Another day and another stumble around in the gloom. To give Erddig (pronounced Erthig) its due, it does provide information about the reasons for this and even advises visitors to let their eyes adjust as they enter the house(!). I would still have been more than a little grumpy, however, were it not for the fact that the resident Yorke family never had electricity installed themselves so, with only candles and gas lighting, the dim conditions that greet the visitor today are probably much as they would have been for the house’s former occupants. It is a point that allows a level of forgiveness. And the willingness of volunteers to rush to my aid with a torch when it was clear I was struggling to see something was another brownie point.
With the exception perhaps of the Regency Dining Room (with its green and white colour scheme and scagliola columns), there are also few rooms at Erddig that have the colourful decorations that require better light to view them so it is perhaps less of a drawback here than at some properties. Even the large Saloon, which impresses in some regards, has dark wood panelled walls and a less than dramatic decorative ceiling (albeit unusually made from pressed steel).
The Victorian parterre
With all properties, I tend to look for something that makes them unique and that will stand out in my memory of the place. For Erddig, this is the family’s relationship to their servants. As at many houses, the basement rooms represent a visit in themselves, with the requisite kitchen, housekeeper’s and butler’s rooms, servants’ hall and other functional areas such as a still room and laundries, while outside roles are also acknowledged in the stable block, carriage house, glasshouses, etc. What makes Erddig unique, however, is the paintings and photos of the servants that adorn the walls below stairs, all with accompanying poems or ditties that show how well the family knew its staff.
This practice was begun in the 1790s by Philip Yorke I, who commissioned paintings of his servants, a situation that was repeated in 1830 by his son Simon Yorke II. By the 1890s, paintings had given way to photographs of the staff and both Simon Yorke III and Philip Yorke II continued to memorialise those who worked for them. I read one of the poems that made me chuckle. It was a verse alongside a 1911 photo of the gardener, John Davies, who had been in service at Erddig for 40 years by that stage, and it was talking about his marriage: “This did not last, ‘twould seem, for long; Whichever party in the wrong; But, when to amorous moods inclin’d; He seeks one, better to his mind”. It seems John the gardener may have been a bit of a scoundrel! And it’s wonderful that his employers knew this about him.
Novel hedging in the formal gardens
So, to the history of Erddig. The house was first built in 1684 by Joshua Edisbury after he was appointed High Sheriff of Denbighshire. Interestingly, there is a connection to Chirk here as Joshua’s father John was a steward to Sir Thomas Myddelton of Chirk Castle. Sadly for Joshua, building the house was his downfall and he wound up bankrupt and dispossessed in 1709 having been unable to pay those who had worked on his new home.
When John Meller, a wealthy barrister, bought the house from its mortgage holders in 1716, it comprised only the central section you see today, made up of nine bays of windows. Meller immediately went to work adding two extra bays, again two storeys high, to both the north and south of the central portion and ten years later started work on further extensions at either end, including the private Chapel. Some of the most valuable furnishings in the house were also purchased by Meller, including the Boulle dressing table and large mirrors in the Saloon and the State Bed.
The bed is currently undergoing restoration work and there is a video in the State Bedroom to show what has been done so far. Apparently, the public were consulted on how to approach the conservation work and, to put my two cents’ worth in, I will come down on the side of complete restoration. The skills exist nowadays – as discussed with Attingham’s covering of its silks in a previous blog entry – to fully recreate the bed bought by John Meller 300 years ago and I fail to see how this could be a bad thing. With modern materials, it could be done in such a way as to look as good as ever and last a lot longer than the original, even if displayed in daylight. If the Trust really does believe in ‘forever, for everyone’, this is surely the kind of work that needs to be done.
I digress! Back to Erddig’s timeline. Meller died without issue in 1733 and left the house to his nephew, Simon Yorke I, the son of his sister Anne. It is here that I must mention something odd about the Yorkes. They tended to concentrate on just two names for their heirs – Simon and Philip – and it seems that the Simons didn’t contribute a huge amount to the house’s development, while the Philips had a lot more impact. Simon apparently means ‘listen’ so perhaps they did too much listening and not enough acting. But that argument falls down when you consider that Philip means ‘lover of horses’, which doesn’t suggest a propensity to achieving great things!
