Kinmel Hall

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Kinmel Hall
Lion sculpture in grounds
The house at Kinmel in 1794
Kinmel Park (closed to the public)

Kinmel Hall is a mansion near the village of St. George, close to the coastal town of Abergele, in Conwy county borough, Wales.

History

Kinmel Hall was first owned by the Reverend Edward Hughes in 1786, it was then passed down to his son; 1st Baron Dinorben (1767-1852). However, although Baron Dinorben had a son and heir (William Lewis Hughes, 2nd Baron Dinorben), he was disabled and died just 8 months after inheriting it, thus the 'Dinorben' title became extinct. As a consequence, the land was passed down to the 2nd Baron Dinorben's cousin; Hugh Robert Hughes.[1][2]

The present chateau style house is the third on the site and was built for the Hughes copper mining family.[3] The house was designed by William Eden Nesfield during 1871–1874, and the adjoining Venetian Gardens were designed by his father, W. A. Nesfield. The adjoining Neo-palladian style stable block is attributed to William Burn, with construction completed in the 1850s. Materials for construction were bought from the nearby Lleweni Hall.[4]

Ownership of the house has been dominated by the Hughes, Lewis and Fetherstonhaugh and Gill families. There are many heraldic shields displayed throughout the house which show evidence of the unions between these families. The property was last used as a private home in 1929, after which it became a boys school then was converted to a 'rheuma spa', a health centre for the treatment of people with rheumatism, by Mrs Florence Lindley, formerly headmistress of Lowther College, at the nearby Bodelwyddan Castle. The spa remained until the outbreak of World War II, when the hall was taken over as a hospital.[5]

Post-war the hall became Clarendon School for Girls,[6][7][8] but after extensive fire damage in 1975, the school was forced to close at Kinmel and move to Haynes Park in Bedfordshire. Restored by businessman Eddie Vince as a Christian conference centre, the house was sold at auction in 2001, but a proposed redevelopment by Derbyshire Investments failed to materialise.

The wider estate surrounding the hall has been owned by the Hughes, Lewis[citation needed] and Fetherstonhaugh family, since 1786.[9] They sold on the freehold to the house in 2001, since when it has passed through several owners before the property was to be put up for sale by auction on 12 October 2011 with a reserve price of £1.5 million which did not include the 5,000 acres of surrounding land.[citation needed] However it was bought shortly before auction by Acer Properties Ltd BVI with a successful bid of £1.45m.[10][9]

The company's declared intention was to develop the property into a hotel,[11] but these plans did not materialise, and the property lay derelict.[12]

Kinmel Hall was identified by the Victorian Society as one of the top ten at-risk Victorian and Edwardian buildings in 2015.[12][13]

In early 2021 a campaign group published articles in the media with the aim of shaming its owners into either explaining their intentions, fully restoring it or selling it on. They also attempted to put pressure on Conwy Council and the Welsh government into helping to preserve the building.[9] Conwy Council placed an injunction to prevent “unauthorised” work on the site and explored further action.[9] As a result, the hall was put up for sale in April 2021, with a guide price of £750,000.[14]

The auction on 13 May 2021 was conducted by Allsop and was listed as LOT 73 for £750,000. There were only three bidders and the hall was sold for £950,000 [15] According to the auctioneers, the buyer lives locally and intends to restore the hall.

It was later reported in the media the new owner was Chris Cryer who had purchased the Hall through his company Blue Water NW Ltd (UK Company No: 12416687) and had plans to establish a camping pod facility within the grounds.[citation needed] In October 2021 the local council told the owners to stop renting out camping pods in the grounds of the historic property because they had not applied for planning permission and the location in the Grade 1 listed Venetian Gardens was not in keeping with its listed status. In early 2022 the owners submitted applications for planning permission to site the pods in a different location (conway council application reference number 0/49367), however eventually withdrew the application following strong objections from residents within Kinmel Park and other campaign groups.

Architecture and description

An example of a calendar house, it has 365 windows and 12 entrances.[16] It has 122 rooms.[17] Kinmel Hall is a Grade I listed building.[18]

The 1870s structure is an example of the myriad of new types of buildings that were arising during the Victorian era to fulfil increasingly specialised functions. For example, there was a room in the mansion that was only to be used for the ironing of newspapers, so that the ink would not come off on the reader's hands.[19] The building featured a number of mechanical innovations that once powered both a lift and a fountain. There is an ornate oak fireplace in the library, which was damaged during a break-in 2013.[9]

The house is set in walled gardens of around 18 acres (73,000 m2), which are themselves set in grounds of around 5,000 acres (20 km2), encompassing open fields, parkland and forests.[9] Llwyni Lodge (Golden Lodge) at the entrance to the park is also a Grade I listed building.[20]

Further reading

  • Gentry, Six Hundred Years of a Peculiarly English Class, Adam Nicolson, 2012, ISBN 9780007335503 - contains a chapter on the house and family
  • Kinmel Characters, Elaine Boxhall, ISBN 9780947563035 - history of Kinmel Hall and its owners

References

  1. ^ "Kinmel Hall history". Kinmel Estate. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  2. ^ The Graphic - Saturday 10 October 1891 [Page 6]
  3. ^ Hayward, Will (11 December 2016). "These houses helped shape Wales' history but are now crumbling". Wales Online.
  4. ^ Cadw. "Kinmel Hall (Grade I) (229)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Lowther College". Archives Network Wales. Retrieved 1 December 2007.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Review of the history of the property". bcd-urbex.com. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  7. ^ "Blog on the history of the property". 28dayslater.com. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  8. ^ "Blog on the history of Kinmel Hall". rhyl-life.blogspot.com. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Thorpe, Vanessa (28 February 2021). "Pleas to save historic 'Versailles of Wales' before it falls into ruin". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  10. ^ "Conwy mansion Kinmel Hall sold to mystery buyer". BBC. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  11. ^ "Hotel development plans at Kinmel Hall revealed". BBC. 6 April 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  12. ^ a b "Pier and boat store on top 10 at-risk buildings". BBC News. 16 September 2015.
  13. ^ "Griff Rhys Jones launches 2015 Top Ten Most Endangered Buildings list". The Victorian Society. 16 September 2015. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  14. ^ "The 'Welsh Versailles' goes for auction . . . with a guide price of over £750,000". Nation.Cymru. 25 April 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  15. ^ Thomas, Rob (13 May 2021). "Kinmel Hall: 'Welsh Versailles' sold at auction for £950k". BBC. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  16. ^ Devine, Darren (9 April 2015). "Heritage campaigner claims country home Kinmel Hall is at risk and its future is in great jeopardy". Wales Online. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  17. ^ "Conwy mansion Kinmel Hall sold to mystery buyer". BBC News. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  18. ^ Cadw. "Kinmel (Grade I) (229)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  19. ^ Spain, Daphne (1992). Gendered Spaces. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 111.
  20. ^ Cadw. "Llwyni Lodge, also known as the Golden Lodge and Gate Lodge (Grade I) (242)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 21 August 2022.

External links

Coordinates: 53°15′42″N 3°31′45″W / 53.2616°N 3.5291°W / 53.2616; -3.5291

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