Don't forget the conference Saturday April 2nd

There is still time to book if you haven't already. For details phone Elaine Davey 02920 387384. The cost is £22 which includes tea and coffee and a light lunch.

Top 10 Photo Opportunity

From right to left , Mike Parker, journalist and broadcaster and author of the 'Rough Guide 'series and many other books, Pat Jones-Jenkins and Elaine Davey from Ruperra Castle Preservation Trust, Roger Pride, Marketing Director at the Welsh Assembly Government.

How to see Ruperra Castle. Here are some maps.

Now that Ruperra Castle has become famous, everyone wants to know how to get there! The truth is that there is no vehicular access on the drive at the back of the Castle grounds, unless you live along the drive or are delivering the post or collecting the recycling. Volunteers working in the woodlands for the Conservation Trust can also park on the drive by the south entrance to the woodland.

However - if you are a good walker and enjoy fresh air and exercise, you can park in the Coed Ruperra woodland car park on the Draethen-Michaelston Road and walk throgh the woods to the castle drive. The drive is a public footpath and you can walk along there past the gate into the castle to a little kissing gate and down a path at the side of the castle grounds and round to the south side.

You might like to stop at the Hollybush in Draethen for a meal or a drink and leave your car there while you walk up the footpath at the back of the Hollybush and into the woodlands and up and over the top down to the castle.

Good luck and enjoy yourselves!

Not just IN the Top Ten but SECOND in the Top Ten

What wonderful news! Your efforts were not in vain! It was only the Ice Cream parlours that beat us and we don't mind that do we! More to come.

Ruperra Conference on Saturday April 2 2011

A Welsh ‘pageant’ Castle and the steward to the ‘Earls of Paradise’ Saturday April 2nd
Hosted by the National History Museum (St. Fagan’s)
Sponsored by The Ruperra Castle Preservation Trust

Ruperra Castle is a rare example of a Jacobean, Renaissance mock Castle in Rudry near Caerphilly ('it belongs to the very small and precious group of buildings expressing in architectural form the cult of chivalry’ Mark Girouard).The theme for our 2011 conference is the ‘life and times of Sir Thomas Morgan, builder of Ruperra Castle’. The venue is the Oakdale Workmen’s Institute (capacity 100) at the National History Museum, Cardiff
Many of you will know of our long running campaign to secure this important site for the nation.(‘it is an outstanding example of the nostalgia for the chivalric past felt in the early c17, even as Inigo Jones was rooting classicism in Britain’ John Newman )
We have some very notable supporters, some of whom will be speaking at this event.

10.30 gather for tea /coffee
10.50 Welcome by Dr. Gerallt Nash, Senior Curator
11.00 -11.45 Prof. J.G.Jones – Sir Thomas Morgan, steward to William 3rd Earl of Pembroke
11.50 -12.35 Sara Huws -‘Cosmopolitan Cymru’
12.40 Elaine Davey- Dr John Dee ‘Welsh wizard and British Empire’
1.00 - 2.00 light lunch (sandwiches, crisps and fruit + tea/coffee)

Introduction to the afternoon speakers (Janet Wilding Chair RCPT.)
2.05 -2.50 Richard Suggett from the RCAHMW and ‘Hidden Histories’- Ruperra Castle and Renaissance architecture.
2.55-3.40 Peter Reynolds -the music of Byrd, Monteverdi, Sweelinck etc. and, of course, Wales's own Robert ap Huw)

Vote of thanks by Cdr. John Curteis (President R.C.P.T.)

Price £22.00 to include refreshments
Tickets on a first come, first served basis-to apply for tickets contact; DaveyE1@cardiff.ac.uk or phone 02920 387384. Return slip to; E.Davey, 37 Romilly Rd., Cardiff CF5 1FJ



Booking form for ‘A Welsh ‘pageant’ Castle and the steward to the ‘Earls of Paradise’

I wish to book……………………………...place/s at a cost of £22.00 per person payable now.
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