Уэльс сарайы: Сент-Донат қамалының тарихы

Castle in St Donats, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales

St Donat's Castle (Castell Sain Dunwyd), St Donats, Wales, is a medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, about 16 mile (26 km) to the west of Cardiff, and about to the west of Llantwit Major. Positioned on cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel, the site has been occupied since the Iron Age, and was by tradition the home of the Celtic chieftain Caradog. The present castle's origins date from the 12th century when the de Haweys and later Peter de Stradling began its development. The Stradlings held the castle for four hundred years, until the death of Sir Thomas Stradling in a duel in 1738. During the 18th century, the castle's status and condition declined and by the early 19th century it was only partly habitable. The later 19th and early 20th centuries saw several restorations. In 1852, it was purchased by John Whitlock Nicholl Carne, who claimed descent from the Stradlings but whose efforts at reconstruction were not well regarded. More enlightened improvements were made by its subsequent owner, the coal magnate Morgan Stuart Williams. The castle's transformation occurred after its purchase in 1925 by William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper tycoon. Hearst undertook a "brutal" expansion, including the incorporation of elements from other ancient structures such as the roofs of Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire and St Botolph's Church in Lincolnshire. His approach to architectural reclamation was controversial and the destruction of Bradenstoke was opposed in a vigorous campaign organised by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Bernard Shaw described the castle after Hearst's reconstruction as "what God would have built if he had had the money". Despite spending vast sums of money on St Donat's, Hearst rarely visited and in 1937, with the Hearst Corporation facing financial collapse, the castle was put up for sale, but with war looming, the castle was instead requisitioned for use by the army. In 1960, some nine years after Hearst's death, it was purchased by the son of the businessman and educational philanthropist Antonin Besse and donated to the trustees of Atlantic College, the first of the United World Colleges. Today the castle is home to some 350 international students and, with a history of occupation extending back to the late 13th century, is among the oldest continuously inhabited castles in Wales. Both the castle and the grounds are of historical and architectural importance, and have Grade I listed status.

Under the Tyrwhitts, the castle entered a long decline that lasted over one hundred years. J. M. W. Turner sketched the partly ruinous castle in 1798. John Wesley is reputed to have preached to a crowd of five thousand people on the terraced lawns in 1777. Partial restoration was started by Dr John Whitlock Nicholl Carne, who claimed to be descended from the Stradlings, and bought the castle from the Tyrwhitt Drake family in 1862. Carne's reconstructions have not generally been well regarded; the historian of the castle Alan Hall described the work as being undertaken in an "unscholarly, inauthentic style". A more sympathetic, contemporaneous, account described Carne's efforts as "careful and scrupulous". Morgan Williams, a colliery owner from Aberpergwm and the owner in the Edwardian period, from 1901 to 1909, carried out extensive and careful restoration, employing the noted architects George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner. Williams's sensitive reconstructions were praised by Henry Avray Tipping, the writer, architect and garden designer. The architectural writer Michael Hall was also impressed, describing Bodley's drawing room as "Edwardian antiquarian taste at its most refined". The process of reconstruction was less harmonious, Williams and Garner rowed constantly and Garner ultimately resigned. Almost all of Bodley and Garner's work was eradicated in the "brutal" remodelling undertaken by William Randolph Hearst. Williams also assembled a collection of arms and armour which was housed at the castle, and made major improvements to the castle's setting, moving the village which previously stood close to the castle's walls to a new location outside of the gates and constructing three entrance lodges. In 1903, the novelist Violet Paget, writing under her pseudonym Vernon Lee, used the castle as the model for St Salvat's Castle in her Gothic novel Penelope Brandling: A Tale of the Welsh Coast in the Eighteenth Century. Godfrey Williams, Morgan's son, disliked St Donat's, by tradition on account of its being haunted although this is disputed, and in 1921, having first culled the herd of deer that his father had reintroduced to the park, put the castle up for sale. Its advertisement in The Times, dated 3 May 1921, described the castle as "a comfortable and liveable old world home of the first importance". In 1922, it was bought, along with of land, by Richard Pennoyer, an American diplomat married to the Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury. Pennoyer was to own St Donat's for less than three years.

