In good spirits
Eleanor Mills talks to Kevin Mason, the director of Bodelwyddan Castle Trust in north Wales, about making history you can step into
“Bodelwyddan Castle is a very curious place,” says Kevin Mason, who’s been the director of the trust that runs it for 18 years. A Victorian gothic-revival castle in appearance, the castle in north Wales is nestled in acres of wooded grounds, and sits next to a Warner Leisure Hotel. It’s a very popular attraction, despite its remote location.
The oldest parts of Bodelwyddan Castle date to a house that was built on site in the 1460s, but the neo-gothic appearance that visitors see now was largely designed and built in the 1830s, and the house has been done up to match.
“We are a 19th-century experience, and we concentrate on providing a completely 19th-century environment,” says Mason.
It hasn’t always been as easy to draw visitors there though. The castle has lavish interiors, but 19th-century portraiture isn’t very family-friendly, says Mason. “Parents used to find it difficult to concentrate on the art while looking after children.”
In 2013 the Welsh Government gave £39,000 to Bodelwyddan to help improve the castle’s family-friendly offer. Since then, Mason has concentrated on introducing at least one children’s activity into each room so that kids stay occupied while parents study the art on display and learn about the complex history of the castle. There’s everything ranging from mini tea party props, dressing-up, to games and trails.
For the adults, there’s history. The castle was home to an important political family, the Williams, from the late-17th century until the late-19th century. Then, during the first world war it became a recuperation hospital for wounded soldiers, and the grounds were used for trench warfare training. It was finally sold by the Williams family in 1920 and became a girls’ school, Lowther College, until 1982. Then it was bought by Clwyd County Council in the 1980s, before it was established as Bodelwyddan Castle Trust in 1994.
Making an impression
“I want to bring all of these histories to life,” says Mason. Clwyd County Council refurbished the bulk of the interiors to authentic 19th-century style in the 1980s. The council also set up a partnership with the National Portrait Gallery – the London museum still lends 19th-century artworks to the castle.
To pick up on the days of the girls’ school, Mason has transformed a room upstairs into an old-fashioned schoolroom for key stage two students to see what Victorian schooling was like. Mason also recruited former Lowther College pupils to put together an exhibition about the school.
Next on Mason’s list is a plan to recreate the training trenches in the parkland outside the castle.
“We still have the original first world war practice trenches here, but we’re making reproduction ones for visitors,” he says. “They aren’t perfectly accurate because health and safety requirements didn’t apply in 1914–18, but they do make a tremendous impression of what it must have been like.”
Mason wants to incorporate first world war poetry into the interpretation. “We’re well connected with the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, and a good number of the first world war poets were in that regiment, including Siegfried Sassoon, David Jones, and Robert Graves, so we have access to original material.” Mason also wants to use the trenches to support vulnerable communities. “The trenches are a great opportunity for us to help re-integrate ex-service personnel back into society.”
Digging trenches also means digging deep into the pockets though. “The Ministry of Defence has given us about £180,000 for the trenches project,” he says, but day-to-day Bodelwyddan largely relies on funding from the local authority.
“As an arm’s-length-funded organisation we are particularly prone to cutbacks. We’ve already had a 25% cut in our grant over the past three years.”
Mason’s budget has been reduced from £188,000 to £144,000 a year. To bolster its income, the castle runs corporate events, all-night sleepovers, weddings, biodiversity walks, and ghost hunts.
Having worked for the Council of Museums in Wales for 10 years, where he looked after the museums offer of north Wales, Mason is in a good position to comment on the 2015 Expert Review of Local Museum Provision in Wales, within which the Welsh government outlined several fairly radical recommendations to support the museums sector. “It was exactly what was needed.
It was bold. The regional partnerships idea would help get all the small independents talking to each other more. It’s a shame there hasn’t been much movement since.”
He says that his time at the council cemented his interest in museums. “It was the variety of all the different museums I liked, and advising and encouraging them.”
Measured approach
Mason’s roots are in science, so how did he first find himself working in museums?
“Manchester Museum was opposite the geology department at the University of Manchester, so while I finished my PhD in palaeontology, I spent a lot of time in the museum looking at the collection, particularly of the geologist and former curator of the museum, William Boyd Dawkins, who did pioneering research into the Pleistocene, and also ice age palaeontology.”
