Erddig Hall

Erddig is a late 17th-century country house on the southern outskirts of Wrexham, now owned by the National Trust and one of the most compelling historic houses in Wales. Built for Josiah Edisbury in 1687 and later acquired by the Yorke family, who held it until 1973, the house is remarkable not so much for its grand rooms — though the state rooms are handsomely furnished — as for what it preserves of ordinary domestic life.

The working outbuildings are intact and staffed by costumed interpreters: the laundry, the bakehouse, the smithy, the joiner's shop, and the large kitchen with its original equipment. The walled garden has been restored to its 18th-century design. Outside, a landscaped park includes an unusual "cup and saucer" waterfall, a horse-gin that survives in its original condition, and an adventure play area for children called Wolf's Den. The house is within walking distance of the city centre and easy to combine with a visit to Bersham Ironworks nearby.

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Erddig is unusual among country houses in that its owners preserved — and actively commissioned — portraits, poems, and accounts of their servants as well as the family itself. The result is an exceptionally complete picture of life below stairs over two centuries: the kitchen, the laundry, the sawpit, the smithy, and the stables are all intact, and the servants' portraits (some painted by professional artists, which was itself unusual) hang alongside the family collection. The National Trust has kept this "upstairs-downstairs" quality at the centre of how the house is presented.

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