Nothing makes a story come alive like putting a human face to it.
I found another example of this recently on a visit to Llechwedd, the North Wales tourist attraction that forms part of the UK’s current bid for Unesco World Heritage status.
This is to recognise the heritage of the North Wales slate industry.
Llechwedd is home to a host of attractions, including Zip World Titan and Bounce Below.
It also opens a new boutique hotel, Plus Weunydd, in June this year.
But, meanwhile, let’s sit back to listen to Llechwdd guide Brian Jones bringing the site to life.
A winter trip behind the scenes at one of England’s great stately homes brought a touch of Downton to January.
I was on assignment for Discover Britain magazine and here’s a preview of the feature in a forthcoming issue:
It was one of the great British country estates.
Set in extensive private grounds in rural Worcestershire, the house would have been alive with music and laughter in its Victorian heyday.
But the glamour of those society soirées, once frequented by the Prince of Wales, the later King Edward VII, has long since faded.
Today Witley Court is one of Britain’s most spectacular ruins, the fire-damaged structure an eerie reminder of its former glory.
Only the gardens, restored by English Heritage some 20 years ago, still display the vital signs of a quintessential English stately home.
Louise Bartlett, Senior Properties Curator for English Heritage, says:
“You can still get a sense of the grandeur of the place, although you will have to use your imagination to conjure up the atmosphere of the house in its prime from the mid to late 1800s.”
There’s a place in North Wales that looks like it stepped out of a fairytale.
It draws on the coloured facades of Portofino for inspiration and was described by its founder as “a home for fallen buildings”.
It was also the backdrop to a cult TV series and a haven for artists and musicians from Noel Coward to The Beatles.
For me, it’s the ultimate daydream hideaway in North Wales.
Can you guess where?
Creative vision
Portmeirion is the creative vision of the architect Clough Williams-Ellis. He acquired the land in 1925 and dedicated his life to building his site on a private peninsula on the Snowdonia coast, where architecture and nature can live together.
The construction was in two phases, the initial buildings until 1939. Then from 1954 to 76 to filled in the details, often salvaging classical buildings from demolition in a before-his-time take on upcycling.
The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired by the harmony of design and nature when he visited Clough in Portmeirion in 1954.
Clough died in 1978 but his legacy lives on at the 130-acre site with buildings such as the Gothic Pavilion, Bristol Colonnade and Hercules Hall, all celebrating his motto: ‘Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct for the Future’.
Cult TV
For some, however, Portmeirion is best known as the backdrop to for cult Sixties television series, The Prisoner, starring the actor Patrick McGoohan.
The village provided the perfect canvas for the psychedelic storyline and became a symbol of the counter-culture spirit of the Sixties.
Portmeirion village [pictured above] recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first Prisoner episode, Arrival. Catherine McGoohan, daughter of the programme’s star, returned to unveil a bronze statue of her father.
Portmeirion village had always attracted arty types from the Jazz Age to the Sixties.
But following success of the Prisoner, the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein rented Gate House cottage as a long-term retreat and George Harrison joined him in 1993 to host his 50th birthday party.
In the year we mark 50 years of the Abbey Road recordings, we can now explore not just the Italianate follies of Clough but also the sites associated with The Beatles.
Nearby attractions
Unlike the protagonist in the TV series, you are free to leave The Village.
I suggest that we head to nearby Porthmadog to visit the new Portmeirion Shop. Formerly Kerfoots, is thought to be the oldest department store in North Wales in Porthmadog, dating 1874.
The Prisoner famously declared “I’m not a number. I’m a free man.”
But I suspect that once we’ve visited Portmeirion, like me you will always be a prisoner to its charms.