Mason has brought science with him to Bodelwyddan. “When I started here, one of the first exhibitions was from the science collection, Techniquest, in Cardiff. A lot of people asked why we were putting on a science show. My answer was that we wanted to engage with those who wouldn’t go to an art gallery. It was a great success.”
His scientific roots are also reflected in the biodiversity programme he’s set up for the Bodelwyddan estate, where he says there are quite a few endangered fungi and insect species.
Mason also emphasises the analytical approach employed at the castle’s paranormal events. There are specialist paranormal investigators who lead a group to measure and analyse any supernatural findings by recording sound, using infrared cameras and electromagnetic meters on Bodelwyddan’s all-nighter ghost hunts.
Has he ever witnessed anything? “I was in one of the castle’s rooms talking to someone, when I saw a figure of a man walking past in my peripheral vision. It was in the morning when we weren’t open, so nobody should have been there. The figure disappeared when I looked.”
But despite this other-worldly experience, Mason is completely down-to-earth and happily gets on with things.
“Dealing with first world war trenches, cinnabar moths, ditching and trees, as well as national art collections suits me down to the ground,” Mason says. “It is a good place for me, especially as I can drive a tractor round the grounds now and again.”
He did a degree in geology followed by a PhD in palaeontology, both at the University of Manchester.
Mason started out as a project manager cataloguing for Manchester Museum, before becoming a curator at Powysland and Llanidloes Museums for Powys County Council. He then moved to Brecon, as the senior curator for Brecknock Museum, before a 10-year stint as the assistant director for the Council of Museums in Wales.
He left the council to become the director of Bodelwyddan Castle Trust. He is a Fellow of the Museums Association and is also a curatorial adviser to the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, and Devonshire County Council’s museum service.
Run by Bodelwyddan Castle Trust, the site has expansive parkland, some shared with the Warner Leisure Hotel.
There are 30 employees – a mix of full and part time – and about 45 volunteers, with six dedicated to looking after the grounds under the environmental officer.
Admissions bring in about £140,000 a year, which is supplemented by £144,000 from the council. Annual turnover is about £600,000.
The oldest parts of Bodelwyddan Castle date to a house that was built on site in the 1460s, but the neo-gothic appearance that visitors see now was largely designed and built in the 1830s, and the house has been done up to match.
“We are a 19th-century experience, and we concentrate on providing a completely 19th-century environment,” says Mason.
It hasn’t always been as easy to draw visitors there though. The castle has lavish interiors, but 19th-century portraiture isn’t very family-friendly, says Mason. “Parents used to find it difficult to concentrate on the art while looking after children.”
In 2013 the Welsh Government gave £39,000 to Bodelwyddan to help improve the castle’s family-friendly offer. Since then, Mason has concentrated on introducing at least one children’s activity into each room so that kids stay occupied while parents study the art on display and learn about the complex history of the castle. There’s everything ranging from mini tea party props, dressing-up, to games and trails.
For the adults, there’s history. The castle was home to an important political family, the Williams, from the late-17th century until the late-19th century. Then, during the first world war it became a recuperation hospital for wounded soldiers, and the grounds were used for trench warfare training. It was finally sold by the Williams family in 1920 and became a girls’ school, Lowther College, until 1982. Then it was bought by Clwyd County Council in the 1980s, before it was established as Bodelwyddan Castle Trust in 1994.
Making an impression
“I want to bring all of these histories to life,” says Mason. Clwyd County Council refurbished the bulk of the interiors to authentic 19th-century style in the 1980s. The council also set up a partnership with the National Portrait Gallery – the London museum still lends 19th-century artworks to the castle.
To pick up on the days of the girls’ school, Mason has transformed a room upstairs into an old-fashioned schoolroom for key stage two students to see what Victorian schooling was like. Mason also recruited former Lowther College pupils to put together an exhibition about the school.
Next on Mason’s list is a plan to recreate the training trenches in the parkland outside the castle.
“We still have the original first world war practice trenches here, but we’re making reproduction ones for visitors,” he says. “They aren’t perfectly accurate because health and safety requirements didn’t apply in 1914–18, but they do make a tremendous impression of what it must have been like.”
