Bodelvidan Castle "Ladies in Blue"
Bodelvidan Castle. Photo by Adrian Pingstone
Swimming slowly and gracefully
Ghosts of the past string -
It's like the pages are turning again
Books of life of the giant castle.
A female figure in a white dress,
Like a doe, swiftly shy,
Spinning in a whirlwind of dance playfully,
To fall into your favorite arms.
"Old Castle" Katerina Yatsenko Kraskovskaya
Ghosts of the past string -
It's like the pages are turning again
Books of life of the giant castle.
A female figure in a white dress,
Like a doe, swiftly shy,
Spinning in a whirlwind of dance playfully,
To fall into your favorite arms.
"Old Castle" Katerina Yatsenko Kraskovskaya
Ancient castles and fortresses. A series of articles on medieval castles aroused a certain interest among VO readers, and such that it came to a “personal order”. However, soon the word is spoken, but not soon the texts are written. So customers will have to wait a bit. In the meantime, our story will be devoted to the story of Bodelvidan Castle, which is interesting in that it is one of the last British castles built in the Middle Ages, that is, quite a bit more, and it could no longer be born!
The gate to the castle with loopholes and stone machicolations at the top. Photo of Dota Potter
This castle is located in the county of Denbighshire, in Wales, not far from the seaside resort of Rhyl. 260 acres of magnificent parkland - such is the area of land on which Bodelvidan stands. And most of the year it was open to the public, which, of course, was convenient.
It was built by the Humphrey family from Anglesey quite late - around 1460 as their family residence. However, in 1690, Bodelvidan was purchased from Humphrey by Sir William Williams, who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1681-1681, and his descendants, representatives of the Williams-Wynn family of baronets, lived in it for the next two centuries.
The main entrance to the castle. Photo of Dota Potter
By the time it was built, the art of building castles had reached its pinnacle. Already in 1220 or so, here different specialists have different dates, the construction of round towers was mastered. In 1270 stone machicolations began to replace the wooden galleries on the walls and around the towers. 1280s - the conquest of Wales by Edward I takes place, and at the same time, castles of a concentric system are being built in both England and Wales, so to speak, “empty inside”, the defense of which was concentrated on walls, and often several, towers and developed gate fortifications . In the 1350s, the first brick castles appeared in England and Holland. And already a hundred years later, the castles lose their defensive functions. In the same England in 1441-1449. a brick castle Herstmonse with large windows is being built, completely not intended for defense. So Bodelvidan Castle was to some extent a tribute to antiquity, since it did not contain as many innovative solutions as Herstmonse.
Bodelvidan Castle and the Warner Hotel located in it. Pay attention to the figure on the wall, dressed in knightly armor. Just behind it, as they say, the bones in the wall were found. Photo by Peter Rigby
The way we can see it today, Bodelvidan did not become immediately, but between 1830 and 1852, thanks to the efforts of Sir John Hay Williams, who hired two famous architects to reconstruct the castle: Joseph Hansom - the same one that invented the double a two-wheeled cab named after him and Edward Welch. They restored the building and expanded it, and then, already occupying the land, they turned the surrounding land into a magnificent estate with beautiful parks and a garden. By the way, perestroika was started just in time, since in the 1850s the family lost the main source of their income - lead mining, the deposits of which on their land simply dried up. So she could no longer afford to spend funds as widely as before, although the improvement of the castle and estate continued for several more years.
The masonry is made of local limestone, adzed and leveled, windows and other elements are surrounded by hewn stone, and the roof is decorated with a projecting battlement. There are stone turrets hiding chimneys inside, and part of the northeast façade is twin towers connected by a high-level crenellated arch. The towers have similar parapets. The entrances to the yard are blocked by lattice gates with lifting devices at the top.
The castle is out. Photo of Dota Potter
The main facade facing the park is an elevation to the southeast. This is the only symmetrical part. It is divided into equal thirds, with the two outer ones moving forward. Each outer part has a scalloped bay window, one 12-panel window on the first floor and one 6-panel window on the second floor. The center has a two-story triangular scalloped window in the center, flanked by 15-panel windows on the sides, and 12- and 6-panel windows at the top.
The northeast elevation overlooks the village of Bodelviddan, and it is here that the military character of the castle's architecture is most evident. There are also a large number of windows made in the Gothic style.
Courtyard. Photo by Jeff Buck
The main courtyard extends to the west of the house, forming an irregular rectangle of considerable size adjacent to the original entrance and a smaller courtyard. This main courtyard has evenly spaced buttresses along the curtain walls, three-story corner towers, and a front entrance on the west side facing one of the gates in the park boundary wall. The entrance is protected by two towers and a gate with a lattice between them.
The best room of the house is the Living Room, and now a sculpture gallery, in the Gothic style with three spans of fan arches. Bodelvidan has its own gas supply system and gas lighting brackets are installed on each side of the fireplace. This room is said to have been built by Hansom and Welch in the 1830s, albeit in Regency style.
The ladies' drawing room is decorated in the Regency style. The library has bookcases with sliding shelves. The dining room, enlarged by a sloped side, has a marble fireplace with a scene of stone quarrying in the spring sun.
