Plas Newydd (, ; "new hall" or "new mansion") is a historic house in the town of
Llangollen
Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beau ...
,
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, and was the home of the
Ladies of Llangollen
The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1831), were two upper-class Irish women whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries. The pair moved to a Gothic house in Llangollen, No ...
, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, for nearly 50 years. Today, it is run as a museum by
Denbighshire County Council
Denbighshire County Council is the unitary local authority for the county of Denbighshire, one of the principal areas of Wales. The council is based at County Hall in Ruthin.
Elections take place every five years. The last election was on 5 Ma ...
.
History
Plas Newydd is notable as the home where two Irish ladies, Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby (the
Ladies of Llangollen
The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1831), were two upper-class Irish women whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries. The pair moved to a Gothic house in Llangollen, No ...
) eloped and set up house together in the late 18th century, scandalising contemporary British
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...
. Plas Newydd was originally a five-roomed stone cottage, but over the years it was enlarged to include many Gothic features. Although originally ostracised by their families, the ladies and their unconventional lifestyle gradually became accepted, and their home was visited by many famous people including
Robert Southey
Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...
,
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
,
Caroline Lamb
Caroline Lamb has served as the Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Director General of Health and Social Care directorates since 2021.
Early life
Lamb studied at the King's College London, before training as a chartered accountant with K ...
and
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
, the
Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...
and the industrialist
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indust ...
.
The ladies also expanded and improved the gardens, adding many Gothic features such as a "ruined" archway, rustic bridges over rushing torrents and a temple that included a font removed from the ruined
Valle Crucis Abbey
Valle Crucis Abbey (Valley of the Cross) is a Cistercian abbey located in Llantysilio in Denbighshire, Wales. More formally ''the Abbey Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Valle Crucis'' it is known in Welsh both as ''Abaty Glyn Egwestl'' and ''A ...
. Ornate greenhouses grew exotic fruit, and poetic notices were attached to trees.
[
After their deaths in 1829 and 1831, the property passed through various hands and saw a number of changes. General John Yorke added the black and white features on the exterior and filled the interior with oddities from around the world. In 1932 the house was acquired by Llangollen Urban District Council and it is now a museum.][
]
Architecture
The original cottage was expanded by the ladies, and then again by subsequent owners in the 19th century. It is now restored to essentially the final structure left by the ladies. Its most unusual feature is the profusion of pieces of reclaimed oak carvings collected by the ladies and set in patchwork
Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeating patterns built up with different fabric shapes (which can be different colors) ...
style over much of the exterior of the house. These came from broken-up furniture or church fittings, and range in date from the medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
to the Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
, but with folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
and " Jacobean" vernacular styles of shallow carved decoration predominating, as well as Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
-style black-and-white trim and carvings. The ladies also added much stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
.[
]
In popular culture
*The house was used in a 1987 episode of the TV series '' Treasure Hunt''.
*It also appeared in the 1989 BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
adaptation of ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1952. It was the third published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Macmillan US published an Am ...
'' (one of the Narnia Chronicles written by C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
) as the home of the wizard, Coriakin
Coriakin is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis's ''Chronicles of Narnia''. He appears in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''.
Fictional character biography
Coriakin was originally a star, who, as reparation for past misdeeds was charged by Asl ...
(played by Preston Lockwood
Reginald Herbert Lockwood (30 October 1912 – 24 April 1996), known professionally as Preston Lockwood, was an English radio and television actor.
The only son of bus driver Herbert Lewis Lockwood and his wife Ethel May (née Preston), Lockwood ...
).
*In 2003, the home was featured in the TV series ''Antiques Road Trip
''Antiques Road Trip'' (also known as ''Celebrity Antiques Road Trip'') is a BBC television series produced by STV Studios. It was first shown on BBC Two from 2010 to 2012, and has been shown on BBC One since 2013. This show is not to be confu ...
''.
*It was also featured on a 2008 series 10 episode of the paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
reality TV
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
series ''Most Haunted
''Most Haunted'' is a British paranormal reality television series. Following complaints, the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, ruled that it was an entertainment show, not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal, and "should not be taken seri ...
''.
*The house was featured in the UK Channel 5 documentary Walking Britain's Lost Railways
''Walking Britain's Lost Railways'' is a British documentary television series presented by Rob Bell that first aired on Channel 5 on 21 September 2018. A second series premiered on Channel 5 on 9 February 2020. A third series premiered on Chann ...
presented by Rob Bell
Robert Holmes Bell Jr. (born August 23, 1970) is an American author, speaker and former pastor. Bell founded Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, and pastored it until 2012. Under his leadership, Mars Hill was one of the fastest-g ...
.
Gallery
Plas Newydd, Llangollen NLW3361509.jpg, Photograph by John Thomas, around 1875
Plas Newydd, Llangollen NLW3361510.jpg, Around 1875
Porch of Plas Newydd, Llangollen.jpg, The porch
Plas Newydd - Fassade 7.jpg, The façade
Plas Newydd, tower - geograph.org.uk - 1063730.jpg, The Plas Newydd Tower
References
External links
Plas Newydd
– official site at Denbighshire County Council
IMDb: Most Popular Titles With Location Matching "Plas Newydd, Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales, UK"
"Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (1989) – Filming locations
* Plas Newydd Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Plas-Newydd-532664040096219/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel]
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Llangollen
Historic house museums in Wales
Museums in Denbighshire
Grade II* listed buildings in Denbighshire