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Victorian Castles
In South Wales the third Marquise of Bute had Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch built of which the latter is a functional castle in the medieval sense.
The Marquise of Bute
An industrialist, the second Marquise of Bute risked his considerable fortune in an enterprise involving the building of docks at Cardiff to accommodate an anticipated traffic to and from local industry, the main one being coal mining. The risk paid off and the docks yielded him a fortune from port dues and increased ground rents as the city grew and prospered. Cardiff turned from an insignificant town of under 2,000 people to a large industrial seaport. In 1859, the second Marquise of Bute died and left his vast estates, titles and fortune to his son, John Patrick Crichton Stuart, third Marquise of Bute. John Patrick was a romantic intellectual and greatly interested in ancient architecture which is why he became the perfect patron and friend for William Burges, an architect with a love for the middle ages.
William Burges
William Burges was the son of the marine engineer that was involved in the building of Cardiff docks for the second Marquise, which is perhaps how the third Marquise met Burges. William Burges was inspired by Pugin, the first great architect of Medievalism. In 1872, The Marquise of Bute, asked William Burges, who was already working on the enlargement of Cardiff Castle for him, to submit proposals for the reconstruction of Castell Coch, a thirteenth century ruin north of Cardiff. The designs were accepted and the work went ahead, resulting in a magnificent castle of European appearance amid trees on a hillside looking down into a valley.
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