Queer Places: Plas Newydd, Llangollen
Address: Plas Newydd, Hill Street, Llangollen LL20 8AW, UK
Plas Newydd is a historic house in the town of Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales, and was the home of the Ladies of Llangollen, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, for nearly 50 years. Today, it is run as a museum by Denbighshire County Council.
The original cottage was expanded by the Ladies, and then again by subsequent owners in the 19th century. It is now returned to essentially the final structure left by the Ladies. Its most unusual feature is the profusion of pieces of reclaimed oak carvings collected by the Ladies and set in patchwork style over much of the wall areas of the house. These came from broken-up furniture or church fittings and range in date from the medieval to the Baroque, but with folk and "Jacobean" vernacular styles of shallow carved decoration predominating.
The house appeared in the 1989 BBC adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (one of the Narnia Chronicles written by C.S. Lewis) as the home of the wizard Coriakin (played by Preston Lockwood).
It was also used in a 1987 episode of the TV series Treasure Hunt and Antiques Road Trip in 2013. It was also featured on Most Haunted.
The Ladies of Llangollen were two upper-class women from Ireland whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries.
Eleanor Charlotte Butler (11 May 1739 – 2 June 1829) was a member of one of the dynastic families of Ireland, the Butlers, the Earls (and later Dukes) of Ormond. Eleanor was considered an over-educated bookworm by her family, who resided at the Butler family seat Kilkenny Castle. She spoke French and was educated in a convent in France. Her mother tried to make her join a convent because she was remaining a spinster.
Sarah Ponsonby (1755–9 December 1831) lived with relatives in Woodstock, County Kilkenny, Ireland. She was a second cousin of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and thus a second cousin once-removed, of his daughter the Lady Caroline Lamb.
Their families lived only two miles (3 km) from each other. They met in 1768, and quickly became friends. Over the years they formulated a plan for a private rural retreat.
Rather than face the possibility of being forced into unwanted marriages, they left County Kilkenny together in April 1778. Their families hunted them down and forcefully tried to make them give up their plans – in vain.
After a couple of years, their life attracted the interest of the outside world. Their house became a haven for visitors, mostly writers such as Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott, but also the military leader the Duke of Wellington and the industrialist Josiah Wedgwood; aristocratic novelist Caroline Lamb, who was born a Ponsonby, came to visit too. Even travellers from continental Europe had heard of the couple and came to visit them, for instance Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, the German nobleman and landscape designer, who wrote admiringly about them.
The ladies were known throughout Britain, but have been said to have led "a rather unexciting life". Queen Charlotte wanted to see their cottage and persuaded the King to grant them a pension.
Butler and Ponsonby lived together for the rest of their lives, over 50 years. Their books and glassware had both sets of initials and their letters were jointly signed.
Eleanor Butler died in 1829. Sarah Ponsonby died two years later. They are both buried at St Collen's church in Llangollen.
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Plas Newydd is a historic house in the town of Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales, and was the home of the Ladies of Llangollen, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, for nearly 50 years. Today, it is run as a museum by Denbighshire County Council.
The original cottage was expanded by the Ladies, and then again by subsequent owners in the 19th century. It is now returned to essentially the final structure left by the Ladies. Its most unusual feature is the profusion of pieces of reclaimed oak carvings collected by the Ladies and set in patchwork style over much of the wall areas of the house. These came from broken-up furniture or church fittings and range in date from the medieval to the Baroque, but with folk and "Jacobean" vernacular styles of shallow carved decoration predominating.
The house appeared in the 1989 BBC adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (one of the Narnia Chronicles written by C.S. Lewis) as the home of the wizard Coriakin (played by Preston Lockwood).
It was also used in a 1987 episode of the TV series Treasure Hunt and Antiques Road Trip in 2013. It was also featured on Most Haunted.
The Ladies of Llangollen were two upper-class women from Ireland whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries.
Eleanor Charlotte Butler (11 May 1739 – 2 June 1829) was a member of one of the dynastic families of Ireland, the Butlers, the Earls (and later Dukes) of Ormond. Eleanor was considered an over-educated bookworm by her family, who resided at the Butler family seat Kilkenny Castle. She spoke French and was educated in a convent in France. Her mother tried to make her join a convent because she was remaining a spinster.
Sarah Ponsonby (1755–9 December 1831) lived with relatives in Woodstock, County Kilkenny, Ireland. She was a second cousin of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and thus a second cousin once-removed, of his daughter the Lady Caroline Lamb.
Their families lived only two miles (3 km) from each other. They met in 1768, and quickly became friends. Over the years they formulated a plan for a private rural retreat.
Rather than face the possibility of being forced into unwanted marriages, they left County Kilkenny together in April 1778. Their families hunted them down and forcefully tried to make them give up their plans – in vain.
After a couple of years, their life attracted the interest of the outside world. Their house became a haven for visitors, mostly writers such as Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott, but also the military leader the Duke of Wellington and the industrialist Josiah Wedgwood; aristocratic novelist Caroline Lamb, who was born a Ponsonby, came to visit too. Even travellers from continental Europe had heard of the couple and came to visit them, for instance Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, the German nobleman and landscape designer, who wrote admiringly about them.
The ladies were known throughout Britain, but have been said to have led "a rather unexciting life". Queen Charlotte wanted to see their cottage and persuaded the King to grant them a pension.
Butler and Ponsonby lived together for the rest of their lives, over 50 years. Their books and glassware had both sets of initials and their letters were jointly signed.
Eleanor Butler died in 1829. Sarah Ponsonby died two years later. They are both buried at St Collen's church in Llangollen.
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