Ruperra Castle - Castell Rhiw'r Perrai
  • Welcome
  • History
  • About us
    • Our Trustees
  • Visit the area
  • Membership
    • Privacy Policy
  • News and Events
  • Books
  • Stories
  • Croeso
  • Hanes
  • Amdanom ni
    • Ein hymddiriedolwyr
  • Ymwelwch yr ardal
  • Aelodaeth
    • Polisi Preifatrwydd
  • Newyddion a digwyddiadau
  • Llyfrau
  • StorĂ¯au

​News and events

1899 - William Beechey's Christmas

21/12/2021

0 Comments

 
In a few lines each day, William Beechey's diary records twenty years of information about the events and lives of the people of the Ruperra Estate. Read his entries in the weeks running up to Christmas in 1899.
In the census returns of 1891 William Beechey is described as an agricultural labourer from Castletown, Monmouthshire, speaking both English and Welsh and living in a cottage in the parish of Llanfedw. By the 1901 census he had moved to Ruperra Home Farm and was described as a 'shepherd on farm', although he did much more than look after sheep. William was 78 when he died in 1926 and his gravestone can be found in the graveyard of the once Tirzah Chapel which was the Baptist chapel in Michaelstone-y-Fedw. This account is given verbatim so there are spelling and punctuation errors. We are unable to decipher some of the handwriting so have used question marks to indicate where something is not clear.

​
  • Dec 9 Ivor went to Newport and bought 2 shurts
  • Dec 10 Came to Chaple Sunday M? after William Thomas
  • Dec 11 Snowing here to night We have had 3 night sharp frost
  • Dec 11 Took up sheep so? 25 eggs
  • Dec 11 Put lambs in trough 
  • Dec 12 A good crop of Snow
Picture
William Beechey and young family
  • Dec 12 Took the cattle in to Newport 3 Heifer 10 Scot cattle Tom and Harry took them in / a very nasty day they was going to B? to David Thomas but to bad to go
  • Dec 12 A consert at Tirzah tonight . Tom Morgan President going to give a book of Poems to the best who will compose a few lines on ? (Tom Morgan was an illegitimate son of Colonel Freddie and organised many jobs on the estate , held meetings and a very good public speaker)
  • Dec 12 Killed 2 pigs at the castle today J.Poude? Sam Jones and Myself
  • Dec 12 Tom bought a new American saw
  • Dec 13 Christmas Market sold 14 head of cattle, three Short Horn heifers, Eleven Scotch Bullocks
  • Dec 13 Drathen Club Posted to Daz? Very nasty day snowing all day
  • Dec 13 Took up to Castle 19 eggs
  • Dec 14 Took up a sheep
  • Dec 14 2 Pigs 848 lbs, Cut them up, 1st was 20 stone 10 lbs and 2nd 21 stone 19 lbs
  • Dec 14 Sharp frost last night
  • Dec 15 Very sharp and cold
  • Dec 14 Edward over here with fruit
  • Dec 15 Pay Day here today
  • Dec 15 I am afraid the mangle Busie? To heat steam coming out??
  • Dec 15 Driving out dung at Llanvingun yard Want doing (Llanvention was the name given to the medieval house on the field in Llanvedw)
  • Dec 16 1 sheep 80 lbs and eggs 9
  • Dec 16 Went to Newport and bought Tom Boot 12/6 and Harry Boots 8/6 
  • Dec 16 Thawing snow going Harry? S?
  • Dec 17 Jonas Powell preaching tonight at Tirzah and Jim in morning
  • Dec 18 The keeper’s been before the Col. for something. (This is the gamekeeper who bred the pheasants in the Preserve Cottage , and had to deal with poachers)
  • Dec 18 No hunting now missed 3 days in all
  • Dec 18 Took up 3 eggs
  • Dec 19 Went to Edward Jones to look for some pigs
  • Dec 20 Mrs Morris gone from Castle
  • Dec 20 Began the new bacon + good
  • Dec 20 One of the Heifers Died The best in the slaughterhouse all the butchers very well pleased
  • Dec 20 Sowing Bassol? Slag in Caborland? Tom Spring and Jim Spring and William Rook. (the Spring family worked on the Ruperra estate and were the ancestors of Herbie Spring who died recently and who saved this Diary from being totally burned when they were clearing out the old house)
  • Dec 21 Entertainment at Tirzah with the children. Tom Morgan Chairman 
  • Dec 21 Mrs E Jones brought three loads of oats
  • Dec 21 Put 4 black cattle in for next year’s xmas show
  • Dec 21 The Hounds met at March field.
  • Dec 22 John Powell home bad hand
  • Dec 22 Beat at Coedkernew
  • Dec 22 Mrs Goal came to castle
  • Dec 23 Newport xmas market I went down and bought10 lbs of beef at 8 per lb 6/10
  • Dec 23 Harry and Rachel + children came here
  • Dec 24 Sunday Dry Day
  • Dec 25 Xmas Day Lovely had a good time of it
  • Dec 23 Took 1 skin
  • Dec 26 Took a sheep up 85?
Picture
Extract from William Beechey's diary 1899
  • Dec 26 Mr + Mrs Rymer Xmas. Tree good Do a lot these
  • Dec 26 Mr G Morris ill. Dr there
  • Dec 27 William Jones son died today at Cardiff, went there to spend xmas with his son Charles caught going the R? sent Joe Spooner in with him In bed all the time eat nothing.
Picture
Route William Beechey would have taken from Ruperra Home Farm to deliver supplies to Ruperra Castle
Picture
Older William Beechey and family
Read stories from the memories of people who worked on the Ruperra Estate in our book: Serving Under Ruperra by Pat Jones-Jenkins - An illustrated account taken from recorded testimonies of people who worked on the Ruperra Estate in the 19th and 20th centuries up to 1939. £6.00.  Find out more about our films and books
0 Comments

