If you’ve been reading these posts from the beginning, you could well be thinking that the history of Cardiff Castle is not much different to any other medieval castle in this part of the world, but as you’re about to find out, that all started to change with the arrival of a famous Scottish family.

In 1683, Charlotte Herbert inherited the castle and Glamorganshire estate from her father, the 7^th Earl of Pembroke, but it was after her granddaughter, Charlotte Jane Hickman-Windsor married John Stuart of Bute in 1766 that South Wales started to see a transition from a rural landscape to an industrial one – and the Bute family was one of the main reasons why.

The Bute family can trace their roots back to the early Kings of Scotland, but family trees have never been my strong point, especially when they include various titles for the same person, and in John Stuart’s case, he was not only Lord Mount Stuart, but also Baron Cardiff of Cardiff Castle (from 1776), and then after the death of his father in 1792, the 4^th Earl of Bute, a title he used until he was created the 1^st Marquess of Bute in 1796. See what I mean?

I could be here all day if I started to talk about the Bute family history, so I’ll keep things relevant by just telling you how their connection with Cardiff Castle and the Glamorgan estate helped change the South Wales landscape for many years to come.

Apart from upsetting the locals by demolishing medieval parts of the castle to make way for Capability Brown’s landscape garden, the 1^st Marquess’s tenure at Cardiff had only a marginal impact on people’s lives in South Wales, but at least he and his wife provided seven sons and two daughters to make sure that the Bute family tree kept flourishing.

The first of these offspring was also called John, Lord Mount Stuart, and although he became MP for Cardiff in 1790, Lord Mount Stuart II seems a fairly unremarkable man where the Bute family is concerned. In 1792, he married Lady Elizabeth McDouall-Chrichton, daughter of the 6^th Earl of Dumfries, and it was from this liaison that the double-barrelled name of Chrichton-Stuart emanated. You’re probably thinking so what? but it will help you to remember which Butes were which, and you’ll see what I mean when I start talking about their first son, John Chrichton-Stuart, the 2^nd Marquess of Bute.

John Crichton-Stuart was born on 10^th August 1793, just four months before his father died. When he was 10 years old he inherited the estates of his maternal grandfather, Lord Dumfries, and at the age of 21, succeeded his paternal grandfather as the 2^nd Marquess of Bute.

The estates he inherited came with a list of titles as long as your arm. Not only did he become the 2^nd Marquess of Bute, but also the Earl of Windsor, Viscount Mountjoy, Baron Mount Stuart, Baron Cardiff, Earl of Dumfries and Bute, Viscount of Ayr and Kingarth, Baron Chrichton, Lord Chrichton of Sanquhar and Cumnock, Lord Mount Stuart of Cumra and Inchmarnock and – wait for it – Baronet of Nova Scotia – oh, and I nearly forgot, he was also the Keeper of Rothesay Castle, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Glamorgan (whatever that is), the Lord Lieutenant, Sheriff and Coroner of Buteshire – and finally, the High Steward of Banbury. It seems like he collected more hereditary titles than I did cider jugs.

With them also came a choice of places to live – Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire (which he later disposed of), Dumfries House in Ayrshire, Mount Stuart on the Island of Bute and Cardiff Castle in Glamorgan. He also had a London town house in Kensington, but he was a man who preferred the quiet life and chose to live in relative seclusion with his wife, Lady Maria North, in their pile at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute.

The Marquess of Bute’s estates covered more than 100,000 acres, mostly in Scotland, but also included a large part of Glamorgan that went with his Cardiff property, but unlike Bute and Dumfries, his Cardiff estate was situated on land rich in minerals and coal deposits.

Coal had been extracted along the South Wales coast since the 17^th century, but as surface deposits became exhausted, open cast mining was replaced by shafts that gave access to underground seams. As the Industrial Revolution gathered pace coal became a vital commodity, not only in providing steam power to the mills and factories which produced goods made from raw materials such as textiles and iron, but also in providing the means to transport these goods – and the Marquess of Bute’s estate in Glamorgan was literally sat on a ‘coal mine’.

