Castell Coch - Re-construction and Resurrection

Re-construction and Resurrection

In 1871, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, ordered the site to be cleared of vegetation and debris while his architect, William Burges, drew up plans for a full reconstruction. Burges and the Marquess had been working for over three years on the rebuilding of Cardiff Castle; the aim at Castell Coch was to achieve another "dazzling architectural tour de force of the High Victorian era, (a) dream-like castle which combine(d) sumptuous Gothic fantasy with timeless fairy tale."

A set of drawings for the planned rebuilding exists, together with a full architectural justification by Burges. The castle reconstruction features three conical roofs to the towers that are historically questionable. Burges sought to defend their use with references to a body of doubtful historical evidence: "the truth is that he wanted them for their architectural effect." He did admit that they were "utterly conjectural" although "more picturesque and (...) affording much more accommodation", contending that:

"It is true that some antiquaries deny the existence of high roofs in English Mediaeval Military Architecture, and ask objectors to point out examples. As nearly every Castle in the country has been ruined for more than two centuries...it is not surprising that no examples are to be found. But we may form a very fair idea of the case if we consult contemporary (manuscripts) and if we do we find nearly an equal number of towers with flat roofs as those with pointed roofs. The case appears to me to be thus: if a tower presented a good situation for military engines, it had a flat top; if the contrary, it had a high roof to guarantee the defenders from the rain and the lighter sorts of missiles. Thus an arrow could not pierce the roof, but if the latter were absent and the arrow was fired upright, in its downward flight it might occasion the same accident to the defenders as happened to Harold at Hastings."

Burges's report on the possible reconstruction was delivered in 1872 but construction was delayed until 1875, in part because of the pressure of works at Cardiff Castle, and in part because of an unfounded concern on behalf of the Marquess's trustees that he was facing bankruptcy. But in August 1875 work began in earnest. The exterior comprises three towers, "almost equal to each other in diameter, (but) arrestingly dissimilar in height." They form an awesome display of architectural power and ability. In a lecture, Burges called on architectural students to "study the great broad masses, the strong unchamfered lines".

The Keep tower, the Well Tower and the Kitchen Tower incorporate a series of apartments; of which the main sequence, the Castellan's Rooms, lie within the Keep. The Hall, the Drawing Room, Lord Bute's Bedroom and Lady Bute's bedroom comprise a suite of rooms that exemplify the High Victorian Gothic style in 19th-century Britain. They begin weakly, the Banqueting Hall, completed well after Burges's death, being "dilute(,...) unfocussed" and "anaemic." The Drawing Room is "more exciting", a double-height room with decoration illustrating the "intertwined themes (of) the fecundity of nature and the fragility of life." A superb fireplace by Thomas Nicholls features the Three Fates, spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life. The octagonal chamber with its great rib-vault, modelled on one designed by Viollet-Le-Duc at Councy, is "spangled with butterflies and birds of sunny plume in gilded trellis work." Off the hall, lies the Windlass Room, in which Burges delighted in assembling the fully functioning apparatus for the drawbridge, together with "murder holes" for expelling boiling oil. The Marquess's bedroom provide some "spartan" respite before the culmination of the castle, Lady Bute's Bedroom.

The room is "pure Burges: an arcaded circle, punched through by window embrasures, and topped by a trefoil-sectioned dome." The decorative theme is 'love', symbolised by "monkeys, pomegranates, nesting birds". The decoration was completed long after Burges's death but his was the guiding spirit; "Would Mr Burges have done it?" William Frame wrote to Thomas Nicholls in 1887.

Following Burges' death in 1881, work on the interior continued for another ten years. The castle's use was limited, the Marquess never came after its completion, and the family appeared to use it as a sort of sanitorium, although the Marchioness and her daughter, Lady Margaret Crichton-Stuart, did occupy it for a period following the death of the Marquess in 1900. But the castle remained "one of the greatest Victorian triumphs of architectural composition," summing up "to perfection the learned dream world of a great patron and his favourite architect, recreating from a heap of rubble a fairy-tale castle which seems almost to have materialised from the margins of a medieval manuscript."

In 1950, the 5th Marquess of Bute placed the Castle in the care of the Ministry of Works. It is now administered by Cadw on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales.