St Fagans Castle

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St Fagans Castle
Native name
Castell Sain Ffagan (Welsh)
St Fagans Castle.jpg
The approach to St Fagans Castle
Location St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales
Coordinates 51°29′09″N3°16′04″W / 51.4859°N 3.2677°W / 51.4859; -3.2677
Builtc. 1580s
Architectural style(s) Elizabethan
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameSt Fagans Castle
Designated10 June 1977
Reference no.13888 [1]
Cardiff UK relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
St Fagans Castle
Location of St Fagans Castle within Cardiff

St Fagans Castle (Welsh : Castell Sain Ffagan) is an Elizabethan mansion in St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales, dating from the late 16th century. The house and remaining medieval fortifications are Grade I listed. The grounds of St Fagans Castle now contain St Fagans National Museum of History. The castle estate is designated Grade I on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

Contents

History

A medieval castle dating from the 13th century previously existed on the site. By 1536 it lay in ruins. By 1563 the site had been sold to a Dr John Gibbon. A new house was built on the site either by Gibbon or by Nicholas Herbert, who bought the site from Gibbon in 1586. [2] Part of the D-shaped medieval boundary fortifications remain, forming a wall around the current house. [3]

Sir Edward Lewis of The Van, Caerphilly, bought the house in 1616 from the Herbert family in trust under strict condition that it remain in the senior male line of the Lewis family forever. [4] The interior dates partly from then and partly from after 1850, when in the possession of the Windsor-Clive family. [5] Their ownership began in 1833, when the estate was inherited by Lady Harriet Clive (later the 13th Baroness Windsor), wife of the Hon. Robert Clive. Lady Clive undertook much restoration work spanning several decades. [6] The sequence of terraces in the gardens was created in 1865–6 and extended in the early 20th century. [5] The house became a convalescent hospital for soldiers during World War I, with the banqueting hall containing a ward of 40 beds. [7] In 1947, by his will, Ivor Windsor-Clive, 2nd Earl of Plymouth, gave the castle and estate to the National Museum of Wales.

In 1951, Iorwerth Peate, keeper-in-charge for the castle, was allowed by the Hon. John Morgan to select thirty pieces of furniture from Tredegar House for exhibition in the castle’s period rooms; Morgan was disposing of the contents of Tredegar House following its sale in lieu of death-duties. [8]

Buildings in the grounds accommodate the former Welsh Folk Museum, St Fagans National Museum of History. [9]

Historic listing designations

The castle has been statutorily recognised and protected in the highest category (Grade I) since 1977. [10] The gardens and grounds are designated Grade I on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. [11] A lead water cistern in the courtyard is Grade II* listed, [12] and may have been brought from Van, a historic home of the Lewis family. [13] Many garden structures have Grade II status. [2]

References

  1. ↑ "St Fagans Castle, St Fagans". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  2. 1 2 St Fagans Castle Archived 2013-10-23 at the Wayback Machine , Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Retrieved 2013-09-12.
  3. ↑ Browne, D. M.; Griffiths, Prof R. A. (2000), Glamorgan: Later Castles, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, pp. 341–345, ISBN   1-871184-22-3
  4. ↑ Short title: Pembroke v Lewis. Plaintiffs: William [Herbert] Earl of Pembroke. national archives. 1558–1579.
  5. 1 2 Newman, John (1995), Glamorgan, The Buildings of Wales, London: Penguin, pp. 561–2
  6. ↑ "Death Of The Baroness Windsor" . The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian. 13 November 1869. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ↑ "St Fagans 'hidden' gems give World War I insight", BBC News, 21 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-12.
  8. ↑ "Tredegar House Furniture For Museum" . Western Mail & South Wales News. 24 January 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  9. ↑ Glamorgan: The Greater Houses, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 1981, p. 246, ISBN   0-11-700754-4
  10. ↑ Cadw. "St Fagans Castle (Grade I*) (13888)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  11. ↑ Cadw. "St Fagans Castle (PGW(Gm)31(CDF))". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  12. ↑ Cadw. "Lead Cistern in the east forecourt of St Fagans Castle (Grade II*) (13885)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  13. ↑ "St Fagans Castle, Lead Cistern (32354)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 21 March 2025.

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