The Morgans of Tredegar House : Newport South Wales

  Gwyneth Ericka Morgan's Chaotic Start In Life   Gwyneth's Parents  Lady  Katharine Carnegie and Captain Courtenay Morgan  when they married in 1890   at Kinnaird Castle, Brechin, Angus The only clue on record about the exact nature of Gwyneth Morgan's birth is a remark by the literary critic Alan Pryce-Jones (1908-2000) in his autobiography The Bonus of Laughter.    Pryce-Jones, a boyhood friend of Evan Morgan ( Gwyneth's brother), said Gwyneth had  “ a chaotic start in life” suggesting initial problems either at birth or during her early years. It may have been that she was not expected to live, or was born premature. In 1895, childbirth was a risky business; infant mortality was high, irrespective of the family’s social class.  As the Morgan roots were steeped in Welsh history Gwyneth was an appropriate name.  Katherine was a Carnegie from Angus; in 1895 this Scottish County in North Britain was known as Forfarshire. At...

  The Birth of Gwyneth Ericka Morgan  Of Tredegar House, Newport   Gwyneth’s Birth “ the icy fang and churlish chiding of the winter’s wind” Shakespeare   The story opens on Saturday, 5 January, 1895.   As Lady Katharine Morgan fell in and out of birth-pains at No. 39, Portman Square , Marylebone, London ,  across the English Channel in Paris another ordeal was being played out on the main parade ground of the Ecole Militaire .  French Army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was being publically stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island . Queen Victoria was 75 years old and had already reigned  for 57 years. Her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales, (who later became King Edward VII) was within earshot of Katharine’s cries. He was at No. 15, Portman Square enjoying lunch with his daughter, Louise, the Princess Royal and his son in law, Alexander William George Duff, the Duke of Fife . London of the time still re...

Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales Tredegar House,  Newport, South Wales In The Post Virus World Is this the Shape of things to Come?   The National Trust works  in a mysterious way, but there are leaks. A recent article in the ‘Daily Mail’  [1]  revealed a “secret 17- page memo  [2] described on its front page as ‘a ten year vision’  [3] .. “described by the Mail as making “ chilling reading for those who cherish  [The Trust’s] traditional role of preserving great homes and their contents”.  [4]   The memo attacks the Trust’s ‘outdated mansion experience, serving a loyal but dwindling audience’ and proposes an ‘urgent review of the opening hours of properties, along with a policy of putting art and antiques collections into storage so rooms can be used to develop “ new sources of experience –based income.”  [5]   If this unattractive scenario is the fate of Tredegar House i.e. to be in the words of a Trust insider a property...

  Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales The Seat of the Morgan Family Tredegar House "The Worst of Times" Failure To Attract Visitors Targeted COVID 19 -Hit Tredegar House closed but the National Trust were staring at failure before the pandemic  Ne wport has one of the highest number of COVID 19 infections in the whole of  Wales. This ghastly virus has taken many lives, it remains in free fall and a vaccine is still a far off  dream. The deadly spread and aftermath of the infection’s invisible power makes this a frightening era for all.     Tredegar House, the old Morgan mansion, was closed for many months under the first Welsh government virus lockdown of March 2020,  and although there was a brief reopening in September-  early October 2020,  albeit with restrictions on the numbers of visitors, the house has closed again.  This closure  was  to  avoid  virus transmission to  National Trust staff and those membe...