Tag: National Trust
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Avebury and the unknowable
This week we spent a few hours in Avebury in Wiltshire. The modern village sits beside (and partly upon) the largest Neolithic stone circle in Britain. It was my first visit since my parents took me to see it in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The stones left a lasting impression on my child’s…
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A tiger in the castle
Powis Castle is quite a frightening place. A huge lump of sandstone glowering down on the Severn valley from its ridge, it was always intended to be intimidating, when it was first built by Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, a Welsh ally of the Normans, and later on when it was controlled by the powerful Herbert family. …
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Castle of light
Barmouth and utopia make an unlikely combination. But for a brief period the town, best known for its donkeys, candy-floss and Brummies, was the home of an idealistic social experiment, and an historic act of generosity. Fanny Talbot was born in Somerset in 1824, the youngest daughter of John and Mary Bowne. Her father was…
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A playing card with feeling
Last week the National Trust kindly asked me to give a talk based on the items in an exhibition in Newton House, Dinefwr, Unlocked: 125 objects from Dinefwr. The choice of objects, most of them connected to Newton House and Dinefwr Park, was up to me. I could hardly fail to include one commonplace but…
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Is it time for a National Trust of Wales?
There was a time when the National Trust was invulnerable and beyond criticism. Its aims are so obviously virtuous, and the experience of visiting its sites so rewarding that anyone bold enough to question its ethos or ways of working would have been seen as eccentric. The Trust is still one of the most popular…