Powis Castle, Wales

This is the penultimate property on our tour of National Trust estates in Shropshire and adjoining Welsh counties and certainly the most impressive outside with imposing building and wonderful tiered gardens.  Powis Castle has been the subject of more than 400 years of modification and re-development by the Herbert family, who still own a private apartment on the second floor. I found the inside a bit dark and claustrophobic but certainly plenty to see.

 

Erddig House, Well Worth Saving after Subsidence

This palatial 1720s house near Wrexham has magnificent state rooms, comprehensive servants quarters, Chinese wallpapers, and exquisite furnishings.  The house was passed down through the Yorke family until March 1973, when it was given to the National Trust. This followed the collapse several years earlier of a shaft from the nearby coal mine (Bersham colliery) under the house, causing subsidence of 1.5 m, which seriously affected the structural security of the house to the extent that, without suitable underpinning, it would have become a ruin. It was strengthened using compensation of £120,000  from the National Coal Board. The restoration was completed on 27 June 1977. Outside there are stables, coach-house, smithy and joiners' shop illustrating estate life. The 18th century gardens are set around a canal, and there is a parterre and a yew walk. The grounds include woodlands and a cylindrical waterfall.
First six images infared; rest Lightroom monochrome conversions

Chirk Castle and Its Sculptures

Chirk castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward I's chain of fortresses across the north of Wales. It guards the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley. In the entrance, there was a display of ten 'identical' green bottles with flowers from the estate. In infrared you can see there were two types with different glass properties (on closer inspection they were a different make as slightly smaller).  

In the grounds are four bronze nymphs by Andrea Carlo Lucchesi, (1860 – 1924) an Anglo-Italian sculptor born in London. The statues were installed in the gardens by Lord and Lady Howard de Walden, who leased the castle from the Myddelton family from 1911 to 1946. Lucchesi was an exponent of the late 19th-century British New Sculpture movement, a school based on naturalism and symbolism. Three of the statues are in the open and easy to admire and photograph while the fourth is hidden in foliage by the pond.

Snailbeach Lead Mine Shropshire

Snailbeach was the biggest lead mine in Shropshire and it is reputed to have yielded the greatest volume of lead per acre of any mine in Europe. Underground mining ceased here in 1955 but it is reputed to date from Roman times. Great place to explore and photograph.