Gwrych Castle was built between 1810 and 1825 by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh. It incorporated an earlier house that had been in the ownership of the Lloyds since the late-medieval period. In 1928, The 12th Earl of Dundonald purchased the castle for £78,000. During the Second World War, the Government used the castle to house 200 Jewish refugees run by the Jewish Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva.
About Gwrych Castle in brief
Gwrych Castle was built between 1810 and 1825 by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh. It incorporated an earlier house that had been in the ownership of the Lloyds since the late-medieval period. In 1928, The 12th Earl of Dundonald purchased the castle for £78,000, selling the contents to meet the cost. During the Second World War, the Government used the castle to house 200 Jewish refugees run by the Jewish Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva. In the 1970s it was used as a centre for medieval re-enactments, attracting tourists with such events as jousting and banquets. The castle closed to the public in 1987, and it started to decline. It was bought in 1989 by Nick Tavaglione, an American businessman, for £750,000.
However, his plans to renovate the building were not carried out and it became little more than a derelict shell. It is currently open for guided self-guided tours, but part of the site is closed as unsafe. The Preservation Trust, dedicated to ensuring the castle’s future, is monitoring the condition of the property. The property was used in 1996 as the backdrop for a film starring Edward Valiant, Joanna Lumley and Katherine Heigl, Heigl Heigl and Katherine Lumley. The Trust was founded by Mark Baker, who was 12 years old when he started a campaign that he started when he was twelve years old to ensure the castle was brought back to its glory.
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This page is based on the article Gwrych Castle published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
