St Fagans Castle

A medieval castle dating from the 13th century previously existed on the site. By 1536 it lay in ruins. By 1563 the site had been sold to a Dr John Gibbon. A new house was built on the site either by Gibbon or by Nicholas Herbert, who bought the site from Gibbon in 1586. Part of the D-shaped medieval boundary fortifications remain, forming a wall around the current house.

Sir Edward Lewis of The Van, Caerphilly, bought the house in 1616 from the Herbert family in trust under condition that it remain in the senior male line of the Lewis family forever. Upon the death of Thomas Lewis in 1736 the house was placed into a 2000 year testamantary trust after an act of parliament maintaining the Lewis entails. The interior dates partly from the Lewis reign and partly from after 1850, when in the possession of the Windsor-Clive family. Their ownership began in 1833, when the estate was inherited by Lady Harriet Clive (later the 13th Baroness Windsor), wife of the Hon.

In 1951, Iorwerth Peate, keeper-in-charge for the castle, was allowed by the Hon. John Morgan to select thirty pieces of furniture from Tredegar House for exhibition in the castle’s period rooms; Morgan was disposing of the contents of Tredegar House following its sale in lieu of death-duties.