for the new West Gate development.
Further archaeological investigations were carried out into the Roman walls in
1922 and 1923, leading to Grant redesigning the northern Roman gatehouse. The
second half of the castle stables was finally completed. The Animal Wall was
moved in the 1920s to the west side of the castle to enclose a pre-Raphaelite
themed garden. The grand staircase in the main range was torn out in the 1930s.
During World War II, extensive air-raid shelters were tunnelled out within the
medieval walls, with eight different sections, able to hold up to 1,800 people
in total, and the castle was also used to tether barrage balloons above the
city. In 1947, John, the fifth Marquess, inherited the castle on the death of
his father and faced considerable death duties. He sold the very last of the
Bute lands in Cardiff and gave the castle and the surrounding park to the city.
After
a couple of hours as the castle, we finished off with lunch in the café before
we left Cardiff for our journey north to LLandinum and our “home” at Broneirion
Lodge for the next week. Most of the drive was in cloud and misty rain. We
arrived at Broneirion Lodge at around 3.30pm after stopping at Brecon to do
some grocery shopping. At first we drove past the lodge (following the
directions we had been sent) but soon found out where we were meant to be.
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| the lodge from just down the road |
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| the lodge |
Broneirion
is a Victorian house and grounds on the hillside across the River Severn from
the village of Llandinam. It was built by Welsh industrialist David Davies. It
has been used as a training centre for Girl Guides since 1946 and has been
owned by Girlguiding Cymru since 1992. The house is built in the italianate
style and is set in four and a half acres. The roof is Welsh slate. In November
1996, Broneirion House, Coach House, and the Lodge all became Grade II listed
buildings. The bridge from the main road towards Broneirion was the first iron
bridge constructed in Montgomeryshire, designed by Thomas Penson and built by
Davies. It spans 90 feet (27.5 m). David Davies and his son, Edward, both died
in 1944. Edward's widow, Lady Davies, was a supporter of Guiding. Her friend,
Heather Kay was enthusiastic for a training centre for Welsh Guides, so Lady
Davies offered Broneirion for this purpose. Broneirion became the Welsh
Training Centre for the Girl Guide Association in 1946 and was opened by the
World Chief Guide, Olave Baden-Powell, in 1947. In 1992 it became the property
of Girlguiding Cymru after a campaign that raised £510,000 for the purchase and
an endowment fund.
The
lodge looks beautiful from the outside and there is a fabulous view around. We
are not far from the local village. After settling into the lodge and
unpacking, I cooked chicken and vegies for dinner, and then we relaxed in front
of the TV. We are happy to be at Broneirion Lodge.
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