£2.5m of work planned for ‘I’m a Celeb’ castle

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Major work to restore the Grade-I listed castle, which hosted the hit ITV show I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! during the Covid pandemic, could start as early as next spring.

Kevin Illiot, of the Gwrych Castle Trust, has applied to Conwy County Council’s planning department, seeking permission to carry out the work.

The trust has submitted four planning applications for the building on Llanddulas Road, which dates back to the early 1800s.

While much of the more widespread minor work is too numerous to list, the significant proposal is to build a new roof and floor at the main castle building.

Fundraising

The work must be first agreed by Conwy’s planning committee, but the trust received around £2.3m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund two years ago.

The rest of the total £2.5m funds have been raised by fundraising, and the trust now hopes that the castle can be restored within the next five years – although this still depends on securing more funding.

Once restoration is complete, it’s hoped the castle can be used as a wedding venue, prestigious exhibition space for significant museum pieces, and holiday lets.

It’s predicted the castle could employ around 200 people during the busy summer season.

Chairman of the Gwrych Castle Trust Dr Mark Baker explained that securing the £2.3m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund was a huge step.

“This is putting on the permanent roof and all the floors into the main castle. This is the major step. We’ve been fundraising, and we’ve managed to raise about £2.5m,” he said.

“The main house was always such a big project to tackle that we needed backing from the national funding body.

“So we’ve assembled a project team of conservation architects.

“We’ve tried to get all the best people as it is such an important place, and everything has been looked at from ecology through to the type of slate that will go back on the roof.

“There has been a huge amount of historic research into what the interiors looked like, so all the works that are being done now are preparing for the reinstatement of the castle.

“The roofs and floors are to go back into the main castle, the main house, which will enable public access to the state apartments.

“Then it gives us the launchpad for fitting out the interiors, which will be the next phase of work.

“I’m a Celebrity … did lots of emergency repairs to make it safe for the celebs, but this is making permanent changes, so it is all the permanent roofs and floors and windows put back.

“So there will be paint analysis to work out what some of the original colours of some of the big rooms were.”

Exciting

And Dr Baker explained that the work could happen quickly if planning permission is secured.

“It is incredibly exciting and secures the future of the castle because it still is a building at risk, and this will take it off the Buildings at Risk Register,” he said.

“It is huge for Abergele and North Wales. It is a building of international importance.

“The rooms and the floors will happen quite quickly. We’ve just released the tender, so as soon as planning is granted, we will be ready to go. We need to start the work in the spring when it is good weather.

“I think the floors and roof will be complete within 18 months, and then it is dependent on the next grant.

“We are always trying to fundraise, so hopefully (the castle will be restored) within five years.”

Dr Baker explained the castle could provide major employment in the area.

“The building is going to be mixed-use,” he said.

“The ground floor and the first floor will be public access, so it will have exhibitions, flexible space, so we can have things like weddings; we are looking at partnerships with different galleries like the National Museum of Wales to display some of their national collections.

“The other floors will be holiday lets. So visitors can visit the castle and also stay there.

“All the money that’s generated will go back into the project. The castle will employ, during the summer season, about 200 people, so it can be a major economic driver locally, particularly for Abergele.”

He added: “It will bring a lot of tourists and provide a lot of jobs. It is something we’ve been working towards for nearly 30 years.

“It is going to be one of the largest restoration projects in Britain.”

With over 240 acres of gardens, the ‘hedge’ castle dates back to the early part of the 19th century.

Older

But Dr Baker also exclusively revealed that the trust has recently discovered that parts of the house are much older than were first thought. Dr Baker explained the castle’s restoration would cost around £10m in total to complete.

“I would suspect it will cost around £10m to do the fit-out of the main building on its own,” he said.

“Then there is lots of outbuildings, but we are just concentrating on the core because a medieval structure has revealed itself that we didn’t know existed.

“Within the ruins of the Georgian castle, what you can see today is mostly from about 1810 onwards.

“There is the earlier house of the Lords of Gwrych, so the family have lived there for 600 or 700 years, and the remains of that building have appeared.

“So that’s been really exciting. It looks like it was a timber-framed manor house. It was basically subsumed by the Georgian house.

“Where all the plaster work has fallen off due to dereliction, it has revealed a skeleton of this earlier building, so we are going to be doing dendrochronology on the wood to try and date it.”

He added: “When this phase of works is completed, we will be going for the next round of funding.

“What is going to be really exciting is – fingers crossed it goes well with planning – within maybe 12-18 months, visitors will be able to walk through the state apartments again, which haven’t had floors since the early 1990s.”

The planning applications will likely be debated by Conwy’s planning committee.