Striking photographs reveal inside abandoned Welsh castle

Nation.Cymru Staff

An urban explorer has shared a series of striking photographs revealing the inside of a historic Welsh castle that served as a wedding venue.

Westbury Castle, near Prestatyn in north Wales, was once known as Talacre Hall and was the ancestral home of the Mostyn family before being converted for other uses.

The photographs were shared by Urbex Lost & Found, a Facebook page with more than 310,000 followers, which documents abandoned and forgotten buildings across the UK.

The Grade II*-listed Tudor-Gothic mansion, described as the ‘Welsh Downton Abbey’, was built from Gwespyr stone and sits on the site of an older 16th-century mansion, also home to the Mostyn family.

Between 1825 and 1829, the seventh Baronet Mostyn built Talacre Hall, replacing the earlier Jacobean mansion with the current building that features distinctive octagonal turrets.

In 1920 it was sold to a closed order of Benedictine nuns who used it as an abbey and convent, adding a church and campanile to the property.

It was then purchased for £1.8m in 2011 by a developer, Ian Ringwood, who restored the property at a further cost of £2m and converted it into a wedding venue with a 12-bedroom main house, and a west wing with several luxury apartments within the seven acres of land.

Westbury Castle, including its abbey, lodge and other outbuildings, was listed for sale again in 2013 for £5m, though certain property experts were sceptical that it would achieve that price.

Conservationist Mark Baker, an adviser to the National Trust, told Wales Online that despite Ringwood’s restoration to the West Wing, the main house “doesn’t look any different” as it had “undergone a very high quality restoration during the 2000s”, when it was near derelict.

The property later went into receivership and was placed under the control of Allsop LLP to recover outstanding debts, before it was eventually sold to an anonymous businessman at auction in 2018 for £1.5m.

With plans to rent out the apartments, Westbury Castle continued to operate as a wedding venue, but attracted controversy in 2020 following complaints from customers about cancelled bookings and refunds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Wales Live reported that several groups had taken to social media to say that the venue did not allow them to switch dates and had not provided refunds.

Operator Janet Evans told the newspaper that she was the “victim”, claiming that moving the event or offering refunds to those affected by closures would mean losing future bookings or going out of business.

She said: “People look at the house and think I am rich but I am the leaseholder here. I have spent three years putting every penny I make back into this property.

“This year I hoped to finally start making some money and then this happened. Coronavirus is not my fault, I am the victim here.

“They knew this was non-refundable and I advised them to get events insurance, it is not my fault. They were happy with the terms when they booked.”

The venue has since ceased operating, and recent photographs shared by urban explorers show the building unused but in relatively good condition.

Urbex Lost and Found followers were wowed by the “gorgeous building”, with locals sharing some history of the building.

One commenter wrote: “I grew up here and it was an amazing place to explore as a kid! It had several secret rooms back then – possibly priest holes, entered only through cupboards etc!”

Another added: “My family and I hired this for my birthday seven years ago. Gorgeous venue. Some of it was not accessible and locked up. The owners, back then had bought it for a million, it was in the news. They lived in one of the wings separately to the main building.”

Follow Urbex Lost and Found on Facebook here.

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