Winter Solstice at Chirk Castle

We celebrated the shortest day by taking a long-ish drive to Chirk Castle in Wales, a 13th Century fortress that is still inhabited today. Chirk is just nine miles away from Erddig, the magnificent country house we visited last week and an hour and a half's drive from home.

After the English King Edward I defeated the last sovereign prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, in 1282 he established the new title of Marcher Lordship of Chirklands, which was granted to Roger Mortimer in recognition of his service to King Edward in the wars against Wales & Scotland. Mortimer built Chirk Castle at Chirklands in the late 13th Century.

Roger Mortimer served Edward I and later, Edward II who made him Justiciar of all Wales, but it is said that ambition got the better of him and after he took up arms against the  King, he was thrown into the Tower of London & hung at Tyburn in 1326.  

For centuries Chirk Castle changed hands between some of the most important men of the age, including the Earls of Arundel, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, the Dukes of Somerset, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III) and Sir William Stanley when it was granted to them in recognition of service and later taken away in disgrace.

The son of the governor of Denbigh Castle, Sir Thomas Myddelton I (b.1550) had little hope of inheriting his father's position & he left to make his fortune in London, which he did with remarkable success being one of the first investors in the East India Company. In 1595 Sir Thomas bought Chirk Castle for £5,000 with the intention of turning it into his family seat but spent more time at his home in Essex and after spending vast sums of money on the castle passed it to his son in 1612. Sir Thomas Myddelton II was a Civil War general, first on the side of Parliament, and then later, disillusioned by Cromwell's military dictatorship, as a Royalist in support of Charles II. For the next 400 years, the family ruled a vast estate from Chirk Castle.

In 1910 Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Lord Howard de Walden (who was known as Tommy), fell in love with Chirk Castle and negotiated a lease with the Myddelton Family, which continued until 1946. A man of many talents including writing plays, operas and pantomimes, commissioning flying machines, working with radio, Welsh theatre, falconry, fencing, art and literature. Tommy spent lavishly at Chirk Castle, bringing the infrastructure into the twentieth century so that he and his wife could host generous and lavish house parties. In 1946 Tommy left Chirk Castle and retired to his Scottish estates, dying that same year.

If you're of a prudish disposition look away now - there's lots of full-frontal nudity in Chirk's marvellous gardens! Here's Hercules by Jan Van Nost (d.1729), a prolific Flemish sculptor whose work can also be seen at Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth and Castle Howard.

Inscribed on the plinth: This lead statue of Hercules was commissioned in the 1720’s by Robert Myddelton, and stood outside the main entrance to the Castle with a companion figure of Mars. In June 1770 it was removed to an outlying wood in the park, whence it was rescued in 1983 by means of an R.A.F. helicopter. The severely damaged statue has been restored by the National Trust. 

The first formal garden was laid out by Sir Thomas Myddelton II in 1653, following contemporary French examples. The next major alterations were in 1764 when Richard Myddelton commissioned the landscape architect William Emes - who also designed the gardens at Erddig (HERE) - to remodel the gardens and parkland. Emes made substantial changes, moving fences, walls, pathways, and planting vast lawns and thousands of trees.

In the 19th-century yew topiary, hedges and wrought iron gates were introduced, and then under the guidance of Lord Howard de Walden in the early twentieth century the celebrated gardener Norah Lindsay created a magnificent herbaceous border on the Upper Lawn. The gardens were neglected during the Second World War until they were almost single-handedly revived by Lady Margaret Myddelton, creating the colourful planting scheme that the National Trust's team of three full-time gardeners and garden volunteers maintain.

I'm sitting on a 200 year old Cedar of Lebanon tree, that fell during heavy snow in 2013 and was carved into this memorial bench.

 Baby, it was cold outside! Lord Jon's wearing his charity-shopped vintage Swedish army military issue parka to keep out the chill while I'm dressed in my 70s Afghan and vintage Collier Campbell for Liberty wool maxi dress.

There are four beautiful bronze women in Chirk's gardens. One of the entrances is flanked by these two naked females, one blindfolded and the other with her hands bound behind her back. They were cast by the Victorian artist Luchessi and are called Oblivion & Destiny.

In the West Range part of the castle, we were able to explore the Adam Tower, complete with two-level dungeons, medieval toilets and murder holes (where the men inside could surprise invaders by dropping stones or fire arrows on them). 

 

The dungeons were pretty grim, just as you'd expect!

Chirk Castle overlooks Offa's Dyke (see picture below), a large linear earthwork that followed the border between England and Wales. It was named after Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia (757-796AD), widely believed to have ordered its construction. The octagonal tower on the right is a dovecote, lucky doves!

After a few hours of exploring we enjoyed a car picnic in Patrice, thawing out our tingling hands on tea-filled enamel mugs singing along to 6Music. By the time we got back to Walsall, it was already dark - hooray for the solstice and the return of the light!   

See you in the Spring, Chirk!

If I don't get round to posting before 25th December (guests, housework....arghhh!), have a cool Yule & I'll see you on the other side.