Plas Newydd

Another boater that was moored next to us when we arrived, told us about their visit to Plas Newydd, an historic house in the far side of the town, just over a mile away (but up and down steep hills either side!) The forecast for today gave around 30% chance of rain all day but by late mid morning it felt as if the wet was giving us a day off.

We left the boat around 10:45 and walked into the centre of town where Christine managed to pick up a bargain walking pole from a small hardware shop that displays a sign saying 'Camping'. It was immediately put to use as we now climbed up out of town to Plas Newydd.

This historic house was first made famous by the Ladies of Llangollen: Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby who moved here from Ireland in 1778. Before then it had been a farm cottage, very plain and anonymous. At first the ladies leased the property but gradually bought it, completing the final payment not long before they died.

We bought our tickets at the tea room near the entrance and then walked across the grounds to the house where we both took the option of using a small device for a recorded commentary in each room. It would automatically start the appropriate piece when pointed close to a sensor in each room.

The ladies lived here for around 50 years and were well known for hospitality to visitors. Few stayed overnight as their hosts valued their domestic privacy but quite famous people are listed in their visitor diary, including the Duke of Wellington and Sir Walter Scott. )It seems that the above is the only known portrait of the ladies and was painted when Eleanor was all but blind from cataracts and could not see the artist - she is said to have especially disliked being drawn)

For most of the time here, the Ladies were attended to by their live-in servant, Mary Caryll, by all reports a most formidable but well educated Irish woman. All the local tradespeople were in awe of her, especially her ability to haggle the price of everything.

The most striking aspect of the house, as now largely restored back to what it looked like when they died, is the extensive collection of old carvings which they rescued from other houses when they were    being modernised and such decoration became unfashionable. Almost every square centimetre of wall is covered by a patchwork of carving. They aimed to make it as Gothic as they could. Their lifestyle, although unusual at the time was quickly accepted, especially as they did much to alleviate the needs of the poorest families in town.

The house was not large, with one bedroom which the Ladies shared and one kept for visitors. The latter is notable for having a night bolt on the door which could be operated by a cord from the bed.

It also had a Powder Closet, a fashionable feature at the time. This comprised a small room, barely a cupboard, in the corner of the room with a hole in the door large enough to put a head through. Powdering hair was a complicated process and risked scattering powder everywhere. The maid would be inside the closet and a lady's head poked through form it to be dressed. The style died out when the government of the day put an 'extortionate' tax on it. However, the term lives on in the now somewhat dated expression of 'powdering ones nose' as a euphemism for going to the lavatory which the closet was converted into. It seems that the Ladies kept powdering throughout their lives which must have added to the impact their presence made on visitors.

The servant's room, in the attic, was quite a contrast.

After their deaths the belongings were auctioned off and a succession of owners followed, the most influential being General John Yorke who added the back and white style to the exterior. He did not live here but kept it more as a museum for his collection of curiosities. He preferred to stay, during his visits, at a nearby coaching inn. Later owners added two wings but by the start of the 20C the property was much neglected and was eventually sold to the local council in 1932 who initiated the practice of opening it to the public. 

It quickly became popular and enhanced it reputation - the fame is evidenced in its used by Shell in a series of promotional Landmark .pictures by leading artists of the time

Sadly, the Council's commitment did not extend to good maintenance and the extra wings developed rot and had to be demolished in the 1960s so that what remains is close in scale to how the Ladies left it.

The estate was broken up in one of the previous auctions and the gardens which remain have been remodelled on what little is known of how the Ladies kept them. One special feature of the location is that from the upper windows at the back of the house there is a splendid view of Castell Dinas Bran, a ruined medieval castle on the hill across the Dee valley.

This mosaic is a tribute to the two Robertsons, cotton brokers from Liverpool, who bought the property 1890 and added the two wings as well as enhancing the formal gardens.

After we completed our tour, which we found most fascinating, we walked back through the town, collecting bread, milk and carrots on the way, and called at Llangollen Wharf to pay for another two night's stay.