Inside Tredegar House

The housekeeper’s room at Tredegar House

When I posted about the gardens of Tredegar House I did say I would come back to write about the interior of the mansion in Newport, South East Wales. I’m a bit reluctant now, as my pictures are a bit sparse and badly framed, but here goes anyway.

The usual view of Tredegar House – this picture is by Tony Hisgett on Wikipedia

Tredegar House is considered to be one of the most significant late 17th-century houses in the British Isles, and was home to one of the greatest Welsh families, the Morgans, later Lords Tredegar.

First here are a few architectural details…

Gilded main gate – M for Morgan?

The former stable block

Above the entrance

Corinthian column

The interior of the house, now run by the National Trust, is cleverly divided. The ground floor is laid out in the style of the 17th and 19th centuries, upstairs is based on the 1930s residents of the house and below stairs are the kitchen and other servants’ areas.

The golden age began in the 17th century, when the mansion was built and the Morgans looked forward to a gilded Royalist future.

The dining room is laid out for a wedding breakfast banquet

A lady of the Morgan family, painted around 1610-1615

The Charge of the Light Brigade, the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854, with Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar (1831 – 1913) astride his Horse, ‘Sir Briggs’ – painted by John Charlton

A marble bust of Inigo Jones (1573-1652), after John Michael Rysbrack of Antwerp

Oak panelling

I felt a bit embarrassed about taking pictures upstairs, as the guides were in such close proximity in the small rooms. But I was intrigued by the tales of unusual characters and wild parties in the 1930s.

At this time Evan Morgan was master of Tredegar House and the whole atmosphere of the place must have been buzzing, as he was an occultist lauded by Aleister Crowley – and a friend of leading Nazis.

In 1925 his sister Gwyneth Ericka Morgan was found dead, aged 29, in the River Thames. One theory is that she overdosed in an opium den and her body was dumped.

Although Evan was gay, he married twice. But he died childless in 1949 and his titles passed to his uncle Frederick, who immediately transferred them to his son John to avoid death duties. Neither of them ever lived at Tredegar House and John sold it and moved to France. He died in 1962, last of the Morgans of Tredegar.

The only room where I was alone was the bathroom, where there was this old glass case of sea shells and the pale skeletons of sponges…

A glass case in the bathroom

I love this pearly decorated nautilus shell

Of course many people find life below stairs intriguing, and as my ancestors were all common types of the “servant” classes, I always feel at home. There was a warm, sweet smell of Welsh cakes – or as we call them, “bakestones”, cooking in the kitchen.

Baking Welsh cakes in the kitchen

A wooden plate rack – very convenient for large numbers

Moulds or baking tins? I’m not sure if these small items were for jellies or biscuits – or something else?

The Housekeeper’s Room – where spices were kept locked in a cupboard

And finally – the Cefn Mabli Shovelboard…

Shovelboard is a game played by pushing discs with your hand or with a long-handled shovel over a marked surface – a bit like shove ha’penny but bigger.

The Cefn Mabli Shovelboard was rediscovered in the Newport civic centre basement in 1987, hidden from view and so immovable that walls had even been built around it. It is made of a solid plank of oak 42 feet long but was damp and in disrepair when it came to light again.

The restored Cefn Mabli Shovelboard is now housed in the Orangery at Tredegar House

Courtenay, Lord Tredegar, had bought Cefn Mabli House in 1924, mainly to access the hunting lands attached to it, but donated the house itself to the local health authorities as a tuberculosis hospital. The shovelboard was moved out to the stables at Tredegar House. I wonder how on earth they moved it? And then when Tredegar House was sold in the 1950s the board was taken to the civic centre basement.

The Cefn Mabli shovelboard was made at the time of the English Civil War and was famous even then. In 1684 Thomas Dinely recorded: “The Gallery of Kevenmably hath in it of note… an extraordinary shovelboard of 42 foot in length and of one entire plank of an oak whereof 20 foot was also cut off before.”

Somehow we always come back to trees…

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