Return to Brogyntyn Hall

(Disclaimer: Joking aside, I fully understand the risks/dangers involved in these adventures and do so in the full knowledge of what could happen. I don't encourage or condone and I accept no responsibility for anyone else following in my footsteps. I never break in a place, I never take any items and I never cause any damage. I will not disclose a location, or means of entry. I leave the building as I find it and only enter to take photographs for my own pleasure and to document the building.)

Today should be the "Shrewsbury" blog entry, but I decided to give it to Oswestry, just like I sometimes give it to Telford. These are, in my life, the three most significant locations in Shropshire- A town with a great castle, a town with barely any castle, and a town where people don't know how to spell castle.

But first I want to talk about a charity fundraiser. A friend of mine is raising money for the Survivors Trust by trekking across the Himalayas. The Survivors Trust, if you don't know, is a charity for victims of sexual abuse. It's a big deal. And to trek across the Himalayas is a pretty tremendous feat, way more impressive than anything I've done. If you can spare some donation money to a good cause, click here. We have the opportunity to do good here, people. And as incentive, anyone who donates £5 has a chance of winning her iphone.

Now on with the blog...
As some of you may know, I used to live in Oswestry, intent on having a normal life. The key word there is "Normal." I didn't appreciate Oswestry until I left, and started all this crazy adventuring, rooftopping and the like. It was then that I returned to Oswestry to see what it had to offer. As far as rooftopping goes, it's amazing. But there was a far greater treasure which I had totally not grasped the enormity of during my time there, and that was Brogyntyn Hall.
I explored it, years ago, and since then some of it has been demolished, and what's left is wrapped in scaffolding. It's been that way for some time, and I didn't consider there to be much left to revisit. How wrong I was!

But given that there's a security guard in a car just outside the main entrance, I wasn't really able to get a good exterior shot, nor would I want to given that it's currently enveloped in scaffolding. So here's the exterior shot from my earlier blog, because I want us to remember this historic masterpiece as it was, before whatever they're doing to it started happening.

And as a bonus, I'll throw in a historic picture of Brogyntyn from its glory days too.

(Photo not mine, obviously)

And more recently, a band called The Rec actually wrote a song about my earlier blog post on Brogyntyn, which you can listen to here.

The history of Brogyntyn is spectacular. In urban exploring circles it was known as The House of Tears, and I know what you're thinking, often urban explorers do give these crazy nicknames and fictional backstories for the sake of clickbait, but if any house fits the name House of Tears, it's Brogyntyn Hall.

The building was allegedly built by Napoleonic prisoners of war, between 1735 and 1736, although the building has been modified in 1825, 1870 and 1906. Given the fate of the family that lived here, some say that the building was cursed, and if you're into that sort of thing, it might interest you to know that the architect died in 1738, just two years after the building was completed.
Allegedly there was once in an earlier hall which stood here before the current one, and one of its fireplaces was retained in the modern hall, dating back to 1617.

Its name, Brogyntyn Hall, comes from the even older Castell Brogyntyn (Castell being Welsh for Castle, but pronounced as if you're sucking on a golf ball while trying to say it) which stood on the grounds nearby. Castell Brogyntyn wasn't anything like what traditionally springs to mind when one thinks of castles. It was a Motte & Bailey, being the predecessor of relatively newer castles. The design was introduced to Britain after the Norman conquest in 1066, and basically consisted of a stone or wood fortification on top of a raised circle, around which would be a ditch. These forts were made obsolete as castle technology evolved, but the remains can still be spotted today, if one knows where to look, in obvious circular ditches around raised areas. Castell Brogyntyns hill is 160 feet in diameter and is noticable because it has a tunnel running from one side to the other.

