Glamorgan 2 - Cardiff /the castle and museum/a gothic extravaganza/Lord Bute and a whole shedload of money

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D Day minus 49 - it is quite incredible how time flies when you are having fun. A week away has brought us ever closer to our Greek odyssey. We have enjoyed being away, sitting watching the waves rolling in to the beach and warming our toes in front of the wood burner. Oddly overnight though we started to think where else we could go to. We have missed Suzy and the fact that in a motorhome we can move when we feel like it. It has felt distinctly odd not having our belongings with us or to hand and even odder being hunkered down. We could stay another two days. We even thought about the money we had paid for our idylic cottage but in the end we got the wanderlust feeling and it was time to move on. This is how it has always been. After about four days we get the urge to move on. It does not change whether we fly somewhere or whether we drive.

Apologising to our host we explained our dilemma. We were not used to staying in one place for more than a couple of days and we feeling quite odd with ourselves. We had pencilled in other sites to see but in the end overnight we had come up with the idea to move. But where to go. Somewhere on our way home. Somewhere that would break our journey up. Somewhere we had never been to before. Somewhere we wanted to visit.

All sorts of ideas were coming to mind . North Devon - there are plenty of places there to visit but it seemed to be slightly too close to Cornwall and not near enough for home. Gloucestershire perhaps. A tad further and closer to home. We had both been to Gloucester before but there would be plenty to see around that area. Light bulb moment . How about Cardiff? Been before many times. Courses with work in the 1970's. In those days the Civil Service courses were held for us in Cardiff. We had to stay away from home in the capital living in digs in the Cathedral Road area which cost a few pounds a night. A visit to the national Eisteddfod. Oddly though we had never been inside the castle. I had always walked past the animal wall and admired it but had passed the castle by. Always the thought I will go in one day but never did. How about Castell Coch? Well that is near Cardiff - we could do the two of them. Stay overnight in a Travel Lodge and travel home the next day.

Decision made we loaded the car up and set Sally Sat Nag for Cardiff . 5 hours 30 mins she said . Now that's not right. We checked her route and true to form she seemed to be going round the houses via Gloucester to come back to Cardiff. She seemed to be avoiding both of the Severn crossings and going round the block. We decided to ignore her just as we did on our way down. All the way up the A30 she kept her own council. She took us to Exeter - quite right and then started to have a hissy fit. She tried more times than I care to mention to make us leave the M5 and go on back roads . She tried to make us go to Wellington - no thankyou Sally Sat Nag. She tried other places along the way. We did what old fashioned map reading demands and got out the map. Junction 32 would take us over the second Severn Crossing into Monmouthshire and the M4. Newport and Cardiff - lets see what she does?

We ignored her and found our own way to the impressive bridge over the Severn. Only issue it cost £6.20 for the toll. A rather expensive few miles over the water but it did save us a detour of many miles. Beyond Newport we eventually arrived at Cardiff and booked in to a Travel Lodge with a Toby Carvery attached.

Having parked up we put our bags in our rooms and set off for Sophia Gardens where we knew there was car parking. From there we walked up into Cardiff and past the animal wall. This long wall is topped with animals - dogs, chimpanzees, pelicans, eagles and other strange beasts .It is one of those odd things you see, never forget it and love it. The castle wraps itself around the River Taff to one side and Bute Park and then around the block towards the Civic Buildings. Entry to the castle cost us £10.20 each as pensioners. Extra for a guided tour of 50 minutes of the Gothic extravaganza that is the home of the Marquis of Bute. After our tour at St Michaels Mount we could not stomach another one . However as we only managed to see a few rooms with hindsight I wish we had paid the extra and done the tour. We had no idea what we would miss by not doing the tour . Some you win and some you lose.

So what is there in the castle . First of all a museum dealing with war and the part the Welsh soldiers played in it. We were entertained with an excellent display of medals from various campaigns from the Boer War, through the Battle of Waterloo , the First World War and the Second. Ceremonial dress and the uniforms of the ordinary soldier. Medals from the ordinary soldiers to the bright shiny glitzy baubles of the aristocracy who were the officers. A guy showed us swords from different periods. We saw guns and ammunition and a replica of the dragon on the WW1 monument to the dead at Marmetz Wood. We saw a section of the Roman wall that once surrounded Cardiff . Inside the castle was the motte and Bailey of the original castle . Now you and I would have a small folly of stone or a pergola covered in flowers but Lord Bute could afford to leave an entire castle in his backyard.

