In a brand new three-part TV sequence, Rick Edwards meets the folks battling to avoid wasting Britain’s crumbling heritage websites earlier than it is too late
Nice British Citadel Rescue, introduced by Rick Edwards, premieres Monday, March 9 on Sky Historical past (Picture: Hearst Networks)
They have been fortresses match for royalty and have survived wars, sieges and loads of mad monarchs alongside the best way.
Britain’s castles have supplied the backdrop to our royal historical past for hundreds of years – and acted as protected havens throughout nice wars. However regardless of their cultural and historic significance, dozens of castles lie on the Heritage at Threat Register and are near collapse or smash.
Now a brand new three-part TV sequence, Nice British Citadel Rescue, introduced by Rick Edwards reveals the plans to revive them to their former glory, together with their fascinating histories. The BBC Radio 5 Dwell Breakfast present presenter donned a tough hat to go to three castles in England, Wales and Scotland present process restoration because of funds from The Nationwide Lottery Fund.
“I feel as a result of within the British Isles we’ve so many historic buildings we take these castles as a right that they’ll at all times be right here,” says the self-confessed historical past buff aged 46. “But when we don’t keep them they’ll disappear actually shortly. Not solely are they a gateway to a whole bunch of years of historical past, they’re a major a part of their native communities.”
Rick Edwards, left, meets one of many devoted people restoring crumbling castles (Picture: Hearst Networks)
Rick believes the important thing to the castles’ survival is to reinvent them to enchantment to trendy guests.
“They could have been seats of royalty owned by aristocracy however that isn’t why you will need to keep them,” he says. “These areas must be accessible to everybody.”
For the sequence, he visited Fyvie Citadel in Aberdeenshire in Scotland, Gwrych Citadel in North Wales and – his favorite – Lowther Citadel in Cumbria.
The household seat of the Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther is presently present process a serious restoration to its ruins and formal gardens. Famed for its gothic seems to be, it was designed by celebrated architect Sir Robert Smirke, the person behind the British Museum’s Athens-inspired portico.
However in 1999 it was positioned on the register and present proprietor and custodian Jim Lowther, 61, is working arduous to alter that. Final 12 months a staff restored the citadel’s pinnacle that collapsed within the early 2000s.
Chatting with Rick, Jim reveals an much more poignant story mendacity behind the restoration, which started when his father James, the seventh Earl, returned from World Battle Two. James was among the many first British troopers to liberate the Bergen-Belsen focus camp. Haunted by his experiences, he returned residence a totally modified man. Beset by crippling dying duties, in 1957 he ripped off its roof and turned the within right into a pig farm. He constructed rows of rooster sheds exterior and turned the inside into an empty shell.
Gwrych Citadel, close to Abergele, Wales, has performed host to ITV actuality present I am A Celeb Get Me Out Of Right here! (Picture: Getty Photos)
“When my father returned from the battle having fought alongside all these males from poor backgrounds dwelling in abject poverty he felt that the citadel represented nice decadence and an entire aberration,” Jim tells Rick.
“Of all of the tales I heard this story moved me essentially the most,” says Rick.
Following his father’s dying aged 83 in 2006, Jim has been devoted to restoring his ancestral residence.
In the meantime in Aberdeenshire work continues at Fyvie Citadel to forestall its medieval towers from collapsing. Its well-known occupants embrace William the Lion, who’s recorded as resident between 1211 and 1214, and Robert the Bruce who administered authorized proceedings within the citadel’s open-air court docket.
Often known as probably the most well-known haunted castles in Britain, Fyvie has a well-known resident ghost – Sixteenth-century spouse Lilias Drummond generally known as the “Inexperienced Girl”.
Within the early twentieth century, a human skeleton was discovered hidden behind a bed room wall and subsequently buried elsewhere. Quickly afterwards, the citadel was struck by a sequence of spooky disturbances, which solely got here to an finish after the bones have been returned.
Over the centuries, Fyvie Citadel handed by way of the arms of quite a few prestigious households earlier than being acquired by the Nationwide Belief in 1984 and is now open to the general public.
The ultimate citadel Rick visits is Gwrych Citadel, a Grade I listed nation home close to Abergele, Wales, constructed by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh between 1812 and 1822.
Fyvie Citadel, Aberdeenshire, was acquired by the Nationwide Belief in 1984 and is now open to the general public (Picture: De Agostini by way of Getty Photos)
It has since fallen into disrepair and is affected by crumbling partitions, vandals and arsonists. Regardless of being shut to the general public in 1985, the derelict Gothic model citadel was used as the placement of ITV actuality present I’m a Celeb… Get Me Out of Right here! in the course of the Covid pandemic.
Queen Victoria seemingly stayed on the property, as did roughly 200 Jewish kids who fled Nazi-occupied Europe by way of the Kindertransport between 1939 and 1941.
“I discovered the story of the Kinder Transport kids very transferring,” says Rick. “Gwrych was additionally bombed within the battle, not as a result of it was a goal, however German bombers getting back from Liverpool had bombs to do away with so that they emptied them on the citadel.”
By the flip of this century, the citadel had crumbled aside leaving native historian Mark Baker, decided to reserve it. He shaped the Gwyrch Citadel Preservation Belief, which continues to hold out restoration work immediately.
“Folks like Mark are wonderful,” says Rick. “With out their ardour and the keenness of the expert craftsmen just like the stone masons and engineers and designers, these castles wouldn’t survive.”
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Nice British Citadel Rescue premieres at 9pm on March 9 on Sky Historical past. Get pleasure from free entry to Nationwide Lottery-funded venues throughout Nationwide Lottery Open Week from March 7-15. For extra particulars, go to lotterygoodcauses.org
Lowther Citadel, Cumbria, is being restored after its roof was ripped off in 1957 (Picture: MEN)
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