He may not have shown much interest in visiting his estates to enjoy  the high life, but he was extremely interested in their economic development. He commissioned surveys that showed his land was sitting on top of large coal reserves, and I’m guessing that these surveys also showed where these reserves were, because he had the acumen to dispose of some of the less productive outlying parts of his estate in order to purchase more lucrative areas – and it didn’t end there because he also claimed rights to minerals under certain common lands through his feudal titles. He obviously wasn’t completely dozing off in the armchair up in Mount Stuart.

Rather than getting his hands dirty in the day to day workings of extracting coal and other minerals out of the ground, the 2^nd Marquess opted to lease his land to iron masters and colliery owners instead. However, mining was only one part of making money from the enterprise: The deposits also needed to be transported to a wider world, and so Bute decided to invest the proceeds into constructing dock facilities on land that he owned around the mouth of the River Taff.

In 1839 he constructed West Bute Dock, the first of five to be built, and although he wasn’t able to personally capitalize on his investment, Bute had created the foundations for Cardiff to become the largest coal exporter in the world.

The Marquess died in 1848, leaving behind a thriving port and growing population. Most of those employed at the docks lived in the neighbouring streets around Tiger Bay in an area called Butetown. It had a tough reputation, but Cardiff as a whole was beginning to benefit from the wealth that was created from John Crichton-Stuart’s estate. By the end of the century, Cardiff had grown into the largest town in Wales, and in 1905 was granted city status by Edward VII.

On 20^th December 1955 Cardiff was proclaimed the country’s capital city – and today the 2^nd Marquess of Bute is regarded as “the creator of modern Cardiff”.

The 2^nd Marquess never spent much of his time or money at Cardiff Castle, and when his only son, John Patrick Chrichton-Stuart, became the 3^rd Marquess of Bute at just 6 months old, he was the ‘richest baby in Britain’ – some say the richest person in the world; but to begin with, he wasn’t able to do much with all that wealth because the estates he inherited were held in trust until he reached maturity at the age of 21.

He was born at Mount Stuart and brought up by his mother Sophia (his father’s second wife) who, although Scottish, had a keen interest in Welsh culture. He enjoyed a happy childhood, but after his mother died when he was still just twelve years old, he withdrew into a rather quiet and shy young man.

Looking back, I think it’s easy to see how his formative years made him the man he was. Because of his wealth, he grew up being wary of who he made friends with, and instead of following in his father’s footsteps where business was concerned, he became more interested in a long lost world rather than the industrial one that he was born into.

Instead of wanting to make money out of minerals, coal and ships, he preferred spending it on following his passion for history, architecture and travelling. He also had an interest in languages, archaeology, the occult – and above all – religion: His conversion to Catholicism didn’t go down well in the established ecclesiastical world, and whatever his father would have thought about it all I don’t know, but it seems to me that he was born in the wrong era.

When he reached 18  though, he met somebody who had the same outlook on life as he did – a man 20 years his senior called William Burges. William ‘Billy’ Burges was someone who was also obsessed with the medieval world and described himself as an Art-Architect, which reflected his style of work, whether it be designing rooms, furnishings and metalwork, or castles, cathedrals and houses. There’s no doubt that Burges and the Marquess were made for each other, especially as it didn’t matter to Bute that the designer was more interested in how his commissions looked rather than how much they cost – and for Burges, Cardiff Castle was the commission of a lifetime.

At first glance, Burges’s designs might seem a bit OTT – garish even, but the more you study them, the more you realise how much painstaking research has gone into reproducing this neo-gothic gem. It has to be said that it won’t be to everybody’s taste, but it also has to be remembered that medieval architecture was far more colourful than most of us would have previously realised.

Bute was still single when Burges started working for him, and he immediately caught the attention of the local population by building a 150 ft high clock tower in the south-west corner of the castle grounds. It was built as a bachelor pad for the Marquess and offered views to Cardiff Docks, the Bristol Channel and the Welsh hills and valleys. The top of the tower is adorned with oversize statues of the planets which was executed by one of Burges’s favourite assistants, the sculptor, Thomas Nicholls.

The interior rooms of the Clock Tower can be visited on a guided tour if you’re lucky enough to be here on a weekend. I wasn’t.

In 1872, at the age of 24, Bute married an 18 year old girl by the name of Gwendolen Fitzalan Howard. Although they chose to live at Mount Stuart, it must have seemed obvious to the young bride that she had some serious competition where Cardiff Castle was concerned because that’s where they spent their honeymoon – while Bute’s bachelor clock tower was still being decorated.

