Teddy's Travels - Bodelwyddan Castle

Today, Rusty the YouthDen bear is visiting Bodelwyddan Castle. It is a very large old house that has been used as a family home, a school and now contains many exhibits from the National Portrait Gallery in London!

There has been a house here for more than 500 years, though it has been altered and made bigger over the years and although it originally looked like a large house the people who lived here have changed it to look more like a castle.

This is the entrance hall; it has a grand fireplace and is decorated with knight’s helmets and swords. There are lots of pictures of the family who made the castle look like it does today. They were the Williams family. Rusty thinks they must have been very grand.

There is a lovely dining room at Bodelwyddan Castle and some of the furniture comes from the Victoria and Albert museum, but this amazing table centrepiece was actually used at the house from 1730. It is made of silver and has different parts that can be put on and taken off, so it can be used for lots of different things. It also has candle holders as there would not have been any electric lights when this was made.

In the old days after a big dinner, the men would go into one room to do men’s things and the ladies would go into another room to do lady’s things. This is the room that the men would go into. It is very dimly lit and on the wall are pictures of famous sports people of the time. The men would have drunk brandy, smoked cigars and played games. In the middle of the room is a billiard table that is so large and heavy that they have had to make the floor stronger or it would fall straight through!

Oh no, Rusty has been trying to play a game, but missed his shot and has ended up head first in a pocket! Rusty thinks that billiards is a dangerous game for small bears!

This is the room where the ladies would have gone. It is much lighter and Rusty thinks much safer. There are lots of pictures on the wall of famous women such as Frances Trollope, who wrote many books, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a famous poet and Florence Nightingale who was a famous nurse. No, Rusty, the ladies wouldn’t have drunk brandy, smoked cigars and played billiards. That would not have been quite the thing for a lady to do! Next page >>>