At first glance, Penrhyn Castle near Bangor in North Wales appears like something out of a fairytale. With its medieval-esque towers and ivy-covered stone walls, Penrhyn presents itself as a romantic imagining of a long-gone past. However, this carefully-curated facade hides a terrible secret: the wealth required to finance such a large project was built upon the exploitation of thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic. Penrhyn Castle represents much more than a fanciful 19th century architectural project: it’s the intersection point of conflicting narratives that raise powerful questions. As a modern heritage site, who is Penrhyn Castle for? What histories does it represent? And what histories does it obscure?
Penrhyn Castle is an example of dissonant heritage. Coined by J.E. Tunbridge and G.J. Ashworth in 1996, dissonant heritage refers to heritage that is contested because of conflicting narratives and interpretations of that heritage. Dissonant heritage is often present at sites that have connections to historical inequalities. Penrhyn Castle was the seat of the powerful Pennant family for centuries. They initially made their wealth through sugar plantations in the then-British colony of Jamaica, which relied on the labour of enslaved Africans. The Pennants also invested heavily in slate mining in North Wales, ultimately creating the largest slate quarry in the world. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Pennants leveraged their wealth to gain political prominence and protect their interests, including campaigning against abolition of slavery and suppressing unionisation efforts in their slate quarries.
Many British country houses can also be considered dissonant heritage sites. Penrhyn Castle is not unique in its connections to historical inequalities: many country houses across Britain share similar links to industrial exploitation and the slave trade. Dissonant heritage sites have an important role to play as the intersection points of conflicting historical narratives. They can serve as sources of dialogue between and about different perspectives and also shed light on the ways in which some historical narratives have been downplayed or obscured. By engaging with their dissonant heritage, sites like Penrhyn can more accurately reflect the historical reality of the times they represent by including diverse perspectives of places, events, and people.
During my recent visit, I had the opportunity to observe Penrhyn Castle’s attempts to address the darker aspects of Penrhyn’s history. The site has made large efforts to highlight the castle’s connections with slate mining and industrial exploitation. In the castle’s great hall, there was an exhibition devoted to the Penrhyn quarry in nearby Bethesda. Created in partnership with Welsh artists and the local community, the exhibition featured a famous 1832 painting of the quarry from the castle’s collections alongside community art, poetry, and videos of interviews with former miners and their descendants. The exhibition was placed in the great hall, near the beginning of visitors’ path through the castle. This location serves to frame the rest of the house tour for visitors, establishing a link between the Pennants’ industrial exploitation of the mining communities and the luxurious displays of wealth visitors will see throughout the castle. In addition to the exhibition, the castle features other ways for visitors to engage with the heritage of slate mining. The former stable displays trains and railroad cars constructed by the Pennants for the transport of slate, educating visitors about how the industry transformed the local landscape. Slate splitting demonstrations by local slate miners are offered daily, allowing community members to share their histories in their own words. By highlighting the mining community’s memories of the slate industry, Penrhyn Castle elevates this community’s perspective on painful histories of exploitation, reflects accurate historical realities, and provides ways for visitors to learn from these histories.
The site’s interpretation of its connections to slavery is not as extensive as its interpretation of slate mining, and aspects of this history are obscured as a result. Unlike slate mining, the Pennants’ plantations in Jamaica do not have a dedicated exhibition anywhere on the property. Mentions of the Pennants’ connections to slavery are few and far between. The slate mining exhibition does mention the Pennants profiting off of enslaved labour on Jamaican sugar plantations, including it in the wider theme of labour exploitation for profit. While not expansive, the exhibition’s position early on in visitors’ tour of the castle at the very least makes explicit the link between slavery and the wealth displayed. Additional interpretation through the rest of the castle is scant. In one room, paintings from the castle’s collections of the Pennants’ Jamaican plantations are visibly highlighted with lighting and prominent placement. Written interpretation panels nearby discuss the Pennants’ status as slave owners and the ways in which enslaved people were minimised in the paintings on display. While this interpretation is better than none at all, it is not enough to make as substantial of an impact as the site’s interpretation of slate mining. This lack of interpretation serves to obscure the perspectives of enslaved people and their descendants, without whose labour Penrhyn Castle never would have existed.
The castle fails to engage with a very important part of the site’s dissonant heritage: the lived experience of the domestic staff who lived and worked there. Little meaningful attention is paid to the histories of the castle’s servants. The only place where visitors can access detailed interpretation of the domestic staff who worked at Penrhyn is in the servants quarters, not throughout the entire house. This choice obscures the historical fact that servants were not only visible in the servants’ quarters. Prior to modern household appliances, human labour performed by a large team of staff was essential for a place like Penrhyn to function. Domestic servants would have been present in every room of the house: serving food, lighting fires, dusting luxury display pieces, helping the Pennants dress, and so on. By not including these details in visitors’ tour through the Pennants’ residences in the castle, visitors are being denied an accurate depiction of the history of the site. The interpretation of Penrhyn’s servants that does exist could also be improved, beginning with visitors’ confusing access to the servants’ quarters. Immediately after exiting the Pennants’ residential areas, visitors encounter the cafe and gift shop before any servants’ rooms with historical interpretation. It is common for cafes and gift shops at historic sites to be placed outside of the historical interpretation areas. So when visitors to Penrhyn see the gift shop and cafe, they mistakenly think that the historic interpretation is finished. This causes many visitors to skip the main areas where the histories of domestic staff are interpreted – causing them to skip the main spaces that focus on their histories. Interpretation of servants’ experiences at Penrhyn appears to be an afterthought, downplaying their perspectives and accurate depictions of the castle’s functioning.
Penrhyn Castle offers a unique history as a dissonant heritage site. With connections to industrial slate mining and the colonial slave trade, Penrhyn has the opportunity to be a source of meaningful dialogue about narratives of power and historical realities that informed the creation of wealth. Any attempt to portray Penrhyn as a medieval-style castle with fanciful architecture and luxurious antiques does the important history of this site a tremendous disservice. As the castle’s current slate mining interpretation shows, elevating diverse perspectives of what the site’s heritage represents enriches the visitor experience. Hopefully, lessons can be learned from the success of the current slate mining exhibition and applied to under-represented narratives, mainly the history of slavery in Jamaica and domestic staff who lived and worked at the castle. By widening the focus of interpretation, Penrhyn Castle can more accurately reflect historical realities and provide visitors with a more engaging experience.
Written by Youth Forum member Elizabeth Burgher
Sources:
J.E. Tunbridge & G.J. Ashworth, Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict, 1996
National Trust’s Interim Report on Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery, 2020
University College London Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery Database
National Trust Webpage the Great Penrhyn Quarry Strike https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/penrhyn-castle-and-garden/the-great-penrhyn-quarry-strike
