ERDIGG COUNTRY HOUSE AND ESTATE 3.9.11

[minxy*]

Paid a visit with Sloth, Gannet and some monkey's.

History (from wiki)

Erddig Hall is a National Trust property on the outskirts of Wrexham, Wales. Located 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wrexham town centre, it was built in 1684–1687 for Joshua Edisbury, the high sheriff of Denbighshire and was designed by Thomas Webb.

Erddig is one of the country's finest stately homes - in September 2007 it was voted the UK's "favourite Historic House" and the "8th most popular historic site" in the UK by Britain's Best. In 2003 it was voted by readers of the Radio Times and viewers of the Channel 5 television series "Britain's Finest Stately Homes" as "Britain's second finest".

The building was sold to the master of the Chancery, John Meller in 1714. John Meller refurbished and enlarged the house (including adding two wings in the 1720s), and, on his death in 1733 unmarried and childless, passed it to his nephew, Simon Yorke (d. 1767) (first cousin of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke). The house was passed down through the Yorke family until March 1973, when it was given to the National Trust. This followed the collapse several years earlier of a shaft from the nearby coal mine (Bersham colliery) under the house, causing subsidence of 5 feet (1.5 m), which seriously affected the structural security of the house to the extent that, without suitable underpinning, it would have become a ruin. It was strengthened using the compensation of £120,000 the National Trust was able to extract from the National Coal Board. 63 acres (250,000 m2) of Erddig Park (out of view of the house) was subsequently sold for £995,000 and this paid for the restoration work on the house. The restoration was completed on 27 June 1977 when Charles, Prince of Wales officially opened Erddig to the public, joking that it was the first time in his, albeit short, life that he had opened something that was already 300 years old.









The Gardens

Erddig's walled garden is one of the most important surviving 18th century formal gardens in Britain. The gardens contain rare fruit trees, a canal, a pond, a Victorian era parterre, and are home to an NCCPG National Plant Collection of Hedera (ivy). There is also a fine example of gates and railings made by ironsmiths the Davies brothers, of nearby Bersham, for Stansty Park; the gates were moved to Erddig in 1908. The arrangement of alcoves in the yew hedges in the formal gardens may be a form of bee bole.



Estate Buildings

The estate buildings include the joiners' shop and smithy (where the joiner and blacksmith worked), the Midden Yard (with its saw mill and cart sheds), and the Stable Yard (with its stables and tack room, carriages and vintage bicycles and vintage cars). The tour of the house begins with the laundry, bakehouse, kitchen and scullery.

The nearby river supplied a source of water, and it was pumped uphill by a self running hydraulic ram, which utilised falling water to power itself, and pump the drinking water uphill to the house.

Whilst occupied by the Yorke family the house was never installed with mains electricity, with the last Squire, Philip, relying on a portable generator to power his single television set. The saw mill, however, was equipped with its own static steam engine to provide the power for sawing and turning.















Thanks for Looking

[KingElvis]

Nice stuff, KingElvis should live there.

[MJS]

That's one big butt plug

[boxerheaven]

love it that car is ace

[S&R B n wee C]

ha ha ha never noticed that :P