Exterior of Penrhyn Castle.
Exploring Life at Penrhyn Castle
Welcome to the third episode of Podlediad Penrhyn. In this episode, Kayla explores life at Penrhyn, from the building of the castle, servant life, the operation of the estate and the lives of the families who lived in and worked the tenant farms. Penrhyn Castle is a Neo-Norman country house located near Bangor in northwest Wales. Penrhyn Castle was built for Lord Penrhyn in 1822-37, on the site of earlier gentry houses, and served as a powerbase for the Pennant family until the 1950s.
In the first two episodes, Kayla looked at the beginnings of the estate, from its medieval owners the Gruffydd and Williams families to the Pennants in the 18th-20th centuries. The previous episode looked at how the Jamaican plantations owned by the Pennant family brought substantial wealth into north Wales, which the family then invested into the slate industry, the estate, and the building of an opulent castle.
In episode three, Kayla speaks with Richard Pennington, the National Trust’s House and Collections Manager at Penrhyn Castle for over 20 years, about Penrhyn’s unique architecture and life in the country house. She also speaks with Ann Dolben, a long-term volunteer at the castle with an extensive knowledge of the house’s art collection and owners. To learn more about Penrhyn Castle, their exhibitions and latest events, visit the National Trust website.
Penrhyn Under Richard Pennant
Richard Pennant is known for expanding the Penrhyn estate through buying additional land in the area and transforming parts of the land for agricultural and industrial use. Richard inherited a portion of the estate through his marriage to Anne Warburton and proceeded to buy additional shares from profits acquired from his sugar plantations in Jamaica.
Illustration of a cottage constructed during Richard Pennant’s improvement of the Penrhyn estate. Courtesy of Bangor University’s Archives and Special Collections.
Around 600,000 trees were planted on the estate, as well as crops such as cabbage and turnip, and farms and houses were built for local workers, bringing in more employment to the area. There was originally a medieval house at Penrhyn that Richard Pennant set about modernising; however little remains of that structure today. It was his heir, a distant relative by the name of George Hay Dawkins Pennant, who would build the elaborate castle that stands on the estate today. He developed Port Penrhyn, built railroads, and invested in agricultural improvements. While there had been small-scale quarrying on the Penrhyn estate for years, it was Richard Pennant who began developing the slate quarries on his estate into a growing enterprise.
The Construction of Penrhyn Castle
Exterior of Penrhyn Castle.
George Hay Dawkins Pennant envisioned a grand castle for his growing estate and hired architect Thomas Hopper to design and build the colossal structure from 1822-37. By this point, the estate had grown exponentially from the time Richard owned it, and George Hay Dawkins Pennant desired to build a home that reflected his status as a major landowner with over 70,000 acres of land. Thomas Hopper’s other projects include Gosford Castle, Englefield House, Kentwell Hall and the conservatory house at Carlton House and were often designs that harkened back to medieval-type styles. The architect chose Neo-Norman for Penrhyn Castle, and exterior designs are meant to look like a defensible castle that has stood in north Wales for centuries, complete with features such as turrets, a tower, and a keep. Hopper also installed elaborate stained-glass windows and placed large, intimidating luminaries in the grand hall. Overall, the house took around fifteen years to finish and cost around £150,000 to build, around £49,500,000 in today’s money.
The Interiors of the Castle
Bedroom in Penrhyn Castle. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons photographed by Andrew Mcmillan.
Lord Penrhyn and his architect Thomas Hooper took great pains to make the interiors of the castle just as imposing as the exterior. Ceilings in the great hall, drawing room, chapel and library are designed in intricate bossed plaster arches that catch the eye anywhere you look. Signature pieces such as a large slate bed and billiards table were made by local craftsmen and are still displayed in the house today.
Furniture, fireplaces, doorways and mirror frames were designed by Thomas Hopper to bring a sense of opulence and heritage throughout the castle. The grand staircase is one of the main focal points in the cast, with Arabian art influence and uniquely carved faces above doorways.
With a keep, stained glass windows, and colonnades the interiors were also meant to have the feel that the castle was built in Norman times. However, much of the furniture and decor were typical for a Victorian country house, with Asian inspired wallpaper, an extensive library and large drawing and dining rooms to impress incoming guests.
Penrhyn’s Art Collection
The Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet by Rembrant, acquired by the Douglas Pennant family in 1860. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons, available from the National Library of Wales.
Lord Penrhyn and his daughter Alice were keen art enthusiasts, and by his death in 1886, Lord Penrhyn had amassed an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures that are displayed throughout the castle. Alice compiled a detailed catalogue of the collection, which included artwork by Van Der Veer, Thomas Gainsborough, Diego Ortez, and Van Dyck. Portraits of the generations of the Pennant family are displayed in the dining room, as well as paintings of the Williams family, Penrhyn’s early modern owners who were featured in episode one.