Purchase a calendar by artist Haf Weighton

21/12/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
This year the Trust has commissioned Haf Weighton to visualise a reborn Castle and gardens in its landscape setting. Haf is a Cardiff-based artist who works with paint, print and stitch, her portraits of architecture convey a sensitivity and connection to place. Find out more about artist Haf Weighton

In preparation for the piece Haf has created sketches of Ruperra Castle buildings and gardens to inform the final embroidered piece in 2022. She has turned the sketches into a beautiful desk calendar which is available to purchase for £7.50. The calendar measures 21 x 15cm. If you would like to purchase a calendar please email ruperracastlepreservationtrust@gmail.com
​
​
We have a limited number available on a first come first served basis. We will deliver locally for free.

Any profits go to the Ruperra Castle Preservation Trust.
0 Comments

Truth about the fire

7/12/2021

0 Comments

 
6 December marks 80 years since Ruperra Castle was gutted by fire during the second world war. To commemorate the event we are telling stories from our book, Ruperra Castle War and Flames 1939-46.
People know that soldiers were at the castle when it burnt down but over the years all sorts of myths have grown up. It is often said with great confidence that the Americans were responsible. However, the fire was raging on the night of the 6 December when Japanese planes started their journey to Pearl Harbour. It was only then that America entered the war. Italian prisoners of war have also been blamed but it is doubtful if there were ever any Italian prisoners of war at Ruperra. They were at Castleton later. The Dutch were also blamed, but as we have seen they left the Castle in in October 1940. 

When Tony Friend wrote his book, 'Lord Tredegar's Ruperra Castle' in 1985 he received a letter from Lance Robinson, one of the 307 Searchlight Regiment which explains everything:
“Only our Regiment of about 50 men was in Ruperra when it burnt down. The rest had gone out on to the searchlight sites. They reckoned there was an electrical fault. The Castle hadn’t been used, you see, and so when all the lights went on, the electric wires in the ceilings and the walls were overloaded. I mean, if you’d smoked a cigarette in the Castle you couldn’t have set fire to it because there was no furniture or anything to catch. It wasn’t our neglect. You’re not going to burn your own home down are you? We’d been in some big places before and they’d been all right.
Picture
“The fire started in the ceilings. They were falling in and everybody was trying to get down the stairs. That’s why Cecil Hogg and me and my brother jumped out through the windows. There was a scatter, just a big scatter. A fellow came in to where the men were sleeping or playing cards and said in Geordie ‘Away - the hiss took a hardin!’ which means ‘Get out, the house is on fire’. There was a cockney lad who used to do all the cleaning, who went round throwing pieces of coal in through the windows of the separate rooms of officers and sergeants. The rest of us had been together in the large rooms.
 
“The whole aim was to get everybody outside and then see what you could do. You couldn’t do anything inside. There was a roll call to check that everyone was out. It was probably about 9 or 10 o’clock when the fire started and by 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning it was well away, burning itself out. It was dark you know and people could see the flames all around the area. There were some hoses got out of the outhouses and we were told to hold on to them tight because they kick. But there was no water coming out of them.
 
"The fire brigades came from Cardiff, Newport, all over the place, but they couldn’t all get through. And when they did, it was too late. The following day Lord Tredegar came in his brass hat - he wasn’t in a proper army dress, it was an honorary one. He said he was very glad that we’d all got out.
 
