We were talking about Margam, which is located near Neath (Castell-nedd) and Port Talbot. I fell in love with these trees in the park.
One of my biggest disappointments was the fact that we could not enter the house which burned out in 1977.
The park contains the largest herd of fallow deer to be found in south Wales and thought to be descendants of a small herd brought here in the fifteenth century. So there would have been deer here during the Regency.
Another building we would have seen during our era was the remains of the abbey, founded in 1147 by the Earl of Gloucester and given to the Cistercian monks from Clarvaux Abbey in France. It became the largest and wealthiest abbey in Wales and once held a copy of the Domesday Book, now owned by the British Library.
Pictured here is the remnant of the twelve sided Chapter House.
And from a bit further away, with the end of the Orangery off to the side.
Imagine having that in your back yard.
While not strictly our period, I am going to put up some pictures of the house that was on the property, prior to the current castle. Its loss is to be mourned, but if I can get the pictures to download, I think you will agree it is worth recording it, if for nothing else, a setting for a story and a look at an earlier time on which our Georgian period is based.
Until next time, Happy Rambles