William Randolph Hearst inherited a mining and real estate fortune from his mother, and made a fortune of his own through the establishment of the Hearst Corporation, the largest newspaper and magazine company in the world. Part of the revenues were spent on the building of San Simeon, his Spanish style castle in California, which began construction in 1919. By 1925 he was eager to purchase a genuine castle, and on 13 August he sent a wire to Alice Head, the London based managing director of his European operations, "Want buy castle in England St Donat's perhaps satisfactory at proper price. See if you can get right price on St Donat's or any other equally good." Within two months it was Hearst's, or specifically, the property of the National Magazine Company. The price paid for the castle and of surrounding land was $130,000. Hearst employed Sir Charles Allom as his architect and designer. Allom was a noted decorator, the founder of White Allom and Company, and had been knighted in 1913 for his redecoration of Buckingham Palace. Hearst attracted strong opinions. Theodore Roosevelt called him "an unspeakable blackguard (with) all the worst faults of the corrupt and dissolute monied man". Winston Churchill, who stayed as Hearst's guest at St Donat's and at San Simeon, described him in a letter to Clementine Churchill as "a grave simple child – with no doubt a nasty temper – playing with the most costly toys  two magnificent establishments, two charming wives, complete indifference to public opinion, oriental hospitalities". Churchill's mention of "two charming wives" refers to Marion Davies, Hearst's long time mistress and a constant presence at both San Simeon and St Donat's. P. G. Wodehouse, invited to San Simeon, recalled Hearst's way of dealing with over staying guests: "The longer you are there, the further you get from the middle [of the refectory dining table]. I sat on Marion's right the first night, then found myself being edged further and further away till I got to the extreme end, when I thought it time to leave. Another day, and I should have been feeding on the floor. "Hearst undertook a "rapid and ruthless" redevelopment and rebuilding programme at St Donat’s. He spent around £250,000 on repairs, reconstruction, refurbishment, and furnishings between 1925 and 1937, renovating the castle with architectural trophies from across the United Kingdom and abroad; at the peak of his buying, Hearst's expenditure reportedly accounted for a quarter of the world's entire art market. Hearst's actions were vigorously opposed, particularly in relation to the destruction of the Augustinian foundation Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire. Built in 1142, by the 20th century the priory was in poor repair. Hearst purchased the site in 1929, under conditions of secrecy, and had workmen take down the cloister, tithe barn, prior's lodging and refectory. Parts were shipped to California; major elements were incorporated into St Donat's as part of the newly created Bradenstoke Hall; while other pieces, including the tithe barn, were lost. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings ran a poster campaign on the London Underground, using text that was considered libellous and which had to be pasted over. The campaign also saw questions on the issue being raised in Parliament. Hearst was unconcerned, Miss Head responding to the SPAB secretary: "Mr Hearst and I are well aware of your views. You must please allow us to hold our own opinions." Hearst did not visit until September 1928, and even then spent only one night in residence. Having undertaken a night time tour of the castle which was illuminated by kerosene lamps, he left the following morning to board the Berengaria for New York. During the voyage home he wrote a 25 page memorandum with instructions for further improvements to the castle. Over the next decade his time at St Donat's amounted to some four months; between his purchase in 1925 and his death in 1951 he visited, normally for a month at the end of his summer European tours, in 1930, 1931, 1934 and, for the last time, in 1936. His infrequent visits were invariably undertaken with a large entourage, whom he sometimes took for drinks to the Old Swan Inn at the nearby village of Llantwit Major. Among his guests were the actors Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn and Clark Gable, in addition to politicians including Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and a young John F. Kennedy, who visited with his parents, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. Visiting writers included Elinor Glyn, Ivor Novello and Bernard Shaw. Of St Donat's, Shaw was quoted as saying: "This is what God would have built if he had had the money." In the late 1930s Hearst's publishing empire came close to collapse. St Donat's was put up for sale in 1937, the Hearst Corporation noting that it had invested £280,000 in the castle through its subsidiary the National Magazine Company. An opinion on the chances of recouping this sum was sought from James Milner, a prominent solicitor and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. His response was not encouraging: "We have at St Donat's a white elephant of the rarest species." Billy Butlin, the holiday camp entrepreneur, was uninterested and a development proposal by Sir Julian Hodge did not progress. Much of the furniture, silver and works of art were disposed of in a series of sales conducted by Christie's and Sotheby's which began in 1937 and continued for some years, with many items failing to achieve the prices Hearst had originally spent. During World War II the castle was requisitioned by the War Office for use by British and American troops for officer training. In October 1939 the 2nd 5th Battalion Glamorgan Welch Regiment of the British army arrived at the castle; two years later, conscripts of the Auxiliary Territorial Service were also stationed at the site. In 1944, it was used by the American 2nd Infantry Division as a command post. and soldiers injured in the D day Normandy landings were treated and housed there. Hearst did not return after the war but continued to lend the castle to friends; Bob Hope, the comedian, stayed in May 1951 during his visit for a golf tournament at Porthcawl.

