The Orangery
History and
design
The Orangery at Margam was built between 1787 and 1793 to house
a large collection of orange, lemon and citron trees inherited by
Thomas Mansel Talbot together with the Margam Estate and the now
vanished Margam House from his Mansel forebears. It is listed Grade
I as one of the finest classical buildings in Wales.
The Orangery is the dramatic and magnificent centrepiece to the
Gardens. Designed in 1787 by Anthony Keck, it is of regular
classical composition, magnificently ornamental in appearance and
superbly functional in design. Aligned east-west and at 327 feet in
length, it is the longest Orangery in Britain.
Built at a cost of £16,000, it is of local Pyle sandstone, with
Sutton stone from the former mansion used for the rear. Specialist
craftsman were brought in but most of the labour was provided from
within the estate.
The main body of the Orangery is lit by twenty-seven tall
round-headed windows surrounded by deeply carved, vermiculated,
rusticated stones which contrast with the smooth stone above and in
the end pavilions. The five central windows stand slightly forward
of the main building, a pedimented pavilion of smooth faced ashlar
successfully terminates the long building at either end, each with
a triple-lighted Venetian window on the south front and Venetian
door on the end. The back of the building was plain except for
double doors for carrying the trees in and out.
The main body of the Orangery where the trees spent the winter
months occupies 275 feet of its length. The building is narrow,
only 30 feet wide so the light from the tall windows can reach the
whole interior. The Orangery was heated by coal fires with chimneys
set into the back wall. From May to October, the plants were taken
out via the high rear entrance and placed around the fountain in
the garden.
The west, or Library, pavilion was elaborately decorated, the
fireplace of marble, and the walls ornamented with elaborate
plasterwork The less decorated east pavilion housed marble statues
and busts. Of the original collection one piece only remains in the
Orangery today, the over-life-size statue of the Roman Emperor
Lucius Verus.
Building the Orangery
In 1786, work began in Thomas Mansel Talbot’s quarry at Pyle,
raising and working the stone which was to be used in building the
Orangery.
By the Spring of 1787 preparations were in hand at Margam itself
where labourers were digging the foundations and work continues
relentlessly week by week and month by month. In the Spring of 1788
the window frames were fixed in position and by September the
tilers were slating the roof and the lead had arrived for pipes and
gutters; the window frames were being painted and the plasterer was
at work on the carving and plastering. By the end of the year, the
scaffolding was being taken down.
In January 1789 bricks had arrived for the fireplaces and
heating flues to the back walls and by the Spring of 1789 the final
phase of building had been reached, walls were plastered and in the
summer months the glass arrived for the windows which were then
painted.
By the beginning of 1790 locks had been fitted to doors and
although the marble fireplace was not installed until 1793, the
Orangery was virtually complete in 1790.
As the building of the Orangery progressed, the old Margam House
which stood immediately behind it was demolished. A traveller who
visited Margam in 1796 commented on the recent removal of the old
house which had brought into view the abbey church, the ruins of
the Chapter House and Infirmary and enhanced the setting of the new
Orangery.
Men and
materials
In the building of Margam Orangery, the initial decision, the
site and the necessary wealth were provided by Thomas Mansel
Talbot. The design was the work of Anthony Keck from
Gloucestershire. William Gubbins was the master mason who
superintended the raising of the stone at the quarry and oversaw
the progress of the building and the masons who worked under him,
the names of whom are not known nor do we know how many worked on
carving the seven hundred intricately worked blocks and to dress
the smooth faced ashlar.
The labourers who wheeled and dug remain anonymous, they were
supervised by John Snook, the gardener who had come from Wiltshire
to take charge of the gardens at Margam. Edward Lewis and William
Evan were carpenters; John Jenkins the blacksmith; Issac Thomas
split lathes and William Harry supplied lime and Rees Howell found
animal hair for mixing into the plaster. Specialist craftsmen, John
Whitcom the tiler and James Millard the plasterer and his
assistants Thomas Hale and Samuel Kemish were brought from
England.
Most of the materials were locally obtained but heavy timber,
lead for casting, roofing slates and window glass had to be shipped
from Bristol and Gloucester to the small harbours at Newton,
Aberavon and Neath in sloops such as the Nancy, under her master
George Morgan.
Records of expenses were meticulously kept by the steward to the
estate, Hopkin Llewellyn. The surviving account is not complete but
records some £1,600 as being paid out. Such a sum however takes no
account of the hidden assets which the estate provided such as the
wood, sand, earth stone and the local workforce necessary to
complete the Orangery construction.
The Orangery in
later years
Interest in the cultivation of Orange trees continued for
several decades after the building of the Orangery. The 19th
Century saw the introduction of new plants into Europe for
hot-house and garden cultivation and as rare trees and shrubs were
planted, Margam Park became famous for these new specimens rather
than for the historic collection of citrus trees.
A collection of orange trees was maintained at Margam right up
to the outbreak of the second world war when the Orangery was
requisitioned for military use and was occupied by American forces.
The trees had to be left outside and failed to survive the winter
weather.
After the end of he war a new collection of citrus trees was
formed at Margam and using this collection as the nucleus, the
present owners continue to build up a collection of the various
citrus trees in cultivation and specimens can be viewed today
within the Orangery.
After two centuries the building was in need of extensive
restoration. To restore the whole Orangery to its original purpose
would have been ideal, but social and economic conditions have
changed. Part of the building was restored to fulfil its
eighteenth-century function and some additions made as
unobtrusively as possible to enable the Orangery to be put to a
wide variety of uses such as a concert room, conference centre or
banqueting hall.
The completely restored Orangery was opened by Her Majesty the
Queen during her Silver Jubilee visit in June 1977. Thus an
eighteenth century ornamental building was brought more fully into
a twentieth century Margam Park and it continues to be used in this
twenty-first century as a prestigious venue hosting a variety of
activities.
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Last Updated: 22.02.2008 at 09:43