Margam Castle
| Margam Castle | |
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 South facade of Margam Castle |
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| Creation time : | 1830-1840 |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 33 '45.7 " N , 3 ° 43' 32.2" W |
Margam Castle is a manor house in Neath Port Talbot in Wales .
The mansion, classified as a Grade I cultural monument, is located five kilometers southeast of the city of Port Talbot and about 300 m east of the medieval former Margam Abbey . The park surrounding the mansion serves as Margam Country Park as a local recreation area .
history
The former Cistercian Abbey Margam Abbey had been owned by the Mansel family since 1537 . A 16th century mansion was demolished in the 1780s by Thomas Mansel Talbot as he had Penrice Castle built on the Gower Peninsula as a new residence. Instead of the old manor house, he had a magnificent orangery with an adjoining garden built in Margam from 1787 to 1793 based on plans by Anthony Keck . During his visit to Margam, he stayed at the Margam Lodge to the southwest .
His son Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot planned to build a new mansion in Margam from the 1820s. He was inspired by Lacock Abbey , the seat of his cousin William Henry Fox Talbot , and by the seat of his mother's family, Melbury House in Dorset , which has an octagonal tower. The new mansion was designed by the architect Thomas Hopper and built from 1830. In addition to Hopper, the architect Edward Haycock , a student of Jeffry Wyatville , was involved in the designs for the facade, interior and outbuildings. The exterior was completed around 1836, the lavish and magnificent interior was completed in 1840. The total cost of the mansion to build was £ 50,000.
Margam Abbey became a glamorous meeting place for Victorian society . Talbot's cousin, William Henry Fox Talbot, who was a frequent guest, was one of the first photographs to show the corner of the southwest facade. The guests also included the Prince of Wales , who later became King Edward VII , and his wife Alexandra , who visited the manor on October 17, 1881. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot died in 1890. His unmarried daughter Emily Talbot inherited Margam and Penrice; in Margam she had some minor alterations and renovations carried out. Even under her, the mansion remained a meeting place for Edwardian society . After her death in 1918, her nephew Andrew Mansel Talbot Fletcher Margam inherited . He and his family lived in the house in the summer and often opened the park to the public and for garden parties. Fletcher supported several expeditions of Frank Kingdon-Ward , who in return brought exotic rhododendrons and other plants back from his travels for the park.
After the outbreak of World War II, the mansion was partially confiscated by the army in 1939. In a massive auction organized by Christie’s from October 27 to 30, 1941, Fletcher had the manor house furnished - furniture, silver, porcelain, books, tapestries and the collection of paintings with works by Dell'Abbate , Rembrandt , Canaletto , Gentileschi and the Auction the original plans of the house. From then on he lived with his family on his Scottish property Saltoun Hall , in 1942 he sold Margam to the brewery owner David Evans-Bevan . British and American troops stayed in the mansion until the end of the war, but even after the war, Evans-Bevan never lived in the empty, cleared mansion, which slowly fell into disrepair and was a target of burglars and vandalism. In 1973 Glamorgan County Council purchased the mansion and park. First, work was carried out in the park, securing the Georgian orangery and renovating the stables. In June 1977 a small showroom was opened. Initial clean-up work had begun in the manor house when the interior burned out on August 4, 1977. An extensive restoration and renovation program started, but the renovation progressed slowly due to tight finances and has not yet been completed. As a result of an administrative reform, the mansion has been owned by the Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council since April 1996 .
The park is open to the public as Margam Country Park . In summer, the large staircase and some rooms on the ground floor of the manor house can be viewed, the country park visitor center is located in the outbuildings. The north wing serves as a guest house for school classes of the Field Studies Council .
investment
Mansion
The manor house is located east of the former monastery church at the foot of a wooded hill with the Iron Age hill fort Mynydd-y-Castell . The manor house, which faces west to east, was built around an inner courtyard on an irregular floor plan. The main house of the extensive complex is crowned by a four-storey octagonal tower, to the east of the main house are the farm buildings built around two inner courtyards, followed by the stables. The house has a magnificent neo- Tudor-style sandstone facade adorned with coats of arms and sculptures . Above the two main floors is an attic with numerous bay windows, gables, battlements, turrets and chimneys, the angled roof is covered with lead and slate.
In the south and west, the manor house is surrounded by a terrace with formally laid out flower beds, the main portal emphasized by a two-storey, gabled porch is located in the north of the complex.
Orangery
The orangery is located 50 m south of the medieval monastery church. At almost 100 m in length, it is the longest orangery in Great Britain. The south facade has 27 arched windows, to the west is the former library pavilion, the simpler east pavilion accommodated the Talbots' sculpture collection. After the 1942 auction, only an ancient sculpture of Emperor Lucius Verus remained in the room. The old orange trees froze during World War II when the building was confiscated by the military and the trees could not be brought in during winter. The orangery was renovated in the 1970s and reopened in June 1977 by Elizabeth II with new lemon trees. The elongated, but only 9 m wide building is partly used as a concert or ballroom.
South of the orangery is a formal garden with exotic trees such as several tulip trees and a cork oak .
Citrus House
The Citrus House, a large greenhouse, was built by Thomas Mansel Talbot around 1800 and replaced at least three previous greenhouses where the fuchsias and lemon trees overwintered. The over 44 m long building is located northwest of the orangery and consists of a 38 m long iron-glass construction with a stone back wall and two corner pavilions with glass roofs. Having closed in 2007 due to dilapidation, it is currently being extensively restored for £ 1,800,000.
park
To the south of the manor house there is a wide meadow interspersed with groups of trees, which merges into the other 344 hectare landscape park and a lake.
A herd of fallow deer, which today comprises around 300 animals, has lived in the 200-hectare wildlife park since Norman times. Through a collaboration with Whipsnade Zoo , over 60 red deer and over 30 David deer have lived in the park since the 1990s . In the Farm Trail there is a petting zoo and a herd of the Glamorgan cattle, which were considered extinct until 1979 .
Since it was acquired by Glamorgan County Council in 1973, the park has been expanded as a public recreational area, including the creation of parking lots, picnic and barbecue areas, playgrounds, a narrow-gauge railway and a rope garden . From 2007 to 2008 the Margam Discovery Center, a modern learning center of the Field Discovery Council, was built in the southern park.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ British Listed Buildings: Margam Castle. Retrieved June 25, 2013 .
- ^ Margam Country Park: Rhododendrons. Retrieved June 25, 2013 .
- ^ FSC: Margam Discovery Center. Retrieved June 25, 2013 .
- ^ Margam Country Park: Farm Trail. Retrieved July 2, 2013 .
- ↑ Margam Country Park Go Ape! Retrieved June 25, 2013 .