Castell Brogyntyn was so named when it became owned by Owain Brogyntyn, the son of the last king of unified Powys, Madog ab Meredydd. Owain lived from 1160 to 1186, and while dying at the age of 26 is young by todays standards, in the 1100s it probably wasn't that unusual. The fort was probably used to defend the Welsh border against Norman invaders, but it seems likely that it probably would have been used as a headquarters to carry out raids on medieval Oswestry.
This area was changed in the 1760s into a pleasure garden for the relatively more modern Brogyntyn estate. It was then that the tunnel was installed, so that visitors in the garden could walk around the garden without having to scramble over the mound.

This is just a mobile shot as I was using the phone light to see my way through the damn thing. It's fairly featureless and comes out on the other side.

Above the tunnel, where Castell Brogyntyn had once stood, the Brogyntyn Estate garden had a bowling green which included a pavilion.

None of this is still there. However, scattered broken slates around here indicate that the structure above probably had a slate roof, and on the above Earthwork there is the remains of brickwork.
However, I do believe that whats left should be preserved. It has a place in the local history. In fact, Brogyntyn has had an impact on Oswestrys history since the Norman Conquest almost a thousand years ago. Its historic significance is enormous, and yet known to so few.

Brogyntyn Hall is still standing, but barely. Demolition work has began on a huge chunk of it, and some of it is being modified. There's a car parked outside with a security guard in it. However when I came here for my revisit, it was raining, so I didn't look too suspicious taking shelter under the scaffolding, after crossing a field.  

It's like they were expecting me...

So Brogyntyn Hall was occupied for roughly two centuries by the Ormsby-Gore family, and their ancestors. It's a hyphenated surname, from the marriage of Mary Jane Ormsby and William Gore, an MP for North Shropshire. The Ormsby lineage is, in this case, more significant, as Mary Jane was the child of Margaret Owen and Owen Ormsby, who was probably delighted that in marriage Margaret would take his surname and not the other way round. Margaret inherited the Brogyntyn Estate, known as Porkington at the time, from her brother Robert Godolphin Owen, who died in 1792.

From the Ormsby-Gore family came the first Baron Harlech, John. He was a conservative member of parliament from 1837, and began representing Shropshire in 1859. He died in 1876.
As he had no sons, his brother William became Baron Harlech. William died in 1904, and was succeeded by his son, George.
George commanded the Welsh Guard during World War One, and was also a conservative MP and freemason. He died in 1939 and was succeeded by his son, William, a high commissioner to South Africa during World War Two. His eldest son, Owen, died in a car accident, and so when William died in 1964, his second son, David, who had also fought in World War Two and operated behind enemy lines with the phantom reconnaissance unit, became Baron Harlech and ambassador to the United States.
And here's where things get interesting.

Check this place out! It's gorgeous!

Luckily, I've been able to obtain a floor plan of Brogyntyn Hall, which labels all of the rooms with their purpose. This one is the Drawing Room, where guests would have been entertained.

David had inherited Brogyntyn Hall. It was his home. But David had connections, and many of these connections also stayed in Brogyntyn Hall for periods of time, perhaps even simulatenously.
Davids maternal great-grandfather was a prime minister and David himself was elected a member of parliament for Oswestry in 1950. But perhaps the most famous connection, and hardly someone you'd ever associate with Oswestry, was President John F Kennedy. You know, the one who got shot and spawned a conspiracy theory that still rages to this day. Here they are together in 1960...

(Photo not mine, obviously)

It's possible that John F Kennedy walked these same halls that I now walk. However unlike me, he probably wasn't divebombed by bats.

David and JFK were childhood friends, having met when JFKs father, Joseph, served as the US ambassador in the UK from 1938 to 1940. They remained friends long into adulthood with Kennedy making frequent visits.
David also visited Kennedy in the White House, and was actually pretty influential, as he made sure Britains views were taken into consideration during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and also helped secure the Russian test ban treaty in 1963.

Despite the church pews, this room was actually the dining room. Assuming he visited, JFK would have actually eaten in this room. How crazy is that???

So, because of the families ties to JFK, a lot of conspiracy theories surround Brogyntyn too, although not nearly as prevalent as conspiracy theories surrounding JFK.

