Best viewed at 1024x768

Last updated
09 April, 2007

Gwrych Castle Feasibility Study Options

Option 1
Gwrych as a controlled ruin with conservation grounds

Option 2
Full restoration of State Apartments only. First floor Conference/Corporate facilities. Second Floor 'Landmark Trust' style apartments. Stable Court Craft Outlets. Stable Block holiday apartments. Restoration of gardens and conservatory as café/garden shop.

Ground Floor
- Restaurant
- Shop
- Exhibition space
- Display of items such as period furniture/ pictures on loan from various
organisations
- State rooms available to hire for weddings, social engagements etc
- State rooms open to the public
- Possible display of Edwardian Country House life

1^st Floor
- Conference/Corporate Facilities

2^nd Floor/ 3^rd Floor
- 'Landmark Trust' style apartments for rent
- Chapel area for either shop or 'Castle History' exhibition space
- Gwrych Castle Estate Archive

Basements
- Kitchens for Restaurant
- Staff/ Student accommodation/facilities
- Office space

Stable Court
- Lease of buildings for local craft outlets/workshops

Stable Block
- Holiday apartments
- Art centre

Possible semi-permanent marquee on west terrace for outdoor events, weddings etc.

Gardens
- Restoration of gardens with conservation work on paths, garden walls and follies
- Reconstruction of conservatory and formal gardens
- Conservatory as possible café or plant centre
- Restoration of amphitheatre for musical events and outdoor theatre for theatrical
occasions
- Conservation of woodland walks and paths

What would you like to see happen to Gwrych?
 
Let us know e-mail us at enquiries@gwrychtrust.co.uk

You can also use the Guestbook to let us know what you think.

Who would take on a building like Gwrych?

"The likeliest candidate is a Building Preservation Trust (BPT). There are 240 of these in the United Kingdom. Once the building has been saved...single project Trusts often maintain and run the completed amenity. Single project Trusts are set up out of concern for a specific building for which the BPT can foresee a suitable end use. A Trust can raise money from wherever it wishes, apply for grants or apply to the Architectural Heritage Fund. Other options are to find a sympathetic private buyer, or to interest a Charity such as the National Trust. In the last TV article, the owner talked about proposed plans, which might be a deterrent for interested parties".

A notable example of the use of the various procedures, together with grant-aid, featured 'Pell Well Hall' near Market Drayton in Shropshire - a country house by Soane, much altered in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The owner had allowed it to deteriorate since acquiring it 20 years before and in 1984, the Local Authority had served a repairs notice under the predecessor to section 48. It then started compulsory purchase proceedings, including in the draft compulsory purchase order a direction for minimum compensation. It intended to sell the building to a preservation Trust, at a loss of 100,000. The owner appealed without success to the Magistrates' Court against the order and then equally as unsuccessfully to the Crown Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal - the latter in July 1987 (reported as Rolf v North Shropshire D.C. 1988). In 1986, fire had reduced the building to a shell and during 1987 emergency works were carried out by the authority, under the predecessor to section 54, with grant-aid to English Heritage.

The compulsory purchase order was finally confirmed in January 1988 and the building passed to the authority. The authority in due course passed it on, for one pound to a Trust formed especially for the purpose. In 1994, a grant of 1 million was offered by English Heritage and a loan was offered by the Architectural Heritage Fund. Planning permission and listed building consent were granted for the demolition of less important parts of the building and for the restoration of the remainder, which was completed in 1998; the shell of the house, as designed by Soane, is now in good condition and looking splendid - more so, indeed than for over a century. the works are not complete, however; so a Lottery grant has been sought to fund the restoration of the interior. There is, therefore, now every likelihood that the building will be completely restored and brought back into use.

Gwrych Castle, in the early 1900's, around the time when Lord Dundonald returned home from Ladysmith during the Boer War