Sir Richard Myddelton commissioned the Davies Brothers to make the gates in January 1711 - 12 and they were paid 2 shillings a day to begin with, iron being made available from Sir Richard's nearby Pont-y-Blew Forge.
The original gates were intended to be located at the end of the drive from Chirk Castle gateway. It appears however, from a painting by Peter Tillemans of 1720, and engravings by Badeslade 1735 and Buck 1745 that the gates were positioned between flanking walls and screens to form a forecourt to the entrance to the Castle.
William Emes, the landscape architect (who had designed gardens at the Old Rectory, Hawarden and improved the garden at Erddig, nr. Wrexham) produced a landscape design for the parkland and in 1771 the New Hall Lodge was built and the gates were moved alongside. In 1888 the gates were moved for a third time to their present position at Llwyn y Cil and the pallisades on either side were restored to their former state.
The gates are overwhelming in their size and baroque detail and their impressive barbaric splendour appears as too strong a statement for their present position as entrance gates to the parkland. This is explained, however, when one appreciates that they were developed as forecourt gates to the Castle where they were read against its foreboding frontal towers.
The coat-of-arms of the Myddelton family is the crowning point of the design over the overthrow of the gates. This incorporates the red "bloody" hand, of the Myddelton family, the three wolves heads and an eagles head. These features are then incorporated further into the design features; eagles heads springing from acanthus scrolls in each of the gates.
Tags: UK Wales Wrexham Wrecsam Chirk Castle
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Tags: bush UK Wales Wrexham Wrecsam Chirk Castle Rosa omeiensis pteracantha
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Sir Richard Myddelton commissioned the Davies Brothers to make the gates in January 1711 - 12 and they were paid 2 shillings a day to begin with, iron being made available from Sir Richard's nearby Pont-y-Blew Forge.
The original gates were intended to be located at the end of the drive from Chirk Castle gateway. It appears however, from a painting by Peter Tillemans of 1720, and engravings by Badeslade 1735 and Buck 1745 that the gates were positioned between flanking walls and screens to form a forecourt to the entrance to the Castle.
William Emes, the landscape architect (who had designed gardens at the Old Rectory, Hawarden and improved the garden at Erddig, nr. Wrexham) produced a landscape design for the parkland and in 1771 the New Hall Lodge was built and the gates were moved alongside. In 1888 the gates were moved for a third time to their present position at Llwyn y Cil and the pallisades on either side were restored to their former state.
The gates are overwhelming in their size and baroque detail and their impressive barbaric splendour appears as too strong a statement for their present position as entrance gates to the parkland. This is explained, however, when one appreciates that they were developed as forecourt gates to the Castle where they were read against its foreboding frontal towers.
The coat-of-arms of the Myddelton family is the crowning point of the design over the overthrow of the gates. This incorporates the red "bloody" hand, of the Myddelton family, the three wolves heads and an eagles head. These features are then incorporated further into the design features; eagles heads springing from acanthus scrolls in each of the gates.
Tags: gate ornate UK Wales Wrexham Wrecsam Chirk Castle
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Tags: UK Wales Wrexham Wrecsam Chirk Castle Garden Hawk House thatched roof lawn cat
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old campaigner of a tree
Tags: UK Wales Wrexham Wrecsam Chirk Castle Garden chestnut tree
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