If your surname is Morgan you could well trace your ancestry back to Tredegar House, and, yes, we still get the odd visitor trying to claim the place. As one of the most significant renaissance houses in Britain, it is no wonder heads are turned, when you see the magnificent formal gardens and stateroom ‘bling’. Below stairs and on the estate you can find out what it took to keep a Welsh palace like this running.
The House we see today is largely 17th Century but a much older medieval manor is there to be found behind the flashy brick facades. Long-time rivals in trade, politics, power and status with the Butes of Cardiff Castle, the Morgans of Tredegar were just like any family – some enjoyed making money from agriculture, dues on coal and iron passing from the Valleys to Newport’s port ( the ’Golden Mile’), mining, shipping, and good marriages (and making Newport as well) while others enjoyed spending it….
Piratical Captain Morgan was a cousin but he was by no means the only black sheep of the family. Evan, the Lord Tredegar in residence during the 1930s, was equally notorious for his exotic wives and riotous house parties – author H G Wells and occultist Aleister Crowley were guests – as well as a menagerie including a crocodile, a boxing kangaroo and a swearing parrot who lived up to his name ‘Blue Boy’.
By contrast, in the 19th Century Godfrey Morgan was a war hero – both he and his horse Sir Briggs came back alive from the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Sir Briggs is now buried in the Cedar Garden. Today Tredegar House is in the safe keeping of National Trust for all to enjoy.
Tredegar House