This Victorian Gothic fantasy castle sitting on the coast of Abergele in North Wales was constructed in 1812 AD for Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh as a grandiose memorial too his ancestors, the Lloyds of Gwrych. The 19th century castle was the latest in a succession of castles on the site; the first castle being a timber fortress built by the Normans in the 12th century. Captured and rebuilt In 1170 by Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth who rebuilt it in stone. The Welsh castle survived until it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentary army after the Civil War as a means to prevent its use as a stronghold against them. The foundations led way for the 19th century castle to become a monument to the wealth of Lloyd Hesketh, with 128 rooms, including 8 bedrooms, and 19 embattled towers giving it the air of a fairy tale fortress set on a sloping hillside. The castle was extended several times during the 19th century, and a chapel was added in the 1870s. At the same time the grounds were landscaped and developed into a sweeping garden, with highlights including carefully arranged monkey puzzle trees. The castle passed by inheritance to the Dundonald family, who called in the Arts and Crafts architect Detmar Blow to design an Italianate marble staircase, rising 52 steps high. When the last of the family, Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald, died in 1924 she left the castle to George V and the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII. Unfortunately the bequest was turned down, and the castle was given to the St John of Jerusalem charity who sold it to the 12th Earl of Dundonald, though he had to sell the contents in order to defray the purchase cost. Ten years later, by the winter of 1938 Hitler's intention to victimise Europe's Jews had become clear. Britain was shaken into action and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to the rescue of as many Jews as possible. Suddenly, saving the children became the top priority and so between December 1938 and the eve of war, 10,000 children travelled to the UK in an operation known as the Kindertransport. Some were taken in by British families, some put in camps and others in hostels. But for a lucky 200, their sanctuary was Gwrych Castle, which was given to the government by the Dundonald family as a place of refuge. In an emotional visit six decades years later, Osias Findling said: "This place created a bond which lasted for a lifetime." Amid tears, he said: "It's very emotional to see this place again after 62 years and remember the happy days we had, and to think that the future we had was entirely different to the one we had imagined then." They recalled their Sabbath suppers, the dance every Saturday night and the day one of the organisers of the Kindertransport was married at the castle. But most of all they remember and thank the local people for the welcome they received. “The Welsh people were very hospitable and very kind to us, which we needed badly as children. For the first time, we were treated like human beings, equal to everyone else. This place gave us a new life and we really felt what it meant to be free. We will be eternally grateful to the Welsh people for that." After the project was disbanded the castle was left unused and has been reduced to its foundations by nature, becoming an ode to Tolkien in its overgrown grandeur. The roofs of the buildings have long since caved in, allowing for trees to invade its inner spaces, and the entrance to an abandoned man-made cave can be found near the remains of a copper mine towards the top end of the hill behind the water room which has crumbled leaving only a ladder leading to nowhere. The majority of these have been sealed up, but some forgotten openings such as this one can be found that don't even appear on survey maps. Despite being left to the forces of nature, the castle remained a central part of the Abergele public walkway and became, if nothing else, an iconic landmark of the area after it was closed to the public in 1995 for safety reasons, and despite planning permission being in place work had never started on ambitious plans to convert the entire site into a spa hotel. As it stands, restoration work finally started at Gwrych Castle in 2014 with plans to convert the Melon House and conservatory into a visitor centre. The sentimentally titled ‘Gwrych Trust’ has been working with the castle owners EPM-UK on a three year project of renovating and restoring the buildings surrounding the castle after having received a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund. However, all restoration work carried out is purely voluntary and I had the chance to meet a group of people currently helping to restore the wall on the west wing of the castle who told me that they highly doubt that the restoration work will be finished in their lifetime. Gwrych has therefore become a community project driven by its people, for its people, both in terms of heritage and provenance. The term ‘derelict’ does not properly describe the castle, given its sheer overgrown beauty and presence upon the hillside that is as strong as ever. As one of Britain’s youngest and most modern castles, it will be a fantastic day when the interior can once again echo its past luxuries.