Paintings of the quarry were commissioned in 1832, giving a snapshot view of the steep inclines of the slate beds during the period, and the perilous work for the quarrymen, who are depicted dangling on ropes throughout the quarry. Another painting depicts Queen Victoria’s visit to the Castle in 1859, at the height of the slate industry in Wales.
In 2021, the What a World exhibit explored some of the artwork and objects displayed throughout Penrhyn Castle through the poetry of school children from local schools in Bangor and Bethesda. Paintings of Penrhyn’s sugar plantations and taxidermied exotic birds, all connected to transatlantic slavery or Empire, were displayed throughout the house alongside poetry written about their reactions to the objects.
To learn more about the What a World, check out the exhibit on the National Trust's website, or watch the video below.
Working at Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn estate staff, 1896. Courtesy of Bangor University’s Archives and Special Collections.
Working at Penrhyn Castle was a busy job, with long working hours for servants in the early 1900s. The National Trust has records of workers such as cooks, housekeepers, maids, and footmen that worked within the castle. Richard talked to Kayla about how the house would have functioned with twenty-three female housemaids, kitchen, and laundry staff and eleven male staff in the house and stables.
Maid at Penrhyn Castle. Courtesy of Bangor University’s Archives and Special Collections.
Alongside serving the family when they were in residence, staff were also prepared for grand parties, royal visits, and extended events such as hunts and festivals. Staff especially prepared for the stay of Queen Victoria in 1830, and again in the 1850s, intricately planning the bed she would sleep in, the sites she would visit on the estate and the foods she would eat during meals. Weeks of preparation were necessary for the Prince of Wales’ visit in 1924 when he came for a grand evening party and the Eisteddfod, at which he was crowned in bardic robes. On this occasion, servants made up twenty-six bedrooms and the kitchens prepared over 1,150 meals for two hundred guests. Guests were served a nine-course meal and a midnight meal with delicacies and desserts, accompanied by entertainment featuring the Penrhyn Male Voice Choir.
Servants' Quarters in Penrhyn Castle can still be explored today, such as The Lamp Room, the China Room, the Kitchen, and Cook’s Sitting Room. The book Penrhyn’s Servants Quarters gives a detailed look at servant life at Penrhyn and is available onsite or through the National Trust.
Fishing tools used by the gameskeeper of the Penrhyn estate. Courtesy of Bangor University’s Archives and Special Collections.
In 2009, the National Trust interviewed Alice Evans, a former maid at Penrhyn Castle, about her experience working there as a young girl. Alice detailed daily life as a maid, with working time starting at 6 am, meals prepared throughout the week, and strict dress codes of the staff. Explore this BBC article to see the full interview.
Penrhyn as a Powerbase
Painting of Penrhyn Castle by J. Newman & Co, circa 1865. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons, available from the National Library of Wales.
Despite grand parties and royal visits, Penrhyn went unoccupied for much of the year, with the Pennants residing in London or inhabiting their other houses most of the year. The castle served as more of a powerbase for the family, with the Pennants preferring to stay in the Northamptonshire estate more frequently during the rising tensions of the strike. More on that in episode four.
Alan George Sholto Douglas-Pennant and his two eldest sons lost their lives in the First World War, leaving the estate to his youngest son Hugh Napier in 1927. By 1949, much of the land was sold off, and the estate needed maintenance. Hugh’s niece, Janet Pelham inherited the house in the fifties and attempted to live in the castle for about six months. Without proper upkeep and heating, however, she found the castle too large to maintain. Jane turned over the castle to the National Trust soon after.
Beyond the Castle
In recent years, stories of the lives of those who lived and worked on the estate are being explored through public history events and activities. In 2018, ISWE hosted a number of events called Tu Hwnt Chwarel / Beyond the Quarry where people from the local area could share memorabilia, attend archival visits, archaeological tours, and lectures, and participate in oral history recordings around life on the Penrhyn Estate.
Tu Hwnt Chwarel / Beyond the Quarry event in 2018. Courtesy of the Institute of the Study of Welsh Estate.
Artifacts such as drawings, deeds, reports, and photographs were brought in during the heritage memorabilia day. To view artifacts that were collected for the event, explore People Collection Wales’ website, which has digital artifacts collected from all over Wales. To learn more about the Tu Hwnt Chawrel project and similar events hosted by ISWE, visit the ISWE website here.
Past exhibits at Penrhyn Castle have highlighted the estate’s connection with slavery, its involvement with the slate industry, and the events of the strikes. Kayla rounded off the episode by speaking with Ann Dolben about an exhibit in 2018 in which author Manon Steffan Ross created twelve stories around Penrhyn’s past, present and future. The stories explored some of the more difficult sides of Penrhyn’s history such as the Penrhyn Lockout; more on this in episode four. The powerful stories provided a great representation of how painful the events of the strikes were to local quarrying families, the relevance to the Strike to this day, and how Penrhyn Castle can be used as a place of contemplation and discussion amongst different generations in Wales, Jamaica, and beyond.
To learn more about the exhibit, have a look back on Penrhyn’s page on the event at the National Trust's website.