20 C O N T E X T 1 2 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 Annual School ual School 2011 ool 2011 IHBC An 11 IHBC Annual S HBC Annual School School 2011 IHBC IHBC Annual Scho Study tours Visits to Bodnant and Gwydir Castle The visit to Bodnant Gardens looked at the construction of the new underpass and visitor centre, and the restoration of the Poem. It was led by the project architect David Watkins of Brock Carmichael Architects and accompanied by Liz Green, National Trust curator for NorthWales and Fiona Braithwaite, head gardener. Bodnant Gardens is one of the NationalTrust’s most visited properties. With 200,000 visitors each year it needed an improved access, avoiding the need to cross a busy road.The design brief was for low visual impact, using traditional materials and for the visitor centre to be against, but not attached to, a garden wall where there were once greenhouses. It was constructed using Anglesey stone withYork stone details. The walk took us through the Dell above the Mill, to the Poem, a mausoleum constructed in 1881 for Lord Aberconwy. The roof had been in poor condition due to lack of maintenance. Makeshift guttering had allowed water penetration and consequential rot of the walnut-lined interior and painted ceiling. Works were undertaken to replace the roof and ceiling (now vented to allow air circulation), replace the gutters with lead and piece in damaged stonework, all at a cost of £177,000. Stained-glass windows were re-leaded. Gwydir Castle, heavy with atmosphere and expectation, lived up to its reputation. We were escorted through the detailed history of the site and its buildings by the owner Peter Welford. He and his wife Judy Corbett have been responsible for the works undertaken over the last 20 years to secure the future of this important semi-fortified manor house. The earliest buildings on site date to 1500. The history of the castle’s development by the Wynn family is fully documented in the guide book and on line. The current house incorporates elements of the original fortified manor (1490) and later additions (mid-16th century) to form a courtyard house, with the inclusion of gothic masonry reused from Maenan Abbey nearby. The timber range and stables were gone by the mid-19th century. We were shown the dining room, whose intricate panelling was auctioned from the house in the 1920s but was remarkably tracked down by the current owners and repatriated to Gwydir from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with the help of a grant from Cadw. The room and panelling (reputed to have been designed by Inigo Jones), dating from the 1640s, include a decorated leather frieze, which is the best example of gilded and embossed London work. The house and gardens at Bodnant (Photo: Fiona Newton) JohnYates, Kate Biggs and other delegates walking up from the Poem at Bodnant (Photo: Fiona Newton)
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