Hearst died in August 1951. The castle remained on the market for the following decade until bought in 1960 by Antonin Besse II, son of the late Sir Antonin Besse, and donated to the founding council of Atlantic College, the first of what would become the United World Colleges. The idea for an international school arose from a meeting between the educationalist Kurt Hahn, who founded Schule Schloss Salem in Germany and Gordonstoun in Scotland, and Air Marshal Sir Lawrence Darvall, the commandant of the NATO Defense College. They conceived of a college for 16–19 year old students drawn from a wide range of nationalities, with the aim of fostering international understanding. With Rear Admiral Desmond Hoare, who would become the first headmaster, they persuaded Besse that the castle would make a suitable location for the first United World College, which opened in 1962 with fifty six students. The first rigid hulled inflatable boat was invented, developed, and patented by Hoare at St Donat's in the 1960s. In an act of generosity, Hoare sold the patent for the boat's design to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1973 for a notional £1; From 1963 until 2013 the castle's seafront facilities hosted an RNLI lifeboat station, which was staffed by students and faculty of the college, and was credited with saving ninety eight lives along the South Wales coast during its period of operation. The college has hosted several royal visitors at the castle, including Charles III, when Prince of Wales, and Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Lord Mountbatten, who was closely involved with the UWC movement, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan and Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands. The fiftieth anniversary of the college in 2012 was celebrated with a visit from Queen Noor of Jordan, the then President of the United World Colleges. Politicians such as the former prime minister of Canada Lester B. Pearson and the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Alec Douglas Home also visited St Donat's, as have several ambassadors. The college is home to approximately 350 students from more than 90 countries, who live in houses constructed on the castle grounds for the two years of their studies. With a history of occupation from its construction in the late 13th century, St Donat's has been described as the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Wales.

Detailed drawings and plans prepared by the engineer and antiquary George Thomas Clark in 1871, and subsequently by George Lambert in 1901, assisted the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) in their survey of the castle published in 2000. In this survey, RCAHMW described the development of the castle in six phases: Period 1, the late 12th century; Period 2, the early 14th century; Period 3, the late 15th century; Period 4, the early 16th century; Period 5, the late 16th or early 17th centuries and finally the restorations of Carne, Williams and Hearst. The survey identified "substantial" remnants of the original Norman enceinte, including the keep, which had been enveloped by later developments and had previously been unrecognised and unrecorded. The entrance lies to the north west. The grouping is surrounded by outer and inner curtain walls. The outer curtain wall is pierced by a gatehouse which leads through to an outer court. This is blocked, to the left, by Hearst's Bradenstoke Hall. A further gate, adjacent to the Mansell Tower, leads onto the inner court with the great hall to the south west, the Bradenstoke Hall behind that, the banqueting hall to the west and the North Range to the right of the inner gatehouse.

The castle site offers natural defences, in the form of steep slopes to two sides and the coast to a third. The unprotected side to the east is encircled by a deep dry moat. The castle is built of local lias limestone rubble with Sutton stone and sandstone dressings. as well as the Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In addition to the armour, Hearst assembled a considerable collection of art and antiquities at the castle; "must buy many things for St Donat's"; including a large number of 17th and 18th century English portraits, Classical Greek vases, and tapestries. The castle was designated a Grade I listed building, the highest possible grade reserved for buildings of exceptional interest, in 1952. Cadw's listing report describes St Donat's as "an exceptionally fine medieval castle (with) many important interiors". The barn has been converted to a professionally equipped theatre which runs a programme of cinema, exhibitions and festivals. The Glass House is a modern addition and has been described as "aggressively detailed" but offering "spectacular" views. John Newman considered that the other developments undertaken by the college, although to designs of "uncompromising modernity", neither "detract from the historic castle (nor) impinge on its setting".

The original gardens of the Stradlings were famous, begun in the Tudor period by Sir Thomas Stradling. They were extended by his son, Sir Edward Stradling, after a long sojourn in Rome. The Tudor Stradlings also maintained two deer parks on the wider estate, one for red and one for fallow deer. The Welsh poet Thomas Leyson, a friend of Sir Edward, composed a tribute in Latin, suggesting that the beauty of the gardens was sufficient to encourage visits from the sea god Neptune and the water nymph Thetis. efn|Thomas Leyson's poem, now known only in a Welsh translation, runs, "Neptune and Thetis the sea goddess and other creatures of the underworld give up the deep to dwell in the garden" (lines 83–85). They were certainly converted to stabling, from whence the name derives, in the 17th century, and the Stradlings kept their horses at the barracks during the Civil War. By the 20th century the barracks were in a ruinous state and Hearst converted them into guest accommodation and a pool house in the 1930s. Between 1978 and 1981 Atlantic College rebuilt them in the original 17th century style to serve as student accommodation. The watchtower on the opposite slope to the castle is also probably 16th century, or possibly late 15th century, Many of the individual buildings have their own Grade II listings including the watchtower to the west of the castle, the sea walls and towers to the south of the castle, at the end of the terraces, and the walls to the north and west of the castle entrance. The gardens themselves were given Grade I listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales in 2022. They remain a rare survival of a complete, terraced Tudor garden, once among the finest Renaissance gardens in Wales.