Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury
24 August 2017
Frankwell, Shrewsbury
SJ 48906 12832; 52.71071°N, 2.75772°W
Theatre Severn was designed by architects Austin-Smith:Lord and built by Wilmot Dixon. Construction began in November 2006 and the theatre was officially opened in March 2009.
St Chad’s Church, Shrewsbury
24 August 2017
St Chad’s Terrace, Shrewsbury
SJ 48816 12422; 52.70702°N, 2.75899°W
The Church of England’s St Chad’s Church opened on 19 August 1792 and has recently celebrated its 225th birthday. The present building, designed by Scottish architect George Steuart (1730-1806), repaced the earlier 13th century chruch dedicated to St Chad.
St Chad’s is a Grade 1 listed building.
Additional trivia: Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was baptised in St Chad’s on November 15th 1809.
Plas Tan y Bwlch
22 August 2017
Plas Tan y Bwlch, Maentwrog, Vale of Ffestiniog
SH 65548 40623; 52.94608°N, 4.00245°W
The first manor house on the Tan y Bwlch estate is thought to have been built in the 17th century by Evan Evans, who was Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1635. In around 1748 the house was rebuilt by Robert Griffith, grandson of the Evans heiress Catherine. In turn the Griffith family male line also came to an end and Robert’s granddaughter Margaret inherited the estate. In 1789 she married William Oakeley from Staffordshire. The Oakeley family was involved in many developments in the local area, including agricultural land improvement, slate quarrying in Blaenau Ffesiniog, and the creation of the Ffestiniog Railway. The family owned the estate until 1961.
Meirionnydd County Council purchased the house and grounds in 1969 and in 1975 it was opened as the Study Centre by the Snowdonia National Park Authority. Renovations of the property and gardens funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and CADW were carried out in 2004-05.
Mostyn
19 August 2017
Vaughan Street, Llandudno
SH 78537 82048; 53.321378°N, 3.824968°W
Dhamma hall, Dhamma Dipa
23 April 2017
Dhamma Dipa Vipassana Meditation Centre, Herefordshire
SO 50815 26707; 51.93667°N, 2.71684°W
Waddesdon Manor
27 October 2016
Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire
SP 73135 16674; 51.84388°N, 0.93979°W
A member of the Austrian family of bankers, Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild (1839-1898) was born in Paris and lived in Vienna before moving to Britain. He was a hereditary baron (freiherr) in the lower Austrian nobility and in Britain was known as Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. He served as Liberal MP for Aylesbury from 1885 until 1898.
In 1874 Ferdinand bought the Buckinghamshire estate near Waddesdon village. Designed by French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur (1822-1893) in a style based on 16th-century French châteaux, the Manor at Waddesdon was built from 1874 to 1889 to house Ferdinand’s art collection and for entertaining.
Ferdinand left the property to his younger sister Alice Charlotte de Rothschild (1847-1922) and it was subsequently inherited by their great-nephew James Armand de Rothschild (1878-1957), who left it to the National Trust. Although owned by the National Trust, Waddesdon is run semi-independently by investment banker Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild (b 1936) through the Rothschild charity The Alice Trust.
As well as being the National Trust’s second most popular visitor attraction, Waddesdon Manor is also used as a wedding venue and is hired out for location filming. The manor has featured in a variety of films and series, from Carry on… Don’t Lose Your Head and Never Say Never Again to Downton Abbey and The Crown.
Waddeson Manor (waddesdon.org.uk);
Waddesdon Manor (Wikipedia)
Inside the Keep, or Great Tower, built by Henry II c 1181-88
25 October 2016
Dover, Kent
TR 32666 41886; 51.12896°N, 1.32391°E
Dover Castle – the largest in England – is a Grade I listed building and is owned by English Heritage. Its strategically important location on a clifftop overlooking Dover Strait in the English Channel was the site of an Iron Age hillfort. A lighthouse – the oldest still surviving in the UK – was also built there by the Romans in the 2nd century. Much of the existing castle was built by Henry II in the 12th century. Major additions were built at the end of the 18th century during the Napoleonic Wars and a network of tunnels beneath the clifftop were excavated to serve as barracks to house the extra troops stationed there at that time. During World War II the tunnels housed an underground hospital and a command centre, from where Vice-Admiral Ramsay led Operation Dynamo to rescue British and French troops stranded at Dunkirk.
Dover Castle (Wikipedia);
Dover Castle (English Heritage);
More posts in the Dover series
