When Tredegar House was originally built this was a room known as the Green Wrought Chamber. The Victorians turned it into a bathroom and that’s how it’s displayed today.
Visible on the right hand side on the wall, above the mirror, is a pagan style head and that’s a nod towards what the National Trust call “the “Evan Morgan’s eccentric tastes” which I assume to mean they find him a bit odd.
Evan Morgan (1893-1949) was very interested in the supernatural and Aleister Crowley, who was a character however you look at it, stayed at the house on numerous occasions. Evan, who didn’t have children and is thought to have been gay (despite two marriages) left Tredegar to his uncle, Frederick Morgan. Evan had his bedroom in his adjoining room and there are numerous reports that he would meet his guests whilst lying in the bath. How the upper classes live….
This is the rather grand dining room, previously known as the Best Parlour, the Great Parlour and the New Parlour. It was where the Morgan family would have dined with all sort of decadent foods such as pheasants, lamb and chicken bakes.
There was a man from the National Trust sitting on the floor and I didn’t like to ask what he was doing, but he seemed to be enjoying it. During the period that this building was in use as a Catholic girls’ school, this room was used as their chapel.
Here’s a photo of that fireplace from 1908.
I wonder if civil engineers could do this to ceilings, as it gives me a design idea. This was installed here in the 1860s, replacing an earlier one that was likely either not decadent enough or which was falling down.
A serving hatch in the room which was installed here during the Victorian period and which the note mentions is now a little rickety (they used a different word, but I think that’s what they meant). Apparently this room has apparently been used in Dr Who and Torchwood, amongst other TV programmes.
This portrait is of William Morgan the elder (1700-1731), the eldest son of John Morgan who was a Welsh politician of some note and of considerable influence. John also owned Tredegar House and passed it down to William in 1721 when he died.
William served as the Whig MP for Brecon and later for Monmouthshire, being returned for both in 1722, but he chose Monmouthshire. There was nearly always a Morgan as the MP for this constituency from the 1650s until the constituency was abolished in the 1880s, although one of the successor seats of South Monmouthshire was represented by a Morgan until 1906.
William married Rachel Cavendish, a daughter of the Duke of Devonshire, so that was handy at keeping power in the family. William was also one of the wealthy and enthusiastic Government supporters who was created a Knight of the Bath when that order was revived in 1725 and he was wearing his sash in the painting. William died young, although I’m not entirely sure what the cause of his death was as it doesn’t appear to have been recorded, but the estate was left to his son William Morgan the younger (1725-1763).
It’s not known who the painter was, but the National Trust note that on the artwork there is:
“Painted lower frame: Sir William Morgan, K B B.1700 D.1731 married Rachel, eldest daughter of William, 2nd Duke of Devonshire, KG
Written paper on crosspiece of stretcher frame: Sir William Morgan, Knight of the Bath, eldest son of John Morgan, esqr. of Tredegar. Belonged to Ruperra, 1783″
It doesn’t take much walking around Tredegar House to realise the power and influence of the Morgans on local and national politics, they had some considerable wealth going on here.
This painting at Tredegar House is of Blanche Parry (1508-1590) and is still owned by Newport Museums and Galleries. The fashion is very similar to that of Queen Elizabeth I, but Blanche was a Woman of the Bedchamber to her, so that is perhaps not an entire surprise. I suspect that this role, which was nearly always held by aristocrats and was more about travelling with the Queen and offering social support, was likely rather an interesting one and it came with some significant power. Parry was an aide to the Queen for over fifty years, so she must have picked up some considerable gossip during that period.
It might have been painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561-1632) who was perhaps best known for the Ditchley Portrait of Queen Elizabeth. The information about the painting also notes that the frame is from the eighteenth century, so it is later than the artwork itself. The realistic and grand artwork is also very much a statement of power and influence, no doubt a source of some pride to her family.
Blanche wasn’t directly linked to Tredegar House, but she was connected to the Welsh Marches, so perhaps there was some family history interlinked there. Or it might be that Newport Museums and Galleries acquired this artwork and thought that Tredegar House was the best place to just pop it.
Another day, another flight with my Multipass from Wizz Air. This was my 55th flight with it, although it comes to an end next week. I plan to renew it as my two loyal blog readers will note from my frequent Wizz Air postings on this blog that I’m quite an advocate of them now.
Anyway, I started at Big Smoke with some chicken tenders.
Then Nolito for some olives and beer.
Then boarding from Gate 22 which was as usual for Wizz Air ordered and well managed. It was immediately apparent though that there was something special going on.
That special event was that it was the inaugural flight from London Luton to Venice Marco Polo airport, so they were making something of a thing of it.
The boarding then began.
The aircraft was 9H-WDH, which I don’t think that I’ve been on before and it feels as though it’s becoming quite unusual for me to note that.
The flight was at near capacity and the seating Gods had unusually given me a middle seat. I boarded and the passenger in the aisle seat asked if I minded sitting there as he wanted to sit in the middle seat next to his partner. This, at the time, pleased me.
However, on board, there was an announcement that they had hidden goodie bags around the aircraft. To cut a long story short, it transpired that they’d hidden it on my original seat, so I didn’t get the goodie bag that the seating Gods had tried to give me….
One amusing side to this is that the passenger on the other side of the aisle had heard the announcement that it was a white envelope. He excitedly pulled out from the seat pocket what he thought was the white envelope and looked inside enthusiastically. He read the outside and then kept it. It was actually the sick bag that is in every seat….
