North Wales Stately Homes

March 15th, 2017

Here in Wales, we boast a history and heritage that dates back thousands of years, so it’s no surprise that dotted all around North Wales are some of the most beautiful and historic stately homes and manor houses in the country. Built for a huge number of reasons, these elegant and often enormous houses were quite literally a showcase of affluence and titles.

Some were built as residences for the landed gentry, some were raised from the profits of successful businesses during the industrial revolution, and some were built as shows of defiance after victorious wins in battles for land. But whatever the reason, these beautiful country and manor houses all have one thing in common – their opulence and size were meant to leave the visitor in no doubt of the owners social standing.

The seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the heyday for these grand country piles; before then, any important land owners or feudal lords would have built fortified houses because of the general and political instability across most of the country. During Tudor times, Britain gradually became more stable and it was during the reign of Elizabeth I that the first architect designed mansions began to pop up.

Grand Designs

By the end of the 1600s, these country house estates had started to change the face of British design. Short and bulky turrets and windowless castle designs gave way to much more elegant facades as architects and builders were influenced by renaissance, baroque, Italianate and Greek styles. Architects like Robert Adam, Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren and John Nash became household names as the rich families of England requested ever larger and grander country houses than the last.

Country houses generally had large numbers of staff to support the surrounding estate, and the families that lived within them. This meant that they were of huge economic benefit to rural areas, providing local people with jobs, and a country house and estate was often the hub of a town or village.

Plas Newydd, Anglesey Wiki commons

And it wasn’t just the houses that were grand designs either. The occupants of country houses lavished huge sums of money on creating the perfect setting for their houses, and landscape architects like Capability Brown, William Kent and Humphry Repton were drafted in to make the most of the hundreds of acres that the houses sat in. “Taking a turn” around the gardens and estate became a popular 19th century pastime for wealthy ladies and gentlemen so that they could admire their perfect gardens and immaculate landscape.

However, by the early twentieth century an agricultural depression, the onset of World War I and hugely increased taxation started to see the demise of many country houses as their owners struggled to find the money to pay their staff and maintain the buildings. Huge numbers of country mansions were knocked down or destroyed, their grand architecture and rich designs sadly lost forever.

Thankfully, lots of country houses did survive though, as their owners found clever ways to secure incomes – from opening their doors to the public, hosting weddings, offering the interior and exterior as television and film sets and transforming outhouses into holiday cottages.

And luckily for us, many country houses were bequeathed to charities like the National Trust or English Heritage, for future generations to enjoy the tranquillity and the quiet extravagance that previous generations had taken so much care to create.

So here are some of the very finest North Wales Stately Homes for you to explore when you visit Snowdonia and the Oakeley Arms. As well as enjoying the views of the palatial buildings and stunning landscapes, perhaps you can also enjoy a little daydream about one day owning a mansion just like them……

 

Penrhyn Castle From wikicommons

Did you know……

Plas is the Welsh word for mansion or manor……