Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Wrexham
Rosie Lowe - Yu
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Mercurial
Various - Milano Jukeboxes 19998-2023
Up early and adding pics to this for updating later...
Out to Lidl for croissants, passing Estate cows...
...and geese on the way...
Breakfast and then out...
At 10, we arrived at Chirk Castle...
Pics taken of potentially handy maps...
...and, pre going up to the castle itself, a look around the outbuildings...
...including the book shop, where I spotted a couple of items...
Into the Kitchen Garden...
...with its Dovecot...
...and splendid views...
Then, through the woods to the castle...
Here's a handy list of its owners over the centuries...
De Walden was a tenant only but, despite this, completely replaced the roof and also built this stand alone building containing a squash court because "one of his children liked playing squash"...
Anyway...
We did not go in yet, with around 30 minutes till the start of our guided tour...
Instead...
...into the gardens...
...which contained some splendid sights indeed...
Who's that in the distance...
Beyond the previous tennis court - I recognised it from Kassel...
It was...
Hercules...
Here he is in Kassel...
He's never seen this view due to facing the wrong way...
Further into the gardens, we found the Hawk House - this the view from inside...
Then to the edge of the garden for a panoramic view out over the countryside...
...followed by a walk back up to the castle...
Into the courtyard...
The half window in this pic indicates the fact that the castle now is smaller than originally set out - a wall collapsed and was brought closer to the centre, cutting off half the window...
Inside for our tour, from Huw - whose birthday it was today...
We started in Cromwell's Room...
...where Cromwell never visited but whose walls are covered in Cromwellian weaponry...
Then to the staircase, where these portraits hang...
The "billionaire", Sir Thomas Myddelton, on the right, and his slightly less successful bankrupt brother on the left...
No information was provided re these two, but I liked them...
Up the stairs...
The walls here were once paneled, like the Cromwell room, by Augustus Purgin (the architect responsible for the interior design of the Houses of Parliament)...
The dining room too was paneled, till a lady of the house found some damp in the top corner next to the ceiling and took that as her cue to remove all the paneling and burn it, and redecorate as it's seen today...
This harpsichord came into the family's possession in the mid-1700s and so might well have had some Mozart played on it...
When the wallpaper went up, it replaced more paneling and was, apparently, sparkly gold...
A splendid room indeed...
Two recently returned portraits were on display in the next room...
The man on the left, Robert Myddelton-Biddulph, was brought into the family at a point where there were no male heirs "to improve the bloodline"...
Biddulph adopted the name upon marrying Charlotte Myddelton in 1801...
The lady on the right, Lady Margaret Myddelton, married Colonel Ririd Myddelton in 1931 and played played a vital role in restoring the castle, gardens, and estate alongside her husband...
The final room of the tour was the Long Room, here, pictured from one end with visitors, including the Exec Producer...
...and, here, later, from the other end after everyone had gone...
Some top artifacts to take in...
...and the bedroom once used (most likely just the once) by Charles II...
Also on display, a Welsh Bible - apparently, the translation of the Bible into Welsh was important to the survival of the Welsh language....
It conferred Welsh as a liturgical language and a vehicle for worship, which, in turn, contributed to the language's continued use in everyday communication to the present day, despite the pressure to use English....
Post the tour, at the far end of the room was a set of stairs leading down to a room decorated as it would have been in the early years of the 20th Century...
The guest book was signed by all manner of socialites of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s...
...including Kings...
Meanwhile, the servants quarters...
...and the dungeon...
...were also visited...
...and, finally...
...past the workings of the blue clock from the courtyard pic below...
...this is, apparently, the oldest remaining decoration in the castle...
Done, dusted, good...
...and out...
Before leaving, back at the book shop, these for £3...
Out of the castle grounds, past the ornamental gates...
During the war, they were painted black and moved away from the castle - the thinking being they would be easily seen from above by bombers heading for Liverpool. Seems they never thought the castle itself might be even more easily seen...
Anyway, into Chirk itself for a sandwich based lunch...
...followed by a 12 mile drive through the Ceiriog Valley...
...we ended up at The Hand, at Llanarmon, where an afternoon drink was enjoyed...
...in the company of a Welsh Dragon...
...and a hand...
Heading back
...we stopped at the bridge at Pontfadog...
Beast on a bridge...
Beauty and the beast on a bridge...
As we approached Chirk, we found the railway viaduct and its neighbouring aqueduct...
...and stopped for a visit...
...and took a walk along the towpath over the aqueduct...
...with its spectacular views...
...and ducks...
...and back again...
...and home...
Anne had been struggling with the lurgi since we arrived and, tonight, we decided to stay in...
I collected an excellent takeaway (chicken in a satay sauce and Kung Po chicken) from the Sleepy Panda in town...
...and we relaxed for what remained of the day...
...which had, indeed, been a busy and enjoyable one...
Highlight of the Day : Sightseeing...
Today's New Music:-
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