Piercefield House and Chepstow Racecourse
|
 |
|
|
|
Chepstow has a
National Hunt Racecourse
in the grounds of ruined Piercefield House, which is out of sight on the left. |
 |
 |
|
Piercefield House looks idyllic.. |
...but, in fact, it's a roofless ruin. |
    |
|
UPDATE: (15 November 2005)Piercefield
House is now up for
sale by Jackson-Stops & Staff
with a guide price of £2,000,000. This
includes about 129 acres of parkland. The scrub has been cleared from
the ruins and these 3 photographs show what it looks like today. |
   These
three photographs give some idea of the
amount of decay. However, it may not be too late. There has been recent
discussion about turning Piercefield House into a hotel. |
   These
three photographs show scaffolding being erected during September
and October 2008. |
| There is a
web site
dedicated to information about
Piercefield
House |
The Piercefield Walks
|
| Remnants of the famed
Piercefield
Walks can still be seen today even 150 years after they were closed
to the public. However, they are neglected as can be seen in the
following example photographs. In 2008, there is some prospect
that the viewpoints may be restored. |
 |
This is a purpose-built viewing platform which no longer has a view |
 |
The overgrown view from The Alcove. Chepstow Castle and Town can be
viewed by standing on the railings. |
 |
The dilapidated, vandalised bench at The Alcove. The area is also litter
strewn. |
 |
Not sure what this is. A "grotto" or a lime kiln?
But see this statement |
 |
The Giant's Cave |
 |
Inside the Giant's Cave. The Wye Valley Walk is through
the right hand opening towards Tintern |
A comprehensive report by Cambria Archaeology can be
downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF). It is entitled
"The Piercefield Walks and Associated Picturesque Landscape
Features: An Archaeological Survey". It runs to 57 pages and
includes colour maps and photographs and is invaluable for anyone
wishing to locate the features of the Piercefield landscape.
During spring and summer of 2009, repair and conservation work will be
carried out on some of the viewpoints on the Piercefield Walks :
Lover's Leap, Giants Cave, the Double View, the Grotto, the
Platform, and the Alcove.
Involved are the Overlooking the Wye
Landscape Partnership Scheme and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Monmouthshire County Council has diverted the Wye
Valley Walk for six months for the protection of the public.
Whether or not this
work will include the Wyndcliffe viewing platform is uncertain. This
has been closed as being unsafe since the end of 2008.
|
Read a 1789 article in
The Times
about Piercefield.
|
What Wikipedia has to say about
Piercefield
House. For convenience, the owners mentioned are listed here:
1727 : Thomas Rous
1740 : Valentine Morris (senior)
1743 : Valentine Morris (junior)
1785 : George Smith
1794 : Mark Wood
1802 : Nathaniel Wells
c1850-1856 : John Russell
1861 : Henry Clay (senior)
1874 : Henry Clay (junior)
1926 : Chepstow Racecourse Company
Read the The Times
1789 obituary of Valentine Morris who inherited the property
from his father in 1743, together with property in Antigua, and lost
the lot by the time he died. This Wikipedia
article on
Valentine Morris sheds some light on aspects of his character
skated over in the obituary. Note that the obituary gives Valentine
Morris the credit for the improvements to Monmouthshire's roads.
An
advertisement appeared in The Times
1 June 1805 stating that Piercefield was available to let,
furnished.
Read the astonishingly verbose 1833
advertisement in The Times
when Piercefield was put up for auction, apparently during the
ownership of
Nathaniel Wells (1779-1852) who had bought Piercefield, in 1802
from Mark Wood, having been left around £120,000 in
his father's Will. It is presumed the auction was unsuccessful.
Read a report
in The Times 20 February 1874 about the Will of Henry Clay
(senior)
The Times reported that the
first meeting at Chepstow
Racecourse took place 6 August 1926
Locate Piercefield House on
Google Earth
|
| |
