Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification, cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village ofTongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as from 28 January 1963.
Designed by William Burges, with an impressively medieval
appearance, working portcullis and drawbridge, and sumptuous interiors which
rival those of Cardiff Castle, it has been described as "the most
spectacular example of [that architect's] translation from High Gothic into
High Victorian."
Castell Coch was built on the site of a 13th-century castle.
The earlier fortification was constructed by a Welsh chieftain referred to as
Ifor Bach ("Little Ivor"). In the late 13th century the castle site
was claimed by the De Clare family because of its strategic importance,
commanding both the plains area and the entrance to the Taff valley. The castle
was rebuilt in stone and consisted of a keep, towers, an enclosed courtyard and
a gatehouse. Although the early history of the castle is largely undocumented,
it is generally accepted that it was severely damaged during a period of Welsh
rebellion in the early 14th century. Thereafter, the castle fell into disuse
and by Tudor times, the antiquary John Leland described it as "all in ruin
no big thing but high".
In 1871, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, ordered
the site to be cleared of vegetation and debris while his architect, William
Burges, drew up plans for a full reconstruction. Burges and the Marquess had
been working for over three years on the rebuilding of Cardiff Castle; the aim
at Castell Coch was to achieve another "dazzling architectural tour de force
of the High Victorian era, a dream-like castle which combined sumptuous Gothic
fantasy with timeless fairy tale."
A set of drawings for the planned rebuilding exists,
together with a full architectural justification by Burges. The castle
reconstruction features three conical roofs to the towers that are historically
questionable. Burges sought to defend their use with references to a body of
doubtful historical evidence but: "the truth is that he wanted them for
their architectural effect." He did admit that they were "utterly
conjectural" although "more picturesque and (...) affording much more
accommodation", contending that:
"It is true that some antiquaries deny the existence of
high roofs in English Mediaeval Military Architecture, and ask objectors to
point out examples. As nearly every Castle in the country has been ruined for
more than two centuries...it is not surprising that no examples are to be
found. But we may form a very fair idea of the case if we consult contemporary
(manuscripts) and if we do we find nearly an equal number of towers with flat
roofs as those with pointed roofs. The case appears to me to be thus: if a tower
presented a good situation for military engines, it had a flat top; if the
contrary, it had a high roof to guarantee the defenders from the rain and the
lighter sorts of missiles. Thus an arrow could not pierce the roof, but if the
latter were absent and the arrow was fired upright, in its downward flight it
might occasion the same accident to the defenders as happened to Harold at
Hastings."
Burges's report on the proposed reconstruction was delivered
in 1872 but construction was delayed until 1875, in part because of
the pressure of work at Cardiff Castle, and in part because of an unfounded
concern on behalf of the Marquess's trustees that he was facing bankruptcy.But
in August 1875 work began in earnest. The exterior comprises three towers,
"almost equal to each other in diameter, but arrestingly dissimilar in
height." They form an awesome display of architectural power and ability.
In a lecture, Burges called on architectural students to "study the great
broad masses, the strong unchamfered lines".
The Keep tower, the Well Tower and the Kitchen Tower
incorporate a series of apartments, of which the main sequence, the Castellan's
Rooms, lie within the Keep. The Hall, the Drawing Room, Lord Bute's Bedroom and
Lady Bute's bedroom comprise a suite of rooms that exemplify the High Victorian
Gothic style in 19th century Britain. They begin weakly: the Banqueting Hall,
completed well after Burges's death, is "dilute(,...) unfocussed"[9]
and "anaemic." The Drawing Room is "more exciting", a
double-height room with decoration illustrating the "intertwined themes
(of) the fecundity of nature and the fragility of life." A superb
fireplace by Thomas Nicholls features the Three Fates, spinning, measuring and
cutting the thread of life. The octagonal chamber with its great rib-vault,
modelled on one designed by Viollet-Le-Duc at Councy, is "spangled with
butterflies and birds of sunny plume in gilded trellis work." Off the
hall, lies the Windlass Room, in which Burges delighted in assembling the fully
functioning apparatus for the drawbridge, together with "murder holes"
for expelling boiling oil. The Marquess's bedroom provide some
"spartan" respite before the culmination of the castle, Lady Bute's
Bedroom.