Anyway, the crew were impeccable as usual, the aircraft was spotless and the journey was uneventful (other than for my missing goodie bag). It’s a wonderful route and I’m glad Wizz Air have started it, although it’s ironic after travelling around Europe for 15 years and finally getting to Venice last week that I’ve ended up here again….
And safely into Venice airport where the security process took just minutes as they’ve installed the new entry system and it’s working well. Straight to the bus and into the city. And in the future I’m not changing seats, well, not on inaugural flights anyway.
I did get one free memento though, a Venetian mask which will be going to Liam’s little girl, unless it scares her and then it can just go to Liam in that case.
This is quite a decadent room, some suggest that it’s the finest in the house. It was designed to be one of the state rooms, primarily where guests could relax at the end of the evening. The Morgans fancied some European influences in their grand room and it’s decorated with pine panels designed to look like walnut.
Here’s what the room looked like in 1908. During the Newport Council period, they plonked a bed in the middle of the floor so that people could lie down and look at the ceiling, but the National Trust have gone for a more tried and trusted method of using an angled mirror. They also did well to ensure that this room was kept well maintained when it was a school, although the council did refresh all the gilt decoration during their ownership.
Those twisted columns are designed to look like marble, but they’re actually made of wood. This was all arranged by William Morgan who managed to complete pretty much all of the decoration in the house without needing later generations to complete the work.
Our visit on the way back from Cardiff was to Tredegar House, a National Trust property located near to Newport. The current property dates to the 1670s, although there are some Tudor bits still standing, paid for by the wealthy Morgan family. The Morgan family began as landowners and managed to also benefit from the industrial revolution and got themselves involved in politics as well.
The property ceased to be used as a family mansion in the early 1950s, when it became a Catholic girls school. A new school was built in the 1970s, so Newport Council ended up buying it, hence the reference to the most expensive council house in Britain. By 2012, this house was a little bit of a faff for the council, so a decision was made to lease the property to the National Trust.
I thought that the layout was a bit bodged (by that I mean that we went the wrong way) and so we missed some of the route, but here’s the orangery.
These might look like rickety pipes, but they’re the remains of hothouses which once stood here.
A tree. This isn’t a blog about trees though, so I’ll limited myself to that description.
This is the side of the house, and that large section to the right is the former Tudor house owned by John Morgan that never quite got demolished.
For my attentive blog readers, they might have noticed that I stopped the blog following my birthday weekend in Cardiff and I jumped straight to my birthday weekend in Ljubljana as there’s something about sort of live and up-to-date content that’s useful.
Anyway, I now continue the story of how I got from Cardiff to Ljubljana as I think that there are some useful elements. So, I finished before talking about Richard’s very low Uber score…. I will return to the day trip to Trieste when I’ve caught up the missing section.
The next stage of the adventure was to charge Liam’s car up a bit, whilst Richard looked at it enviously. We were heading for the National Trust property of Tredegar House, which has the informal name of the most expensive council house in Britain.
It was the morning of my birthday, so what better plan could I have than to travel on a bloody Flixbus? Four of us were taking the ninety minute journey to Trieste where we spending the evening before all flying back the following day.
I’ve used Flixbus many times and I always dread it, as their policies seem odd to me. I boarded and then tried to take the seat they told me to sit in, which annoyed the lady next to me I think as it soon became apparent that the coach was nearly entirely empty. Steve, Susanna, Bev and I were scattered around the coach, their whole reservation strategy is just a nuisance. I don’t understand why it can’t be an optional thing like many other coach companies such as National Express.
Bev and Susanna just boarded the coach without showing their tickets, as they’re like that. Steve and I thought we’d board properly, but Bev and Susanna soon rushed off to the ticket collector when they realised.
There are USB power outlets on the back of some seats, but they didn’t work.
Safely in Trieste where it was wet and rainy. The staff members on the Flixbus were polite, the driving seemed entirely acceptable and the coach was sort of clean. It was only a ninety minute journey, but for as long as Flixbus keep forcing seat reservations on people, I’m going to try and avoid travelling with them.
We were all staying in Accor’s Ibis Styles for the three nights that we were in Ljubljana, a conveniently located hotel just a short walk away from the bus stop and railway station.
The set-up here is a little different to the usual Ibis Styles arrangement, as they also have a hostel on the seventh floor which means more social areas are provided for the entire hotel. There is a rooftop bar, which I confess that we forgot to visit.
We were all on different floors, but I think that the rooms looked the same. The bathroom set-up is very Ibis Styles… My room felt functional and bare, but it was clean and I had what I needed. Well, other than a welcome gift….
The view from the hotel over to Ljubljana Castle.
I had been fortunate to obtain a favourable rate that also included breakfast, although the others had booked room options without the breakfast. I didn’t intend to miss out though.
I didn’t bother with the hot options as the cold options were plentiful, but there were some eggs and sausages as well.
Bread, blue cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, salami, croissant, bread and butter, all really rather lovely.
I always find it handy when they do this. I went down between 07:00 and 08:00 to fit in with the others and it was always quiet.
And my welcome drink, which I picked up on the final night. It’s not a beer that I’ve had before, but it was dark and interesting.
As an aside, I liked the lights outside the room which clearly indicated to the cleaning staff who wanted the room cleaned. I opted to just collect the 100 Accor points every night by not having the room cleaned, as every little helps…
I really rather liked this hotel, the staff were friendly, the room was clean, there were no internal or external noise, everything worked properly, there was a nice welcome drink and the breakfast was of a decent quality. I’d certainly stay here again if I come back to the city, which I likely will.
