Old Beaupre dominates the landscape southwest of St. Hilary and the A48. It is not the easiest place to get access with limited parking, gates and stiles, so not ideal for a wheelchair sadly. But nevertheless it is free to access thanks to Cadw Welsh Historic Monuments, as parts of Old Beaupre are under its care with nationally protected remains and Grade I listed status.
The image this week is of the outer gatehouse, the interior gatehouse is amazingly more ornate. Back in the day, I was planning to get married there, but even in amongst the ruins and the partially roofed remains of the mansion, the price tag precluded that, We eventually opted for a field near Ogmore Castle.
Why Old Beaupre this week? Surely, it is slightly out of the Barry and District. I tend to disagree.
For me Old Beaupre is a better example of ruins that are cared for than the gradually deteriorating remains of East Orchard Castle, just north of Aberthaw Cement works. The remains of Llantrithyd Place, southwest of Bonvilston and the A48, which will feature again in the ‘news’, are also very sadly deteriorating.
Although Llanmihangel Place also exists to the southwest of Cowbridge in a fine state of preservation, that is currently closed to the public.
The point I’m making is that Old Beaupre offers a safe explore, to measure late Tudor to Stuart mansion architecture in the Vale of Glamorgan – a time capsule that echoes you back into the late years of Queen Bess, and King James Stuart, over 420 years ago.
Despite the name and its medieval origins, Old Beaupre is really more mansion house than castle.
Depending where you find your research, Old Beaupre’s origins are lost in the Medieval period but clearly fixed within the world of the then Elizabethan powerful family the Basset’s.
For the crest on the outer gatehouse above the doors is carved in a type of Somerset stone. The crest represents the unification in marriage of the Mansel family, of a certain Catherine, with Richard Basset in 1586. The motto reads, ‘Better Death than shame’, and carved in Cymraeg, and not Latin or English.
As mentioned previously, the interior gatehouse that leads into the main hall is another delight.
For when heading through our gatehouse of Richard Basset, walking across the inner courtyard you see the visage of a well-preserved three-storeyed gatehouse and striking porch, decorated with columns inspired by the architecture of ancient Greece and bearing the family’s heraldic crest carved in stone.
Today the remains look grand, but head back into your mind as you close your eyes.
Imagine this: the outer gate with its intricately carved almost white stone, set amongst the surrounding local limestone is rendered, and painted with a glowing whitewash.
The window panes shimmer with a bluey iridescence, as the oaken doors, stained deeply in a rich dark echo of times past, creak open to a beautiful courtyard of Italianate terracotta pots with exotic plants, flowers, and miniature sycamore trees.
Then you’re drawn to the inner striking porch, with a deeply painted heraldic crest with gold leaf details.
You have time travelled to late Tudor Elizabethan, alas I say it England (Wales after the Act of Union of 1536, legally ceased to exist).
But, years later, many mansions across Britain had seen better days, thanks to the devastation of the Civil Wars of the 1640s.
Many of those owners had sided with the King and a certain Thomas Basset had, along with his son William, lost most of the family wealth backing the failed king.
The richness of Old Beaupre was short lived. The majority of the great mansion by 1700 was out of use, stripped for its timber, lead, slate and other fixtures, but parts of the building were converted for use into local farming.
I do personally have interesting memories of visiting this building.
And one such visit, was when I took a party of students from Archaeology Cymru to Old Beaupre in 2008.
The then owner treated us to scones with jam, and a viewing of assorted farming equipment through the ages. Now, he did offer everyone a dram of rum, obviously I did not participate!
Oh yes, that question, why are two windows blocked up above the outer gateway?
In 1696, Parliament passed the ‘Window Tax’ bill, it was a rather complex array of government measures to raise addition taxes in England.
The Window Tax, and whether it was still enforced or not was repealed in 1851.
Mansions with multiple windows, to reduce the tax levy, simply blocked up windows.
