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Treago Castle is a
fortified manor house in the parish of
St Weonards,
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
, England (). Built c. 1500, it was recorded as a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on 30 April 1986—based on its extant
medieval architecture
Medieval architecture is architecture common in the Middle Ages, and includes religious, civil, and military buildings. Styles include pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, and Gothic. While most of the surviving medieval architecture is to be seen in ...
,
quadrangle courtyard
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.
Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...
layout and
defensive wall corner towers.
Digging on the site revealed solid bedrock, conflicting rumours of a previously filled
moat.
Main building
The building was probably built by Sir Richard Mynors (c. 1440–1528
), a tax collector in Wales. The name originates from "Tre" (homestead or farm) and "Ago" (' being the
Welsh form of the name "
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
"), suggesting there was a previous dwelling on the land. The fortified house was built to keep
the Welsh out, but was never under attack.
Originally the building was of a secure design, featuring a central courtyard and no externally facing windows. Later, the courtyard area in the centre of the building was covered over in stages and new windows added to the outside walls, forming a more traditional house.
Mason's mark
A mason's mark is an engraved symbol often found on dressed stone in buildings and other public structures.
In stonemasonry
Regulations issued in Scotland in 1598 by James VI's Master of Works, William Schaw, stated that on admission to the guil ...
s matching those at
Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle ( cy, Castell Rhaglan) is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th centuries, when the succ ...
and traced to
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, were detected following a visit in 1975 by the Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments,
A. J. Taylor. There are similarities to
Croft Castle, also in Herefordshire.
Whilst Treago Castle remains a private family home, wine tasting sessions and local charity events allow the public a limited opportunity to view inside the castle.
Estate and gardens
Surrounding the main buildings is
parkland, probably landscaped during the late 18th century. There is no indication of a
moat, although early plans of the estate do show a
leat
A leat (; also lete or leet, or millstream) is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Othe ...
following the contour line across the estate, to the adjacent Furnace Farm. The parkland grounds became neglected for a period between the 1790s and 1840s. Four major improvements were constructed after c. 1840:
*
Walled garden
A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...
near the road, separated from the house by a
shrubbery
A shrubbery, shrub border or shrub garden is a part of a garden where shrubs, mostly flowering species, are thickly planted. The original shrubberies were mostly sections of large gardens, with one or more paths winding through it, a less-rememb ...
collection named ''The Wilderness''.
* Walled
kitchen garden
The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...
furnished with well stocked fruit trees, on the site of the modern-day vineyard and to the south of the house.
*
Tudor/
Italianate style
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
d garden containing gravel paths, grass, flower beds and clipped
Irish yew
''Taxus baccata'' is a species of evergreen tree in the family (botany), family Taxaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe (including Britain and Ireland), northwest Africa, northern Iran, and southwest Asia.Rushforth, K. (1999). '' ...
trees. Referred to as ''Treago Garden'' on
tithe maps The term tithe map is usually applied to a map of an English or Welsh parish or township, prepared following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836. This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods. The map and its accompanying schedule gave ...
from the period.
* A long
driveway
A driveway (also called ''drive'' in UK English) is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group.
Driveways rarely have traffic lights, but some that bear ...
, forming a new principal entrance to the property approaching from the east.
Since 1991, the roses planted in the grounds have been primarily
David C. H. Austin English
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
s.
Recent history
During the 1990s, the original stables area received renovation work, being converted into three connected cottages named ''Hollyhock'', ''Coach House'' and ''Looseboxes'' that now see continual use as weekly holiday cottages. At the same time, a modern 11-metre indoor heated
swimming pool was added and other renovations were carried out including of a
grand piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
.
Behind the cottages and main building are a joint garden and small
quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
, traces of a
Japanese garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...
and
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...
used for producing ''Treago'' branded award-winning red, white and
sparkling wine
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...
s.
A
fountain
A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect.
Fountains were ori ...
was added in 1990, designed and made by Vanessa Marston, using ideas from the Mynors family
crest. The Mynors' crest—a man's hand holding a
bear's paw—is derived from the
French sound a like ' ( en, bear hand).
initiatives were underway to heat the castle in a more "green" way, using ground-source
geothermal heat pump
A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that uses a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through ...
and compost-based
biomass heating systems. The addition of a north porch has helped the process of making Treago an all-year-round family home.
Mynors family association
The Mynors family has owned Treago since c. 1500.
Sir Roger A. B. Mynors inhabited the estate in his last years. The house is still owned by the Baskerville Mynors family and currently inhabited by Sir Richard Mynors (b. 1947)—the present holder of the
Mynors of Treago Baronetcy and
vintner
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...
—and his wife Lady Fiona Mynors who works as an
educational consultant. The couple have inhabited the main building since 1989, along with their three daughters: Alexandra, Frances and Victoria. As a result of the move, major restoration and modernisation work took place.
Although some family history can be traced back to the 11th century, the direct association between the Baskerville Mynors and the local area of St. Weonards is only recorded back to the mid-15th century, around the time of the construction of the present building.
Other uses of the name
In 1932, the
Great Western Railway named steam engine No. 5019 ''Treago Castle''.
The ''
Castle Class'' locomotive continued to carry this name for 30 years, before finally being withdrawn in 1962.
References
External links
*
*
Treago Castle Cottagesbooking site
{{coord, 51.9114, -2.7425, type:landmark_region:GB-HEF_source:enwiki-osgb36(SO48922396), display=title
Castles in Herefordshire
Country houses in Herefordshire
Grade I listed buildings in Herefordshire
Grade I listed houses
Houses completed in the 15th century