Charleville Forest Castle
Tullamore, Co. Offaly
The imposing entrance front of the castle with its
asymmetrical towers placed on either side of the main block designed for the first Earl of Charleville
Copyright David Hicks
Charleville
Forest Castle, located near Tullamore in County Offaly, Ireland, is a building
that was designed to provide a dramatic backdrop to the trials and tribulations
of the lives of the Earls of Charleville. Its majestic exterior, with soaring towers
and turrets, conceals an amazing array of theatrical spaces. Here for a number
of years on the walls of its dining room hung an immense painting with an
amazing story.
Upon entering the castle’s entrance hall a staircase rises
majestically before you. This leads directly to the impressive gallery which is
one of the largest rooms in the castle and contains one of the most beautiful
plaster ceilings in Ireland
Copyright by David Hicks
Charleville
Forest Castle began as the vision of one man named Charles William Bury, who
became a Baron in 1797, a Viscount in 1800 and the Earl of Charleville in 1806.
As the result of inheritance, he was a man of independent means which allowed
him to keep a house in London, mix in polite society and travel the continent.
When the time came for him to build a home on ancestral lands in Offaly, he had
various ideas and he wanted to create a truly grand vision of a new ancestral
seat for his family. Charles William Bury dabbled in architecture and wanted a
stately pile to project a grandiose image for himself. He had toyed with the
idea of constructing a new house for a number of years and had amassed a
collection of unexecuted plans by various architects. By the 1790s Charles’
taste had turned to the Gothic Revival and he began to make crude sketches of a
fantastical castle. Around the year 1800, it was the architect-de-jour, Francis
Johnston who took Charles’s ideas and fleshed them out. Johnston took his
clients crude sketches and combined them with his own architectural genius to
produce the building that we see today.
The unexpected grandeur of the ceiling of the gallery
that greets you at the top of the stairs from the entrance hall.One of the most impressive features of the gallery
ceiling are the plunging plaster bosses. These large decorative features seem
to defy gravity, suspended from the ceiling above.
Copyright David Hicks
While the
castle was being built, expensive tours were made of the continent with items being
purchased to fill the cavernous rooms of the castle back in Offaly. As a result
of his spending, the coffers of the family fortune were being depleted at an alarming
rate and Charleville Forest was not fully completed until 1812. When Charles
William Bury, the first Earl of Charleville, died in 1835 his estate was
described as being ‘embarrassed’ from a financial perspective. The second Earl
of Charleville died in 1851, and his son Charles William George Bury became the
third Earl and returned to the castle to live with his family. Eight years
later in 1859, the third Earl died and his son, Charles William Francis Bury,
who was only aged only seven became the fourth Earl of Charleville. The title
of the Earl of Charleville never seemed to rest too long with any of its recipients
and in 1874 was again relinquished to another. The fifth and final Earl of
Charleville was an uncle of the fourth Earl, brother of the third Earl and son
of the second Earl. Alfred Bury inherited his title in 1874 but died one year
later in 1875 aged 46, without issue. In the space of just under seventy years
the title of the Earl of Charleville had passed through five members of the
Bury Family and was now extinguished. Charleville Forest Castle was inherited
by Lady Emily Alfreda Julia Bury, a daughter of the third Earl and it was she
who made a number of further improvements to the castle. She had married in 1881 Captain
Kenneth Howard, who died four years later. He had assumed the additional
surname of Bury to ensure that it would be passed on to their son. Charles Kenneth Howard Bury inherited the castle in 1931, after the death
of his mother but chose to reside at the more manageable Belvedere House in a neighbouring
county. The
contents of the castle were sold in 1948 and when its interiors were
photographed in 1962 for Country Life, the empty rooms were filled with furniture from
Belvedere House. Charles Kenneth Howard Bury died in April 1964 and estate then
passed to a cousin.