At the back of the house is a billiard room with a frieze with hunting scenes and a Gothic fireplace. The main staircase has massive stucco handrails and carved posts with handles and pendants. There is also a separate staircase for servants with iron balusters, arranged so that it does not interfere with the feet of the owners of the castle.
Gateway to the castle park. Photo by Steve Fareham
Be that as it may, Bodelvidan Castle became one of Hansom's most ambitious projects and, as they wrote then, was full of wild drama and did not inherit anything from its predecessor. Then work on the renewal of Bodelwydan was resumed again in the 1880s by Sir Herbert, XNUMXth Baronet Williams-Wynn, who inherited the castle from a relative who had no other heirs.
During the First World War, the castle was used as a hospital for convalescent soldiers, and the grounds surrounding Bodelvidan were transferred to the army, which set up a training camp here. Until now, you can see the remains of trenches dug for the training of young soldiers. Ownership passed to the War Department, only the cost of maintaining it became too onerous. Therefore, in 1920, the army decided to lease it to Lowther College, which was a well-known private school for girls in those years.
This school was founded in 1896 in Lancashire, by the efforts of Mrs. Florence Lindley, the first headmistress of this school, who held her post until 1927. And at first, Mrs. Lindley moved her school to Bodelvidan on a lease, but already in 1925 she simply acquired it as her property, so that in 1927, in turn, she would sell the school to the Allied Schools association of independent schools. Lowther College was one of the first private girls' schools to have its own swimming pool and private golf course. The whole district came to the performances of the students of the school, since music education was one of the skates of Lowther College. In 1977, education in it became available to boys as well, but in 1982 the school closed due to financial problems.
1781 watercolor depicting a manor on the site of a castle
In the 80s, the castle was bought by the Clwyd County Council and turned into a museum and art gallery - that is, into an interesting object for tourists. Moreover, the county council managed to establish partnerships with the National Portrait Gallery, London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, which in turn made it possible to hold interesting exhibitions in Bodelvidan and demonstrate the real cultural treasures of the nation. Well, in order to create an entourage suitable for collections, the architect Roderick Graydidge rebuilt the interiors of the castle in the spirit of Victorian luxury. However, the costs of maintaining it were so high that in 1994 part of the estate was leased to an organization of hoteliers and turned into a hotel that still functions successfully today.
Another gate to the park area. Photo by David Dixon
It is believed that the castle is haunted, including a soldier who lives in one of the galleries. Although it is completely incomprehensible why they would start in it, because the castle is not very ancient, and no terrible and bloody crimes seem to have been committed in it. True, Sir John Hay Williams recorded in 1829 that during the reconstruction of one of the chimneys, human bones were found in the wall. It was decided to brick them back into the wall. There they remain, and, alas, there is no hope for their owner to rest in the cemetery according to the Christian rite. And it's a pity, suddenly only this is not enough for his bones? However, where did the “Lady in Blue” come from then? Was she also immured in some wall of the castle or poisoned by an unfaithful husband? But in the annals of the family, nothing of the kind is reported. All the Williams seem to have lived happily ever after. And visitors to the castle claim, although not all, that during their visit they hear steps behind their backs, but when they turn around, they don’t see anyone. But they see gray shadows in the corridors, where there is also no one. And in one of the rooms they saw a woman in a blue dress. After that, ghost hunters came to the castle and, after conducting their strange experiments, confirmed the presence of ghosts. Moreover, shocking photos of not even one, but several ghosts were obtained. So it was recognized that quite real ghosts really live in this castle. Therefore, he took part in the filming of two popular television shows: Most Haunted and International Ghostbusters, which are very successful in England.
One of the towers of the castle. View from the park. Photo of Dota Potter
It is wonderful that the castle is surrounded by huge gardens and parks, which were last landscaped by the famous landscape designer Thomas Hayton Mawson in 1910. Interestingly, although the castle began to be built in 1460, it is based on the foundation of an even more ancient fortification. The fact is that one of the ancient Roman roads passed near the castle, and the architects found burial places of that era on the lands of the estate.
And everything was fine until, in 2017, Derbyshire County Council, due to the huge costs of maintaining the castle, decided to sell it. In February 2019, the castle, which has a lease term of 99 years, was still not sold, and the announcement of the sale still hangs on the website of the castle, that is, for all these years there were no people who wanted to buy the castle with all its ghosts. The castle itself, of course, was closed to the public after that, and then public access to forests, parks, playgrounds and trenches was also closed!
Another local interesting monument of antiquity is the Church of St. Margaret, the so-called Marble Church. It was built between 1856-1860 by order of Lady Margaret Willoughby de Broke in memory of her husband. It is said to be named after the 13 different types of marble found inside, although many locals say it is because of its white "marble" appearance. The church's distinctive 202-foot tower and spire are a landmark that can be seen for miles around. Photo by Michael Searle
And this is a completely modern toilet next to this temple, which is looked at by an evil gargoyle. Obviously angry that people have thought of this important solution to their problems associated with the call of nature ... Photo by Herald England
However, the Bodelvidan Castle Hotel, owned by Warner Business Hotels, continues to operate on the castle grounds. The county council retained the forest, the meadow, the parking lot, and the farmland, as well as a small house on the edge of this vast landed property.
And this is just a park squirrel, of which there are a lot ... Photo by David Dixon
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