I'm actually a big fan of conspiracy theories, although you do have to dig through a lot of shit to get the good stuff. The problem is, as soon as they start getting good, someone comes along and makes it absurd. Just look at the moon landing. Sure, it sounds like something that could actually happen, America faking some photos to 1up the Soviets. But then they jump off the deep end by saying that there's a moon base there, and Hitler has retired there with our reptile overlords.

But I digress...

This is the entrance hall, with the main door opposite the fireplace.

JFK was assassinated in 1963 and David, in spite of being a pallbearer at the funeral, was fighting rumours that he was having an affair with his wife, Jacqueline, at the time. However, they did confirm their love for each other later on...
Davids wife, Sylvia, died in a car accident in 1967. Not one to waste time, that same year, David proposed to Jacqueline Kennedy. However, she was put off by the thought of living in Oswestry (No Joke!), and decided to marry Aristotle Onassis instead. And no offence to anyone with that surname, but it sounds like a sexually transmitted disease. Let that sink in, just in case you're unfamiliar with Oswestry. The former wife of a US president had a choice between having a surname that sounds like a sexually transmitted disease, or living in Oswestry, and she went with the STD. Seriously!

However, in 1994, on her death bed as she lay dying of cancer in New York, she admitted that she regretted rejecting Baron Harlech, stating "That stupid mistake has haunted me for twenty years."

The moral of the story is, if you love someone, don't let the thought of living in Oswestry stop you being together.

So having lost his best friend, his wife, and been rejected by his lover, David married someone else in 1969. But tragedy wasn't done with the Ormsby-Gore lineage.
Davids eldest son, Julian, died in 1974 from gunshot wounds that were said to be suicide. Had he outlived his father, he would have been the next Baron Harlech. For David, this was particularly tragic to be predeceased by his own son, because his own position of Baron Harlech was caused by his brother Owen predeceasing his father.
David himself died in a car accident in 1985. Jacqueline Kennedy attended the funeral in Oswestry, along with JFKs brother, Teddy.
 Davids daughter Alice, who was engaged to Eric Clapton in the 1960s, albeit never married, later died of a heroin overdose in 1995, the day before her 43rd birthday. Here she is with Eric in 1969...

 (Photo not mine, obviously)

So in only a few decades, the Ormsby-Gore dynasty had lost so many, and there are those out there to link the car accidents and the gunshots to the death of JFK, suggesting maybe that David knew too much and was being warned, one family member at a time, of the consequences of speaking out, before they decided it would just be more convenient to remove him from the picture entirely. But that's just a conspiracy theory.

Of Davids surviving children are Francis, Victoria and Jane. Of these three, Jane has remarkable significance as a former lover of Mick Jagger, and the titular character of the Rolling Stones song, Lady Jane. Here she is in 1972, with her husband Michael. The pair opened a tupperware store in Oswestry that maybe some of my older readers will remember. They had two children, Saffron and Rose.

 (Photo not mine, obviously)

Francis, meanwhile, became the next Baron Harlech, and having lost most of his family and facing crippling debts from funeral costs, decided to sell the land in 2001 to a local developer, who was interested in building a retirement community around it. I don't know if it was because of grief, but Francis had already left Brogyntyn Hall abandoned from the moment he'd inherited it in 1985, preferring to live in a house on the estate instead, where he fathered two children, Jasset and Tallulah, in 1986 and 1988. Troubled by financial ruin, Francis is said to have had alcohol and drug issues, and was even sectioned in 2011.

Nothing came from the plans in 2001, and the hall remained as it was, with me slipping in on my original visit in 2015, although I was not the first nor the last. The so-called House of Tears was well documented by urban explorers before I even knew what urban exploring was.

To his credit, Francis Ormsby-Gore was said to be an amazing cook and raconteur, and at dinner parties he would mesmerise his guests with tales of his derring-do. However after his death in 2016 his derring-do was derring-done.

