After two years without attention, I gave my back garden its first trim a couple of weeks ago. It took me three hours to mow the lawn, but I suspect that would be a drop in the ocean compared to how long it would take to cut the grass around Margam Castle. :P

The body of water pictured is a small lake directly to the north west of Margam Castle, upon which inhabit many dozens of ducks and geese, who were bobbing merrily on the water when I took this picture. Margam Castle itself isn’t really a castle, at least not in the medieval sense of a defensive fortification. Rather, it is a manor house built in the 1830s in a Tudor Revival style, designed by Thomas Hopper and commissioned by Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. Talbot is a fascinating individual – a descendant of the Earl of Shrewsbury, he was born in Wales and built up his existing fortune off the mineral rights owned by his family in the area. He served as the Member of Parliament for Glamorganshire (an area which covered the entirety of South Wales, and by the end of this political career was home to roughly 900,000 people) from 1830 to 1890, and ran unopposed for 12 of the 15 elections held during that period. Hooray for democracy. :P

Despite being an aristocratic landowner, Talbot was often considered a “wealthy commoner”. As an MP, he supported radical policies of the time such as increased political participation for the working classes and voted to support the abolition of church rates, and the disestablishment of the influence of the Church of England in Ireland. While he showed little care for Welsh cultural issues, his belief that improved transport led to economic growth saw the development of docks in Swansea and Aberavon (which would be named ‘Port Talbot’ in his honour), and pioneered the introduction of railways to South Wales. He was also a keen supporter of early photography, being the cousin William Henry Fox Talbot, and many of William’s early photographic experiments were staged at Margam Castle. In fact, it was 180 ago when Margam Castle featured in the earliest known Welsh photograph, in a daguerreotype taken by Rev. Calvert Richard Jones. “Earliest known” implies that there could well be others, and I like to think that in sharing this photo with you, I stand in the same spot as those pioneers who first captured the world around them, frozen in time forever for future generations to gaze upon in wonder.

Hope you enjoy!