“The only casualty was Lieutenant Barker, a very nice fellow, who went in to rescue the mascot dog, a bulldog, called Tyne. It was frightened by the fire and went back into the Castle. There were friction hoists above the windows which he used to lower the dog down so then he couldn’t use it for himself and had to jump from the second floor. He broke both his legs and of course that finished him in the Army. He was a good Rugby player too.
Picture

"We all slept in a big room above the stables after that.  Pat Kirkwood was supposed to come to do an Ensa show in the Banqueting Hall but with it being burnt down she gave it in the stables. Eventually I went inside the Castle. I remember seeing all the inside flattened. When I looked up he could see the sky.
 “Ruperra had been really something for someone like me to see. The rooms there were fancy and there was a sprung floor in the hall on the first floor. We’d seen castles before, we’ve got a lot of castles up here on Tyneside you know, but this was really beautiful. And I’ve never forgotten the chandelier. When it was all over I was really upset. The surroundings were so nice, the gardens and the trees. I enjoyed it there and I’m sorry for those who never had the chance to see it as it was."
South Wales Argus 9 December 1941:
Picture
80 years on and Ruperra Castle is still a ruin at risk of collapse - help Ruperra Castle Preservation Trust save the Castle and surrounding buildings and gardens by campaigning to secure them to use for community benefit, and to ensure a better future for our precious local heritage. Help us secure a future for this important monument - become a member before the end of 2021 and we will send you a free copy of our book – Ruperra Castle War and Flames 1939-46. You can also buy the book separately for £6.
0 Comments

Fire and destruction 6 December 1941

6/12/2021

0 Comments

 
6 December marks 80 years since Ruperra Castle was gutted by fire during the second world war. To commemorate the event we are telling stories from our book, Ruperra Castle War and Flames 1939-46.
So many people remembered exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that Ruperra Castle was on fire. The following morning came the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
Picture
Ethel Ackland
Ethel Ackland, living in Ruperra Park Drive on the Cardiff road entranced noticed that there was no water coming out of the tap outside her house, which was her water supply usually. Then she saw the pink sky and the high flames coming out  from the top of a square fire place and through the windows. She joined plenty of people going to see. It was a windy, wet night so there were no bombing raids. As she went up the drive she could hear the crackling of all the varnish and polish in the wood. The noise was frightening. 
"Of course there was a black out as well and there were fire engines stuck all over the fields without getting to the castle. They drained all the water in the ponds as well. It is a myth that there was a huge fire extinguishing system in the castle, a huge water tank in the roof with chains hanging down the walls to release the water when pulled, but nobody knew about it, although the chains had been noticed previously. Whether rusted up or never been checked. In any case, they didn’t save the Castle anyway.”

​Doris Oram and her husband, working nights at the ‘Rodgy’ works, the Rogerstone Aluminium factory, were in bed in No. 3 The Row in Draethen. “It was nearly time for us to get up to go to work and we heard the noise fire engines rushing up the road to the Michaelstone entrance to the Castle. We were sure the Germans had invaded. We can laugh about it now but at the time it was very frightening.”
Picture
Doris Oram
Although Game Keeper Blackburn had gone up from his house to the castle and told the driver of the first engine to follow him to the pond on the drive from the Cardiff road, the reflection of the light of the fire in the water had attracted them to cut off across the grass. Stuck in the soft earth they could not go further.

Herbie Spring coming home from Newport on the last bus, could see the reflection of the flames in the tall clock face up on the top of the old station. He didn’t know what it was but as he came nearer he could see that this was a big fire.
 
Children watched the fire engines rushing past on the roads.
Picture
​80 years on and Ruperra Castle is still a ruin at risk of collapse - help Ruperra Castle Preservation Trust save the Castle and surrounding buildings and gardens by campaigning to secure them to use for community benefit, and to ensure a better future for our precious local heritage. Help us secure a future for this important monument - become a member before the end of 2021 and we will send you a free copy of our book – Ruperra Castle War and Flames 1939-46. You can also buy the book separately for £6.
0 Comments

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021

    Categories

    All
    Artist Haf Weighton
    Environment
    Events
    Footpaths
    Fundraising
    History
    Local Area
    Offers
    Saving The Castle
    Visit The Area
    War And Flames
    William Beechey's Diary

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Welcome
  • History
  • About us
    • Our Trustees
  • Visit the area
  • Membership
    • Privacy Policy
  • News and Events
  • Books
  • Stories
  • Croeso
  • Hanes
  • Amdanom ni
    • Ein hymddiriedolwyr
  • Ymwelwch yr ardal
  • Aelodaeth
    • Polisi Preifatrwydd
  • Newyddion a digwyddiadau
  • Llyfrau
  • StorĂ¯au