The very different stone-covered west front
Anyway, whatever the reasons for the Simon-Philip contrast, Simon I’s son, Philip Yorke I, made big changes to the house and in the 1770s had the west front of the house refaced in stone, covering the brickwork that was more damaged on this exposed side. He also added the stableyard and new kitchens to the south of the house. Interested in genealogy, Philip also turned the billiard room into the Tribes Room, adding coats of arms of major Welsh families to the walls, and he wrote a book entitled ‘The Royal Tribes of Wales’. Philip has a link to Belton House in Lincolnshire as his first wife was Elizabeth Cust, daughter of John and sister of Brownlow Cust, both former owners of Belton.
Simon Yorke II was perhaps the most important of the Simons. He inherited in 1804 and in the 1820s he extended the Dining Room and added its Regency decorations. We then pass by Simon III without any major news and come to Philip II. He had a troubled early life, being pressured into marrying Annette Puleston in 1877 before she left him shortly after their honeymoon. When he inherited Erddig, he was still living alone but five years later when Annette died, he remarried, for love this time.
Simon Yorke IV was another sorry Simon, paying little attention to financial affairs and letting the estate run into difficulties. He ended up pretty much a recluse, living in a house that was cracking and leaking around him after the National Coal Board ran shafts from a nearby coal mine directly under the building. His brother, Philip III, the last of the Yorkes at Erddig was a much more interesting character, taking many different jobs during his lifetime, including actor, theatre manager, security guard and even tour operator. He inherited Erddig in 1966 and negotiated its transfer to the National Trust in 1973.
Whether Simon or Philip, it seems that the Yorke’s motto was to never throw anything away and for that we should be grateful, with Erddig’s collection of 30,000+ objects being the second largest in the National Trust. I asked one of the volunteers which property came top, thinking it might be Snowshill in Gloucestershire, but she said this was a common suggestion (I hate being predictable!) and that it was actually Tyntesfield in Somerset. When it comes to the contents of the house, there are some great things to see on your way around. Among the various novelties, I loved the dolls’ house (who doesn’t love a dolls’ house?) in the Nursery and the varied musical instruments in the Music Room (including the last Philip’s musical saw!), where the organ was being played this afternoon.
But my favourite things would have to be the models made by Betty Ratcliffe, lady’s maid and companion to Dorothy Yorke, wife of the first Simon. The models are made with a mix of mica, mother of pearl and glass and include a bird, a pagoda and the ruins at Palmyra. And they’re fantastic. You will need a nearby volunteer to bring his/her torch so you can appreciate the intricate detail and glinting flashes but do make the effort. It seems a real shame that Betty was limited to a life of servanthood when she had so much talent, but she had the misfortune to be born in the 18th century. On the flip side, she was lucky enough to work for the Yorkes who clearly had more respect for their servants than many other families and I doubt Betty could have accessed the materials needed for her projects without Dorothy’s assistance, so the fact that her talent was allowed to shine at all was fairly remarkable.
It is currently apple harvest time at Erddig and they certainly have apples in abundance, with one of the buildings in the garden housing a fantastic display of the different varieties that are grown there. No fewer than 144 different varieties have been picked at Erddig this season. My favourite from the names I noticed: the Bloody Ploughman. I didn’t opt for the Ploughman’s Lunch in the tearoom so I’m afraid I can’t say whether it features any apple at all, let alone this particular variety.
Highlights: Servants and poems; Betty Ratcliffe’s models; Dining Room; apples!
Refreshments: Pepper, tomato & sweet potato quiche with buttered new potatoes, salad leaves and coleslaw; bara brith and redbush tea (I have been served well when it comes to the redbush this week!)
Purchase(s): Guidebook; gifts; toffee waffles (for me!)
Companion(s): None
NT Connections: Chirk Castle (Joshua Edisbury’s father was steward for the Myddeltons at Chirk); Belton House (Philip Yorke I married Elizabeth Cust, daughter and sister of John and Brownlow Cust, consecutive owners of Belton)
National Trust Challenge 