This two-night, three-day Study trip is led by Kate Hay, V&A Department of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion and FHS Events Committee Co-chair and will focus on William Burges and on Welsh furniture.

Our visits include Cardiff Castle, remodelled in a spectacular Victorian Gothic style by William Burges for the 3^rd Marquess of Bute, and Lord Bute’s country retreat Castell Coch, where Burges created a Victorian dream of the Middle Ages.  We are fortunate that Matthew Williams, former curator at Cardiff Castle, will speak to our group.

We will visit the nearby St Fagans National Museum of History, an open-air museum of buildings from across Wales, and winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019.  After an introduction by the furniture curator, we will tour the site, which includes farm-houses furnished with vernacular Welsh furniture, industrial ironworkers’ cottages, a school and many others.  We will also visit the Museum’s recently-opened and excellent galleries of Welsh furniture and crafts.

Other visits will include Tredegar House, one of the most significant late seventeenth century houses in Britain, with its magnificent state rooms, and the small but important group of furniture commissioned by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn held by the National Museum of Wales.

N.B. The whole weekend will be strenuous, including many steep and narrow spiral staircases, and long distances to cover on foot at St Fagans.

Please contact the Events Secretary for further details and an application form.