Gwydir Castle
Encyclopedia
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
, a mile to the west of the ancient market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Llanrwst
Llanrwst
Llanrwst is a small town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It takes its name from the 5th century to 6th century Saint Grwst, and the original parish church in Cae Llan was replaced by the 12th-century church....
and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the south of the large village of Trefriw
Trefriw
Trefriw is a village in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It lies on the river Conwy in North Wales, a few miles south of the site of the Roman fort of Canovium, sited at Caerhun. The parish population in 2001 was 924....
. A fine example of a fortified manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
dating back to c1500, it is located on the edge of the floodplain of the river Conwy
River Conwy
The River Conwy is a river in north Wales. From its source to its discharge in Conwy Bay it is a little over long. "Conwy" is sometimes Anglicized as "Conway."...
, and overlooked from the west by the now-forested slopes of Gwydir Forest
Gwydir Forest
Gwydir Forest, also spelled Gwydyr, is located in Conwy county borough and the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. It takes its name from the ancient Gwydir Estate, established by the John Wynn family of Gwydir Castle, which owned this area....
.
History
There has been a fortification of some sort on the site since AD 600, and in the Dark Ages a large number of skirmishes were fought in this area between the various rival Welsh princes and their forces, the most significant being in 610 and 954.By the 14th century some form of manorial house had evolved, and the first recorded owner was Howell ap Coetmor, who fought in the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
and was a commander of longbow
Longbow
A longbow is a type of bow that is tall ; this will allow its user a fairly long draw, at least to the jaw....
men under Edward, the Black Prince
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England....
at the Battle of Poitiers
Battle of Poitiers (1356)
The Battle of Poitiers was fought between the Kingdoms of England and France on 19 September 1356 near Poitiers, resulting in the second of the three great English victories of the Hundred Years' War: Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt....
in 1356.
Gwydir became the ancestral home of the powerful Wynn
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet , Welsh baronet, Member of Parliament and antiquary, was the son of Morys Wynn ap John. He claimed to be directly descended from the princes of Gwynedd through Rhodri ab Owain son of Owain Gwynedd. However, this claim is disputed in a publication of 1884 entitled...
family, descended from the Kings of Gwynedd, and one of the most significant families of North Wales during the Tudor
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
and Stuart
Stuart period
The Stuart period of English and British history refers to the period between 1603 and 1714, while in Scotland it begins in 1371. These dates coincide with the rule of the Scottish royal House of Stuart, whose first monarch to rule England was James I & VI...
periods.
Following the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
the castle was rebuilt by Meredith ap Ieuan ap Robert, the founder of the Wynn dynasty. The house incorporated re-used mediaeval material from the dissolved Abbey of Maenan. The square turret at the rear of the Solar Tower contains a spiral staircase taken from the Abbey and many elaborately carved stones can also be seen. The turret was added around 1540 and Sir John Wynn
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet , Welsh baronet, Member of Parliament and antiquary, was the son of Morys Wynn ap John. He claimed to be directly descended from the princes of Gwynedd through Rhodri ab Owain son of Owain Gwynedd. However, this claim is disputed in a publication of 1884 entitled...
's initials can be seen above the main entrance in the courtyard gatehouse along with the date of 1555. The surviving buildings date from around the year 1500, and there were alterations and additions in c1540, c1600 and c1828, the latter after Lord Willoughby had done a fair bit of demolishing in c1819.
Although called a castle, it is a fine example of a Tudor architecture
Tudor architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
courtyard house or fortified manor house, rather than a traditional castle, such as those built in North Wales by Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great , full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales...
and Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
.
Gwydir was home to Katheryn of Berain
Katheryn of Berain
Katheryn of Berain , sometimes called Mam Cymru , was a Welsh noblewoman noted for her four marriages and her extensive network of descendants and relations.-Family:...
. King Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
is said to have visited Gwydir in 1645 as the guest of Sir Richard Wynn, 2nd Baronet
Sir Richard Wynn, 2nd Baronet
Sir Richard Wynn, 2nd Baronet was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1649....
, Treasurer to Queen Henrietta Maria, and Groom of the Royal Bed Chamber.
More recently King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
stayed here as the Duke and Duchess of York, in April 1899.
The Gwydir Estate
During the 16th and 17th centuries the Gwydir Estate under the Wynn family dominated North Wales, and at the centre of this huge Estate, Gwydir itself stood in a deer park of some 36000 acres (145.7 km²). In 1678 it passed by marriage to the Barons Willoughby de EresbyBaron Willoughby de Eresby
Baron Willoughby de Eresby is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ in 1313 for Robert de Willoughby of Eresby Manor, near Spilsby, Lincolnshire. The fourteenth Baron was created Earl of Lindsey in 1626. His great-grandson, the fourth Earl and seventeenth Baron, was created...
, based in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
(and from 1892 also to the Earls of Ancaster
Gilbert Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 1st Earl of Ancaster
Sir Gilbert Henry Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 6th Baronet, 1st Earl of Ancaster PC , known as 2nd Baron Aveland from 1867 to 1888 and as 25th Baron Willoughby de Eresby from 1888 to 1892, was a British Liberal politician and court official.Born Gilbert Henry Heathcote, he was the son of Gilbert...