Jasset currently holds the title of Lord Harlech, but he has also inherited a house in Snowdonia named Glyn, which the family used as a holiday home in the 1800s. His grand plan was to sell Brogyntyn Hall and use the proceeds to restore Glyn with help from his mother and sister, so that he can live there. From what I've seen of various interviews with him, he seems like a nice guy. He describes his mother and sister as having the means to make his house into a home, stating that his job is the nuts and bolts, the roofing and so-on, to create a canvas for them.

It's also worth noting that Tallulah has also been busy, modeling and acting. According to her imdb page, shes been in four roles so far, none of which are films I've heard of, but that's still four more films than me! I played a disembodied head in a cereal commercial once, but that wasn't really acting.
However, in 2011 she admitted to a careless driving charge, after a non-fatal car accident. It's probably just a tragic coincidence, but if you're into the Brogyntyn Curse theory then it's quite ominous.

This room was once the study.

 But lets consider the enormity of this. JFK may have been here. Eric Clapton may have been here. Mick Jagger may have been here. A former prime minister has been here. And before these walls were even built, the last Prince of Unified Powys was here. And if Castell Brogyntyn was turned into an ornamental garden with a tunnel running through it, they were all probably there at some point too! Have JFK, Mick Jagger, and Eric Clapton all been through some tunnel in Oswestry? Possibly!

If only there was a way to playback the history of a place and watch it all.

This room was the library, and beyond the wooden boards is the circular music room where, in my last blog, I found a wooden model train, but now thats being demolished and is inaccessible.

 The secret bookcase door is still here in the library though, although locked. Back in the day when this was fully furnished and full of books, it was probably less obvious that this was secretly a door, but given that it's the only set of shelves still decorated it stands out. The books are, of course, fake. The official library entrance is in the Drawing Room, but this secret bookcase door comes out in the hallway by the study.

The cellar is also off limits now, which is a shame. In the 1960s it was used as a secret communications hub, and in 2015 was still full of Cold War communications equipment.

The upstairs of Brogyntyn have had the most extensive work done so far, although I dread to think whats been lost.

While the upstairs rooms are now featureless, they would have included bedrooms, the billiards room, a conference room, and bathrooms.

The age of the building, and the once obvious refinery is still apparent, but it's being stripped of its character. However, it was still possible to get out onto the roof.

 Now as I mentioned, there's a security guard parked right outside the main entrance, so I had to use these chimneys for cover when moving around, making sure the car was out of sight. As such, I have no shot of the front of the building from here, but the view, even in the rain and fog, is still pretty awesome.

There's a nice view of the Stable Block.

This last bit is a view of the Music Room, currently being demolished. For me this was a massive loss. It was an amazing little room.

The Brogyntyn estate also had a few other places dotted around, which I didn't know about on my earlier visit, the most well known being the alleged boat house, next to a lake. I actually saw this for the first time in a video by one of my urban explorer friends, Poppy, and decided that I had to check it out.
The lakes of Brogyntyn are actually artificial, created for the Brogyntyn Gardens, by damming a stream. A dam between the lakes causes a waterfall between the southern and northen lakes, making for a nice water feature. A small footbridge allows one to cross over the head of the dam.

There is no way to access this house, which is disappointing. I've seen pictures of the interior back when it was being lived in, and it sure was fancy! However the external architecture is still quite nice too.

 The brickwork has had these crystals adhered to the bricks.  I'm not sure if there's an actual term for this because I'm not a builder, I'm a support worker. I look after people for a living, so the terminology of the building trade, and types of rock, is alien to me. But the results are pretty! The walls of this house look pretty funky!

This door doesn't lead into the actual building, but the small cupboard area has a nice ceiling.

Now, I called this the alleged boathouse, and there's a reason for that. People nowadays generally refer to this as The Boathouse, because it's next to the lake. However, maps of the 1800s depict the boathouse further south, with this house simply being known as Brogyntyn Cottage. The actual boat house no longer exists.

