Chirk Castle

A visit to Chirk Castle today, the medieval castle that sits slap-bang on the Welsh Marches and through whose grounds Offa's Dyke runs.

The interior was extensively remodelled in the Gothic style by Pugin in the early 1800s. Much of this has been undone but traces remain, including this panel work, which looks, to modern eyes at least, vibrant to the point of gaudiness. But bright colours were then a display of wealth and while the super-saturated colours might not look authentic to a generation raised in the belief that the tones of the period were muted and discreet, they are accurate. Bill Bryson puts it beautifully when he writes: When paints became popular, people wanted them to be as vivid as they could possibly be made. The restrained colours that we associate with the Georgian period in Britain, or Colonial period in America, are a consequence of fading, not decorative restraint.