). The 18th century consequently saw a period of some neglect, and by the early 19th century the Estate largely comprised the parishes of Dolwyddelan
Dolwyddelan
Dolwyddelan, Welsh language : 'the meadow of Gwyddelan', is a village and community in Conwy county borough, north Wales, on the main A470 road between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Betws-y-Coed...
(where the Wynns also had an ancestral home), Llanrhychwyn
Llanrhychwyn
LlanrhychwynConwyLlanrhychwyn is a hamlet in Conwy county borough, Wales. It lies in the Conwy valley in North Wales, less than a mile south of Trefriw, and a mile north-west of Llanrwst...
, Trefriw, and Gwydir, totalling some 55 square miles (142.4 km²). This land, however, was mostly mountainous and of poor quality, and although there were some 30 slate mines on the land, of varying sizes, this slate was not of a particularly good standard, much of it more suited to slabs than roofing slate. Nor was production high, and the output of all the quarries over the 150 years of their existence totalled, for instance, just two years' worth of output from the Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It has a population of 5,000, including Llan Ffestiniog, which makes it the third largest town in Gwynedd, behind Caernarfon & Porthmadog. Although the population reached 12,000 at the peak of the slate industry, the population fell due to...
quarries. Prior to the arrival of the railway in the 1860s, most slate was carried by cart to the quays at Trefriw. The Estate also owned a number of mineral mines, mostly in the area of today's Gwydir Forest
Gwydir Forest
Gwydir Forest, also spelled Gwydyr, is located in Conwy county borough and the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. It takes its name from the ancient Gwydir Estate, established by the John Wynn family of Gwydir Castle, which owned this area....
.
Much of the Estate was, however, under continuous mortgage, and in 1894 Dolwyddelan was sold off, followed in the next two years by most of Llanrhychwyn and Trefriw. The sale of the house in 1921 by the Earl of Carrington saw it passing out of inherited ownership for the first time in over 400 years, and virtually all other lands were subsequently sold off. Today the Estate comprises just the 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) in which Gwydir Castle sits.
The 20th Century
In 1921 the castle was desecrated. The 1640s panelled main dining room was totally stripped, the carved and gilded panelling being bought at auction by William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
, the American press baron. On his death, the panels were inherited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
and until recently languished in storage. The new owners of Gwydir succeeded in tracing these long lost panels and negotiated with the museum, which generously allowed their return to Wales. They have been carefully replaced in their original setting, and the restored dining room was recently re-opened in 1998 at a ceremony attended by the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
.
In 1922 a fire broke out and gutted the Solar Tower, leaving it roofless. A subsequent fire in the West Wing made the place untenable, and it was abandoned, remaining unoccupied until 1944. In this year it was bought by Arthur Clegg, a retired bank manager, who, together with his wife and son, started a 20 year programme of renovation.
The castle is now privately owned by Peter Welford of Eltham, London, and his wife, Judy Corbett, of Tremeirchion, North Wales. They purchased the castle in 1994 for £180,000, moving into a centrally-heated flat in part of the building. They then began a programme of conservation with authenticity as the main consideration. A romanticised version of this recent story is told in Judy Corbett's book Castles in the Air http://www.gwydircastle.co.uk/castlesintheair.htm.
The Gardens
The castle is set within a Grade 1 listed, 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) garden, which contains some ancient cedars — one of which was planted in 1625 to commemorate the wedding of King Charles I to Queen Henrietta MariaHenrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
. One yew tree, known as the "Lovers Tree" or "Giant Yew", is estimated to be between 600 and 1000 years old, and therefore pre-dates the castle itself.
The raised terrace contains an imposing Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
arch, probably dating from the 1590s.
The Old Dutch garden
Dutch garden
The Dutch garden is distinguished by its dense atmosphere and efficient use of space. On an international level, a garden with tulips is also easily labelled as a Dutch Garden....
contains ancient yew
Taxus
Taxus is a genus of yews, small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m...
topiary
Topiary
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be...
and an octagonal fountain.
The Royal and Statesman's gardens contain Welsh Oaks planted during the royal visit of 1899, and in 1911.
An Elizabethan causeway called the Chinese Walk runs across the felds to the River Conwy, where the remains of the Gwydir Quay can be seen. The river Conwy is tidal up to this point.
Ghosts
The castle has the reputation for being one of the most haunted houses in Wales, the "Grey Lady" being the most commonly seen, together with the ghost of a monk said to have been trapped in a tunnel leading from the secret room, and Sir John Wynn himself. Many local people will testify to having seen ghosts in the castle..Gwydir Uchaf Chapel
Gwydir Uchaf Chapel, in the woods above Gwydir Castle, was built in 1673 by Sir Richard Wynn as a family memorial chapel for the Wynns of Gwydir. The simple exterior provides a direct contrast with its beautifully painted ceiling, depicting the Creation, the TrinityTrinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
and the Last Judgement.
This chapel should not be confused with the one adjoining Llanrwst
Llanrwst
Llanrwst is a small town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It takes its name from the 5th century to 6th century Saint Grwst, and the original parish church in Cae Llan was replaced by the 12th-century church....
Church, called Gwydir Chapel. (This was built in 1633 by an earlier Sir Richard Wynn, and is said to have been designed by Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
. It has elaborate wood panelling, several family tombs and a stone coffin said to be that of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, moved from Maenan Abbey at the Dissolution.) The chapel is still owned by the Willoughby family who were the hereditary owners of Gwydir Castle. It is now managed by Cadw.