Mason wants to incorporate first world war poetry into the interpretation. “We’re well connected with the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, and a good number of the first world war poets were in that regiment, including Siegfried Sassoon, David Jones, and Robert Graves, so we have access to original material.” Mason also wants to use the trenches to support vulnerable communities. “The trenches are a great opportunity for us to help re-integrate ex-service personnel back into society.”
Digging trenches also means digging deep into the pockets though. “The Ministry of Defence has given us about £180,000 for the trenches project,” he says, but day-to-day Bodelwyddan largely relies on funding from the local authority.
“As an arm’s-length-funded organisation we are particularly prone to cutbacks. We’ve already had a 25% cut in our grant over the past three years.”
Mason’s budget has been reduced from £188,000 to £144,000 a year. To bolster its income, the castle runs corporate events, all-night sleepovers, weddings, biodiversity walks, and ghost hunts.
Having worked for the Council of Museums in Wales for 10 years, where he looked after the museums offer of north Wales, Mason is in a good position to comment on the 2015 Expert Review of Local Museum Provision in Wales, within which the Welsh government outlined several fairly radical recommendations to support the museums sector. “It was exactly what was needed.
It was bold. The regional partnerships idea would help get all the small independents talking to each other more. It’s a shame there hasn’t been much movement since.”
He says that his time at the council cemented his interest in museums. “It was the variety of all the different museums I liked, and advising and encouraging them.”
Measured approach
Mason’s roots are in science, so how did he first find himself working in museums?
“Manchester Museum was opposite the geology department at the University of Manchester, so while I finished my PhD in palaeontology, I spent a lot of time in the museum looking at the collection, particularly of the geologist and former curator of the museum, William Boyd Dawkins, who did pioneering research into the Pleistocene, and also ice age palaeontology.”
Mason has brought science with him to Bodelwyddan. “When I started here, one of the first exhibitions was from the science collection, Techniquest, in Cardiff. A lot of people asked why we were putting on a science show. My answer was that we wanted to engage with those who wouldn’t go to an art gallery. It was a great success.”
His scientific roots are also reflected in the biodiversity programme he’s set up for the Bodelwyddan estate, where he says there are quite a few endangered fungi and insect species.
Mason also emphasises the analytical approach employed at the castle’s paranormal events. There are specialist paranormal investigators who lead a group to measure and analyse any supernatural findings by recording sound, using infrared cameras and electromagnetic meters on Bodelwyddan’s all-nighter ghost hunts.
Has he ever witnessed anything? “I was in one of the castle’s rooms talking to someone, when I saw a figure of a man walking past in my peripheral vision. It was in the morning when we weren’t open, so nobody should have been there. The figure disappeared when I looked.”
But despite this other-worldly experience, Mason is completely down-to-earth and happily gets on with things.
“Dealing with first world war trenches, cinnabar moths, ditching and trees, as well as national art collections suits me down to the ground,” Mason says. “It is a good place for me, especially as I can drive a tractor round the grounds now and again.”
Kevin Mason at a glance
Kevin Mason has been the director of Bodelwyddan Castle Trust since 1998. He did a degree in geology followed by a PhD in palaeontology, both at the University of Manchester.
Mason started out as a project manager cataloguing for Manchester Museum, before becoming a curator at Powysland and Llanidloes Museums for Powys County Council. He then moved to Brecon, as the senior curator for Brecknock Museum, before a 10-year stint as the assistant director for the Council of Museums in Wales.
He left the council to become the director of Bodelwyddan Castle Trust. He is a Fellow of the Museums Association and is also a curatorial adviser to the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, and Devonshire County Council’s museum service.
Bodelwyddan Castle Trust at a glance
Bodelwyddan Castle opened to the public in 1988 after it was bought by Clwyd County Council in the 1980s. Close to the north Welsh coast in Denbighshire, Bodelwyddan means “place of Elwyddan”. The region was ruled by Elwyddan, a sixth-century Welsh chieftain.Run by Bodelwyddan Castle Trust, the site has expansive parkland, some shared with the Warner Leisure Hotel.
There are 30 employees – a mix of full and part time – and about 45 volunteers, with six dedicated to looking after the grounds under the environmental officer.
Admissions bring in about £140,000 a year, which is supplemented by £144,000 from the council. Annual turnover is about £600,000.