However next to the lake is this circular brickwork. I don't know what this could have been, but it's soon to be taken by the lake.

Anyway, Brogyntyn Cottage is often referred to as The Swiss Cottage, due to its Swiss Chalet design. This name, while seemingly unofficial, was prevalent enough to even appear on vintage postcards.

That's really all I have on the Swiss Cottage. We're not done with the Brogyntyn estate just yet though!
In 1894 came the construction of the Brogyntyn Home Farm, a large brick complex that is partially residential today, while numerous surrounding buildings are derelict. Of particular interest to me was this building that looked suspiciously like a chapel.

I can't find much on this place though, except that it was called Brogyntyn Home Farm, it was part of the estate, and it was sold by Francis to cover his families debts.

The actual house still stands but is hardly habitable.

The stairs are beginning to collapse but it's still possible to get up there.

Evidently there used to be a toilet here but now it's gone, along with the wall. It's still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs though!

Someone has attempted to brick up the window.

And there's this ladder propped over a hole in the floor, leading into a floorless attic.

The surrounding barns are pretty derelict too.

I'm not entirely sure what this thing is. Someone will probably tell me. It looks like something from Robot Wars but it's probably much more mundane.

I'm not sure what the ceiling wheels in the barn are for.

There are more wheels, however, beneath the barn in what I assume would have once been full of water.

These old water wheels are still here, albeit long out of use.

In this particular underground tunnel, in the pitch black, there is this perfectly circular hole, clearly once covered with a slab but not anymore. I have no idea what this was for, and I decided to see if I could climb down there, by extending my tripod out to six feet and using it to test the depth of the pit. Even lying on my front, with my arm down this hole, hanging an extended tripod six feet long, I could not feel the bottom, and when I pulled the tripod back out it was wet. So there is water down there.

Sadly that is it for Brogyntyn Hall and the surrounding building. I don't know what the future holds for such an amazing place but I do have an unswerving opinion that the mansion, the Swiss Cottage, the site of Castell Brogyntyn, the lakes and even this run down farm all have their historic significance to Oswestry, and it would be a crime to see them go.

I feel like I should throw in some old photos from 2015, of Brogyntyn Hall as it was, when I first went there, so that we can get a better idea of what we're losing...

Here's the library, back in 2015. The bookcase door is open!

The Music Room, currently being demolished.

The stairs.

 The Master Bedroom.

A legless mannequin clutching a wineglass on the cellar stairs.

Her lower half, on the toilet.

Communications equipment, left over from the Cold War.

And that appears to be that.
I did venture into the rest of Oswestry though, as I used to live there and it is sentimental to me. As I wandered around, I thought about the people I could get in touch with and realised, none of them were there anymore. All of my friends in Oswestry no longer live at the houses that they lived in when I was there, nor do they work in the same jobs. In just eight years, Oswestry has become entirely alien to me while looking exactly the same.
Naturally, I decided that if familiarity wouldn't be offered to me, I would take it, and as such I went rooftopping.

And it was a small break, and quite fun, but also sad in its own way. This isn't my Oswestry.
Oswestry does have something else of interest though, and thats a ROC post. 

However, there's nothing much left to see, as the shaft has been filled with concrete. But to me, it's mind boggling. This is a genuine Nuclear Bunker, right here in Oswestry. People walk past it every day and probably never even think about it. I walked past it when I lived here, and never realised.

Underneath this ventilation shaft, the bunker could be in any condition. It could be a burnt out husk like the one in Church Stretton, or it could be immaculate like some of the others I've found. But with the shaft filled in with concrete, I guess I may never know.

Anyway that's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed this post on Brogyntyn, and some of Oswestrys other things to see. Share this blog if you want, and if you can spare the pennies for my friends charity fundraiser, please do. My next blog post will be a derelict house in Shropshire, but in the meantime, Like my Facebook, Follow my Instagram, Subscribe to my Youtube and Follow my Twitter.

Thannks for reading!