So what of the story of the castle - well firstly we have the Romans. Excavations have shown that the roman legions possibly arrived in the area as early as the first half of the reign of the Emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68). The Roman occupation of this part of South Wales began following the defeat of the war-like Silures tribe and the exiling of their great leader Caractacus to Rome. Their first fort, built on this strategically important site where the River Taff nears the Bristol Channel, was a campaign base constructed in still-hostile territory. Their defensive works surrounded a site even larger than the present ten-acres, on which were built their timber barracks, stores and workshops. Little remains apart from the wall beneath the museum and a mock up of a Roman gateway.Then along came the Normans. Between 1091 and 1216 Robert Fitzhamon drawn into quarrels had defeated Rhys ap Tewdur leaving him Lord of Glamorgan. He concentrated his earthworks within this area and built his motte and bailey castle which we see today. Inside bare but still evocative of an earlier age.Various families followed over the years until we get to the one I am most interested in Lord Bute and the reason why we were really here at the castle . Having heard about him many years ago in a programme called the Alphabet of Britain with Lucinda Lambton I had grown fascinated by his wealth and his love of all things gothic . The lordship was to be held by the Bute family, until 1947, when the Castle was given to the City of Cardiff. The Bute family brought power and prosperity to Cardiff, which they turned from a sleepy backwater into one of the greatest coal exporting ports in the world. They transformed the Castle into the gothic fantasy we see today, as well as revealing the Castle's Roman past

In the 1770's, 'Capability' Brown and his son-in-law, Henry Holland embarked upon an ambitious plan to landscape the grounds and modernise the lodgings. Brown cleared away the Lodgings of the Norman Knights and the Shire Hall, from the green. Brown stripped the Keep of its ivy and cut down all the trees growing on the ancient mound. He also filled in the moat.Holland remodelled 16th century Herbert additions and rebuilt to the north and south of the hall, the greater and lesser wings. The Great Hall was partitioned off into a new Entrance Hall, a Library and a Dining Room. Above the Hall, the bedrooms were modernised and given such names as the Red Room, the Velvet Room. In 1814, John Stuart 1st Marquess of Bute died. The Lordship passed to his grandson, the 2nd Marquess of Bute, who developed the estate’s potential for industry and shipping. During the 1820's the Castle underwent further restoration. Apparently in March 1848, the Marquess was found dead. His son and heir, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute - destined to become one of the greatest private patrons of architecture this country has seen - was only six months old. In 1865 Lord Bute invited architect William Burges to present a report on the state of the Castle; it was the beginning of a momentous partnership that was to last for sixteen years, and Cardiff Castle was to be transformed into a Neo Gothic dream palace. Burges brought together a group of men who were to work with him throughout the restoration of Cardiff Castle. Lord Bute called in distinguished local historians and he assisted with tracing the history of the Castle. He ordered the setting up of the ‘Bute Workshops’ and employed the finest Welsh craftsmen. His maxim was dont' worry about the cost just give me something authentic and beautifully crafted. . The Clock Tower was built on the site of a Roman bastion and completed in 1875. Work continued with the rebuilding of the Bute Tower and Herbert Towers, as well as the new Guest and Tank Towers. The 15th century Octagon Tower was restored with the addition of a timber fleche or spire above the battlements. Burges created a Library and the Banqueting Hall within the late medieval residential block.

We were at this point so full of anticipation as we climbed the steps to Gothic castle rooms we had come to see.

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Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Nice photo
Good photo. I like it. We have some fond memories from when we were in Cardiff. We took the train to Taff's Well and climbed up the Garth Hill. /Ake

[JenGog]

Cardiff
It was a bit of side trip but enjoyable , Back to normal now we are back sadly Are you off on any trips ? We are counting down to a month travelling in Greece .