Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd

 

North Wales can boast some of the most formidable medieval fortresses in Europe: Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech, and Beaumaris. As such, in the early nineteenth century, when gothic and castle style houses were in fashion, some local landowners chose to echo the massive form and defensive details of those edifices when building their country houses. Results of this trend include Bodelwyddan Castle, Gwyrch Castle and – the most intact – mighty Penrhyn.

While on holiday in the area with my parents, locals were often surprised when we expressed our preference for Penrhyn over another nearby National Trust property: Plas Newydd. Any pair of major country houses so close together always attracts comparison. On the north side of the Menai Strait, elegant Plas Newydd was a home to the Paget family, Marquises of Anglesey, becoming their chief country residence after the demolition of their Staffordshire seat, Beaudesert Hall. It has connections to the Napoleonic Wars and twentieth-century eccentrics and artists. Penrhyn may not have the stripped-back classicism and charming, family feel of Plas Newydd, but it does have an unrivalled hoard of Welsh craftsmanship and natural materials. Of the houses I have visited, only Mount Stuart - a gothic behemoth in marble on the Isle of Bute - has matched Penrhyn for sheer substantiality and fine quality of workmanship.

Penrhyn is one of those nineteenth-century castles that looks like the real thing from a distance. However, if you are expecting studious, Puginesque gloom, you will be surprised. A sumptuous, spacious interior, with the convenience of extensive service offices, made this house ideal for the informal but luxurious entertaining of the day. The site has genuinely medieval origins, but the house built here from 1820 to 1832 is a triumph of late Georgian, picturesque design.

The original medieval house occupied the central portion visible here. It was remodelled by Samuel Wyatt in a 'Gothick' style around 1782 before being incorporated into the present house as the Drawing and Ebony rooms.

The 'Keep' had nurseries and guest bedrooms. It may have been inspired by Hedingham Castle.

The convenient layout of large reception rooms grouped around a central top-lit hall was employed at dozens of houses at this time. But Penrhyn stands out with the unique interest and variety provided by its encrusted decoration. Composed of Norman interlaced round arches, and zigzag or dog-tooth ornament, this feat of invention, carving and weaving covers every surface the eye falls upon, including carpets, ceilings, furniture, and fireplaces. The veil of medievalism over this comfortable palace is a thin one, but richly executed.

Much of the decorative woodwork at Penrhyn was formed by applying moulded ornaments to the surface, rather than carving out of the solid. This suggests that Hopper's designs were realised by local workers rather than master craftsmen from further afield.

A fantastically high-quality sash window. One of several attempts at Penrhyn to make nineteenth-century technology appear suitably medieval with carving and colour.

The top-lit great hall

One source for Hopper's designs may have been early illuminated manuscripts. Ornate knots seen here on the Library ceiling.

Stars of gold leaf on the plaster vault of the Drawing Room

These concealed cupboard doors in the Dining Room show how substantial the wainscot is. The cupboard was used to store chamber pots for the convenience of the diners!

The Chapel

More unique design and fine carving. Every one of these balusters is different.

The Great Hall from the first-floor gallery

The staircase is a prime example of how late Georgians combined historicism, eclecticism and industrial-era engineering to create entirely novel effects.

The architect, Thomas Hopper, was at one time County Surveyor for Essex. So, Penrhyn’s grand keep and many chevron-ornamented round arches could have been inspired by Hedingham Castle. Though fairly unknown compared to his contemporaries James Wyatt, John Soane, John Nash and Robert Smirke, Hopper is the epitome of the Prince Regent’s era. From the late eighteenth century, architects were moving away from strict Palladian or Neoclassical ideas and embracing the possibilities of historical and foreign styles. Hopper indulged his clients’ whims, including designing in an Ancient Egyptian style that came into fashion following Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt in 1798-1801. He caught the attention of the Regent, and his circle, and was working at Carlton House (the since demolished London palace) from 1807.

Hopper designed a conservatory for the Prince that resembled a Perpendicular Gothic chapel, but which was made uniquely contemporary by the use of cast iron as the principle structural material and stained glass within the fan vaults. His talent for combining historical styles with the latest innovations in domestic architecture is especially apparent in the dramatic staircases he designed not just for Penrhyn, but at Melford Hall, Leigh Court, Margam Castle and Amesbury Abbey. His grand Neo Norman style was debuted at Gosford Castle in Armagh from 1819 but reached its sophisticated maturity at Penrhyn. The survival here of much of Hopper’s specially designed furniture and fittings reveals his prodigious capacity for design.

Examples of Hopper's 'Norman' furniture

Fireplaces

The house was well suited to its purpose as a spectacle of private wealth and taste, immediately attracting hordes of visitors to the area – so many that new hotels were built to accommodate them. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert came in 1859, then the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1894.

Where did the money come from and where did it go?

When the castle was being built, the Pennant family owned enslaved workers. Historically, the slave trade, slave ownership and raw materials extracted by slave labour, have had a big influence on the economic growth and prosperity of Britain. So, many buildings of a certain age in this country owe, at least in part, their existence to that cruel system. These connections are especially direct at Penrhyn because the Pennant family ran sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The builder of the castle, George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, had 764 enslaved workers at the Emancipation in 1833, for which he received £14,683 in compensation from the government.

Lots of the Caribbean sugar revenue was invested in improving the North Wales estates. Richard Pennant (1739-1808), first Lord Penrhyn from 1783, built schools and improved the farmhouses and cottages. He brought the Agricultural Revolution to North Wales in the form of manure, drains, modernised farm leases, and six hundred thousand new trees. The slate quarries were taken in hand, a new seaport, factories, and a tramway were built, providing jobs for thousands. The building of the castle under Richard’s heir, George, may have been a strategy to tackle unemployment during a troubled time for the slate market. This is a good example of how slavery in the Americas indirectly benefitted the working classes in Britain.

In the early 1870s, the Penrhyn estate yielded £63,000 per annum in rent from its 41,348 acres. However, agricultural prices and land values were falling rapidly in response to cheap food imports. By 1893, income was down to £21,000 despite the growth of the estate to 72,000 acres with 618 farms, 873 cottages and 3,000 workers in the quarry. In the twentieth century, higher costs of labour, taxes and death duties brought the castle, and gradually more of the land and collection into the care of the National Trust.

Conclusion

Plas Newydd may have more romantic stories and more lovable characters associated with it, but the flimsy Gothick of its halls and predictable ornaments in its interiors appear anaemic in comparison to the richness of Penrhyn. The castle is a repository of the handiwork and wealth generated by thousands of Welsh and enslaved hands two centuries ago. Now, in the hands of the National Trust, it will be forever conserved to be accessible to all, who can enjoy its beauty and learn from its story.

Penrhyn is an underrated country house but there is also a Railway exhibition in the stables and a collection of Old Master paintings, including a Rembrandt to boot! So be sure to visit when it is safe.

All photos by the author, 2016