By this
time, the castle was empty and its rooms were devoid of their contents however one
large survivor remained. An immense painting hung on the end wall of the dining
room where it remained forlorn after the clearance of the castle’s contents. It
was the paintings vast size at nearly 10 ft high by 20 ft wide was the reason
for its abandonment after it remained unsold in the 1948 auction. Some unwanted
visitors to the castle in the following years left their mark in a very
permanent way by vandalising and slashing the canvas’ lower extremities. There it remained for twenty-two years until
a gentleman by the name of Graham Gordon opened a door of the empty dining room
in this abandoned Irish castle. As he
entered the darkened space, a beam of sunlight spread across the corner of a
large painting on the opposite wall. As he traversed the room, his heartbeat
quickened as he now stood in front of the large expanse of blackened canvas. He
began to wipe away years of dust from the bottom of the gilded frame and there
inscribed before his eyes were the words ‘
No. 52 King Henry VIII, Act 5, Scene 4, W.Peters’. Here
in this forgotten castle, Graham had discovered a long lost masterpiece that
dated from 1789 painted by the artist Matthew William Peters. This painting depicted
the christening of Princess Elizabeth I, from the Shakespearian play Henry
VIII. It was originally commissioned by John Boydell in 1786 when he engaged
the greatest artists of the day to produce paintings that illustrated the works
of Shakespeare. These paintings were then displayed in a gallery that he had
built in London in 1789. The Boydell Gallery eventually contained 170 works,
however the locations of only forty-five of these are known today. The
Charleville painting was featured in a catalogue from 1790 from the Boydell
Gallery where it was named as No. 52 in the series, hence the relevance of the
number 52 that appeared on the inscription on the frame.
Painting No. 52 as it appeared in the Boydell Catalogue
The Boydell Gallery experienced
financial difficulties and eventually the paintings were consigned for sale to
Christies. They were displayed together publicly for the last time in May 1805
and then the collection was dispersed. The No. 52 painting was sold by James
Christie for twenty-three pounds, two shillings to a London art dealer who was
enlisted to help furnish the newly built Charleville Forest Castle. The
painting was shipped to Offaly and is depicted in a drawing of the room from
1812. Here William Peter’s masterpiece remained for 165 years until its eventual
discovery by Graham Gordan.
An image of the dining room from 1812 shows a large painting on the end wall that was purchased by the first Earl in 1805.
The painting that Graham Gordon discovered in the dining room of Charleville Castle
Copyright Graham Gordon
The large rolled up painting leaves Charleville Castle Charleville
Forest Castle
Copyright Graham Gordon
Major
Hutton he owner of the castle, agreed to sell the painting to Graham as at that
time the future of both it and the castle were uncertain. The removal of the
painting from the castle was something that had never been attempted since its
arrival 165 years before. Luckily, the frame behind the painting had been
designed for disassembly with large bolts holding the corners together. After
the frame and stretchers had been removed, the rolled up painting was carried
out of the door of the castle and placed on to the trailer of a waiting
tractor. The last item that had a tangible connection with the first Earl of
Charleville was now leaving the castle to be packed and shipped to Canada. Upon arrival in Canada, the canvas was in a
bad condition, years of dirt, grime and a thick layer of varnish gave the
painting an extremely dark appearance. The size of the painting meant that the
servants in Charleville Castle never ventured beyond cleaning the bottom of the
frame. Over two years its slash marks were repaired and the sections of the painting
which had been lost were renewed. Once restored the true beauty of William
Peter’s work could be appreciated. Today the painting resides far away from
Charleville and is currently on loan to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Canada.
The restored painting by Matthew William
Peters (British, 1742-1814) of King Henry VIII. Act Five, Scene Four, The
Christening of Princess Elizabeth, late eighteenth century, oil on canvas 2.85
x 6 metres. Private Collection
Copyright The Beaverbrook
Gallery
Today Charleville Castle is run by the Charleville Castle Heritage Trust which was created in 1994 as a
voluntary non-for-profit organisation. The castle is managed and maintained by
Dudley Stewart who is aided by a team of volunteers who come from all over the
world and help conserve and restore the castle. The castle in recent years has tried to earn its
keep in many ways, such as the Castlepalooza Music Festival that takes place in
its grounds each year. Other revenue streams include the castle being used as a
setting for television productions which focus on its ghostly inhabitants. It has
featured on Living TV’s Most Haunted
and Fox TV’s Scariest Places on Earth
both of these productions have tried to give the castles reluctant ghosts their
five minutes of fame. This aging dowager of a castle is now also a film starlet,
having recently had starring rolls in BBC’s adaptation of Northanger Abbey and also in the 2007 Hollywood film Becoming Jane.
No comments:
Post a Comment