Ruperra Castle was built in 1626 by Sir Thomas Morgan, who was knighted by King James 1st. It was a typical Jacobean courtier’s house, an example of the ‘Great Rebuilding’ of the 16th and 17th Centuries. King Charles 1st stayed there in 1645 raising support after the Battle of Naseby. A deer park was recorded in 1684 when the Duke of Beaufort feasted there and there were viewing points through the trees and beautiful grassed rides up to the summer house where the family took tea at this time. After being destroyed by fire in 1785 the castle was rebuilt and the original gables replaced by battlements. In 1875 Captain Godfrey Charles Morgan, of the Charge of the Light Brigade fame became Lord Tredegar and during the 19th Century the eldest son of the Tredegar family lived at Ruperra which saw its heyday as a great Victorian country estate with historic gardens and parklands. In the 1920s many repairs were done but then Tredegar fortunes declined.
With the outbreak of World War Two, Ruperra Castle was requisitioned and from 1939 to 1946 a succession of Royal Army regiments, Signals, Mobile Bakery, Searchlights, Medical Corps, Indians, Dutchmen, were sent to Ruperra to be trained and moved on. At the end came German prisoners of war.
On December 6th 1941 when a British regiment of Searchlights were there, a large fire broke out in the castle caused by faulty electric wiring. Flames were visible for miles around but in spite of the number of fire engines attending, the castle was gutted by the fire.
In 1956, the whole of the Tredegar estates of 53 000 acres were sold off, including the now ruined castle of Ruperra. The castle has remained in private ownership since then. However nothing has been done to stop its continued deterioration. As a result, in 1982, the south-eastern tower collapsed. There are large cracks in the other three.
www.castlewales.com/ruperra.html
www.ruperratrust.co.uk/html/castle_history.html
Copyright www.prinsesirenebrigade.nl - Ruperra Castle just before the fire that destroyed it in 1941.