The room is "pure Burges: an arcaded circle, punched
through by window embrasures, and topped by a trefoil-sectioned dome." The
decorative theme is 'love', symbolised by "monkeys, pomegranates, nesting
birds". The decoration was completed long after Burges's death but his was
the guiding spirit; "Would Mr Burges have done it?" William Frame
wrote to Thomas Nicholls in 1887.
Following Burges' death in 1881, work on the interior
continued for another ten years. The castle was not used much: the Marquess
never came after its completion, and the family appeared to use it as a sort of
sanatorium, although the Marchioness and her daughter, Lady Margaret
Crichton-Stuart, did occupy it for a period following the death of the Marquess
in 1900. But the castle remained "one of the greatest Victorian triumphs
of architectural composition," summing up "to perfection the learned
dream world of a great patron and his favourite architect, recreating from a
heap of rubble a fairy-tale castle which seems almost to have materialised from
the margins of a medieval manuscript."
In 1950, the 5th Marquess of Bute placed the castle in the
care of the Ministry of Works. It is now administered by Cadw, an agency of the
Welsh Government. Ths castle is Grade I listed, of exceptional architectural
and historical interest.
William Burges (2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an
English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian
art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century
industrialisation and the Neoclassical architectural style and re-establish the
architectural and social values of a utopian medieval England. Burges stands
within the tradition of the Gothic Revival, his works echoing those of the
Pre-Raphaelites and heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Burges's career was short but illustrious; he won his first
major commission for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork in 1863, when he was
35, and he died, in 1881, at his Kensington home, The Tower House, aged only
53. His architectural output was small but varied. Working with a long-standing
team of craftsmen, he built churches, a cathedral, a warehouse, a university, a
school, houses and castles. Burges's most notable works are Cardiff Castle,
constructed between 1866 and 1928, and Castell Coch (1872–91), both of which
were built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. Other significant
buildings include Gayhurst House, Buckinghamshire (1858–65), Knightshayes Court
(1867–74), the Church of Christ the Consoler (1870–76) and St Mary's, Studley
Royal (1870–78) in Yorkshire, and Park House, Cardiff (1871–80).
Many of his designs were never executed or were subsequently
demolished or altered. His competition entries for cathedrals at Lille (1854),
Adelaide (1856), Colombo, Brisbane (1859), Edinburgh (1873), and Truro (1878)
were all unsuccessful. He lost out to George Edmund Street in the competition
for the Royal Courts of Justice (1866–67) in The Strand. His plans for the
redecoration of the interior of St Paul's Cathedral (1870–77) were abandoned
and he was dismissed from his post. Skilbeck's Warehouse (1865–66) was
demolished in the 1970s, and work at Salisbury Cathedral (1855–59), at
Worcester College, Oxford (1873–79) and at Knightshayes Court had been lost in
the decades before.
Beyond architecture, Burges designed metalwork, sculpture,
jewellery, furniture and stained glass. Art Applied to Industry, a series of
lectures he gave to the Society of Arts in 1864, illustrates the breadth of his
interests; the topics covered including glass, pottery, brass and iron, gold
and silver, furniture, the weaver's art and external architectural decoration.
For most of the century following his death, Victorian architecture was neither
the subject of intensive study nor sympathetic attention and Burges's work was
largely ignored. However the revival of interest in Victorian art, architecture,
and design in the later twentieth century has led to a renewed appreciation of
Burges and his work.
On his succession to the Marquessate at the age of one, Bute
inherited an income of £300,000 a year, and, by the time he met Burges, he was
considered the richest man in Britain, if not the world. Bute's wealth was
important to the success of the partnership: as Burges himself wrote,
"Good art is far too rare and far too precious ever to be cheap."
But, as a scholar, antiquarian, compulsive builder and enthusiastic
medievalist, Bute brought more than money to the relationship and his resources
and his interests allied with Burges's genius to create what McLees considers
to be "Bute's most memorable overall achievement."
"A prime example of the partnership of aristocratic
patron and talented architect producing the marvels of Cardiff Castle and
Castell Coch."
However occasioned, the connection lasted the rest of Burges's
life and led to his most important works. To the Marquess and his wife, Burges
was the "soul-inspiring one". The architectural writer Michael Hall
considers Burges's rebuilding of Cardiff Castle and the complete reconstruction
of the ruin of Castell Coch, north of the city, as representing his highest
achievements. In these buildings, Crook contends that Burges escaped into
"a world of architectural fantasy" which Hall describes as
"amongst the most magnificent the Gothic Revival ever achieved."
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