Rather than seeing Bute’s passion for the extravagant transformation of Cardiff Castle as competition though, she embraced his enthusiasm and even helped him with the decision making. Their marriage was a happy one raising four children in the process, all of whom seemed happy to spend some time at Cardiff. The family came here regularly and I wouldn’t be surprised if the children’s rooms were designed by  Gwendolen herself as they seemed like every child’s dream.

Unfortunately, some of the more personal rooms are only included with a guided tour which comes at an extra cost (currently £4.50). It wasn’t that I wouldn’t pay it, it’s just that it wasn’t practical and so I restricted my visit to seeing the main rooms in the central part of the castle.

The rooms on display include the Chaucer Room, Library and Banqueting Hall where Burges employed a team of assistants in recreating his world of architectural fantasy. There is so much going on here that it’s difficult to describe the rooms in detail and it takes a while for it all to sink in.

If you allow your mind to be drawn into the world of Burges and Bute for a while, you’ll realise that there’s a story behind almost everything you see, and if you let your eyes wander around at the same time you’re bound to be captivated by the elaborate wall coverings, painted murals, gilding, stained glass and sculptures. It really is an assault on the senses. For example, the murals on the walls of the Banqueting Hall tell the story of the medieval castle in a style reminiscent of a medieval manuscript illustration. The more you look, the more you’ll see, and this is why it took 16 years to complete the castle’s restoration.

Below are a couple of images from the Banqueting Hall. The lower picture of the fireplace shows a scene from the time when Robert of Normandy, the eldest son of William the Conqueror, was held prisoner at the castle by his nephew Robert the Consul. Robert the Consul is on horseback and if you look closely you’ll see Robert behind bars in the bottom left hand corner of the castle.

It wasn’t just local medieval history that Bute and Burges were interested in. They had a meeting of minds on subjects like the occult, paranormal, spiritualism and astrology (I’ll never forget the Horoscope Room at Mount Stuart), and although religious and animal themes are ever-present throughout the castle, it was their passion for two my favourite pastimes – travel and history – that really captured my imagination.

Burges had a fascination for European and Near Eastern travel even before he met Bute, but his enthusiasm must have had an effect on the Marquess, because he too enjoyed taking his family around Europe and the Near East, and this all came together in the magnificent Arab Room. To my mind, this has to be the apogee of their creative collaboration. Based on Muqarnas, a form of Islamic architecture, the Arab Room, and the ceiling in particular, is a wonderful combination of wood carvings and gold leaf that is an absolute feast for the eyes.

Burges didn’t live to see all his projects completed: While he was working at Cardiff in 1883 he caught a chill and died three weeks later at the age of 53. Bute continued with the projects as best he could, but he too died at the age of 53 in 1900 which left his son to pick up the baton. The 4^th Marquess had large shoes to fill, but with huge death duties and a declining coal industry, finances were stretched. He did his best to complete his father’s ambitions, but by the time he passed away in 1947 the castle was surplus to the family’s requirements and so they gave it, and much of the park, to the City of Cardiff – and that’s who owns it today.

My one and only visit to Cardiff Castle wasn’t really long enough, and I had it in mind to return on another day, but when the opportunity arose I was torn between going back to Cardiff or going to nearby Castell Coch instead. The restoration of Castell Coch was another project by Burges and the 3^rd Marquess and is a fairytale castle located amongst the beech woods of Fforest Fawr, about a 20 minute drive away. Needless to say, Castell Coch (the Red Castle) won the day, and it’s on my never-ending list of places to write about.

Rather than include links within the post itself, on this occasion I’ve listed them below for anyone who wants to read any of my other articles that relate to this one.

Cardiff Castle – Pt 1

Cardiff Castle – Pt 2

Cardiff Docks (From Tiger Bay to Cardiff Bay)

Mount Stuart (Exploring the Firth of Clyde – Pt 1 The Isle of Bute)

The South Wales Coalfields (The Changing Face of the South Wales Valleys) – Pt 1

The South Wales Coalfields – Pt 2

The South Wales Coalfields – Pt 3

POSTED – MAY 2024