Brogyntyn Hall

The history of Brogyntyn is spectacular. In urban exploring circles it was known as The House of Tears, and I know what you're thinking, often urban explorers do give these crazy nicknames and fictional backstories for the sake of clickbait, but if any house fits the name House of Tears, it's Brogyntyn Hall.

The building was allegedly built by Napoleonic prisoners of war, between 1735 and 1736, although the building has been modified in 1825, 1870 and 1906. Given the fate of the family that lived here, some say that the building was cursed, and if you're into that sort of thing, it might interest you to know that the architect died in 1738, just two years after the building was completed.
Allegedly there was once in an earlier hall which stood here before the current one, and one of its fireplaces was retained in the modern hall, dating back to 1617.

Its name, Brogyntyn Hall, comes from the even older Castell Brogyntyn (Castell being Welsh for Castle) which stood on the grounds nearby. Castell Brogyntyn wasn't anything like what traditionally springs to mind when one thinks of castles. It was a Motte & Bailey, being the predecessor of relatively newer castles. The design was introduced to Britain after the Norman conquest in 1066, and basically consisted of a stone or wood fortification on top of a raised circle, around which would be a ditch. These forts were made obsolete as castle technology evolved, but the remains can still be spotted today, if one knows where to look, in obvious circular ditches around raised areas. Castell Brogyntyns hill is 160 feet in diameter and is noticable because it has a tunnel running from one side to the other.

Castell Brogyntyn was owned by Owain Brogyntyn, who lived from 1160 until 1186 and was likely used to defend the Welsh border from those pesky Normans, and possibly to carry out raids on medieval Oswestry too. Centuries later, the land on which the fort had stood was now part of a vast estate called Porkington.

The people of Porkington turned the area into a pleasure garden, reshaping the central mound to be perfectly circular, giving it a bowling green on top and then running this tunnel through it.

The reason? Well back then quirky garden features were all the rage.

There is also a second tunnel. Unlike the one under the old castle site, this one isn't well known. It doesn't even pop up on Victorian maps, and those who do know it keep their lips sealed to protect a small bat colony that resides there.

It's worth noting that I've mapped the family lineage back centuries, but completely accidentally. I was researching another family, who owned another location, and it just so happened that they were actually the cousins of the family who owned this place.

Incidentally the folks who owned this place have quite the story.

Brogyntyn Hall was occupied for roughly two centuries by the Ormsby-Gore family, and their ancestors. It's a hyphenated surname, from the marriage of Mary Jane Ormsby and William Gore, an MP for North Shropshire. Mary Janes mother, Margaret, inherited the Brogyntyn Estate, known as Porkington at the time, from her brother Robert Godolphin Owen, who died in 1792.

From the Ormsby-Gore family came the first Baron Harlech, John. He was a conservative member of parliament from 1837, and began representing Shropshire in 1859. He died in 1876.

As he had no sons, his brother William became Baron Harlech. William died in 1904, and was succeeded by his son, George.
George commanded the Welsh Guard during World War One, and was also a conservative MP and freemason. He died in 1939 and was succeeded by his son, William, a high commissioner to South Africa during World War Two. His eldest son, Owen, died in a car accident, and so when William died in 1964, his second son, David, who had also fought in World War Two and operated behind enemy lines with the phantom reconnaissance unit, became Baron Harlech and ambassador to the United States.
And here's where things get interesting.

David had inherited Brogyntyn Hall, and he had some surprising connections.
His maternal great-grandfather was a prime minister and David himself was elected a member of parliament for Oswestry in 1950. But perhaps the most famous connection, and hardly someone you'd ever associate with Oswestry, was President John F Kennedy. You know, the one who got shot and spawned a conspiracy theory that still rages to this day. Here they are together in 1960...

It's possible that John F Kennedy walked these same halls that I now walk. However unlike me, he probably wasn't divebombed by bats.

David and JFK were childhood friends, having met when JFKs father, Joseph, served as the US ambassador in the UK from 1938 to 1940. They remained friends long into adulthood.

David was actually pretty influential, as he made sure Britains views were taken into consideration during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and also helped secure the Russian test ban treaty in 1963.

So, because of the families ties to JFK, a lot of conspiracy theories surround Brogyntyn too, although not nearly as prevalent as conspiracy theories surrounding JFK.

I'm actually a big fan of conspiracy theories, although you do have to dig through a lot of shit to get the good stuff. The problem is, as soon as they make an interesting point, someone comes along and makes it absurd.

JFK was assassinated in 1963 and David, in spite of being a pallbearer at the funeral, was fighting rumours that he was having an affair with his wife, Jacqueline, at the time.

Some say that the Harlech/Brogyntyn curse was Jacqueline Kennedys curse more so than theirs. After JFK died, Davids wife, Sylvia met her gruesome end in a car crash in 1967. Some conspiracy theorists find that a little suspicious. Following her death, David did propose to Jacqueline, but she turned him down due to the fact that she didnt want to live in Shropshire, choosing instead to marry someone who sounds like an STD, Aristotle Onassis. Curse enthusiasts will be interested to know that Aristotle lost his son in a plane crash in 1973, two years before his own death.

However, in 1994, on her death bed as she lay dying of cancer in New York, Sylvia admitted that she regretted rejecting Baron Harlech, stating "That stupid mistake has haunted me for twenty years."

The moral of the story is, if you love someone, don't let the thought of living in Oswestry stop you being together.

So having lost his best friend, his wife, and been rejected by his lover, David married someone else in 1969. But tragedy wasn't done with the Ormsby-Gore lineage.

David and Sylvia's kids were often referred to as the Harlech Hippies, and the term "hippieocracy" has been thrown around, often to describe their unusual blend of rebelious rock music and political connections. Not only was Jane dating Mick Jagger and living in the lakeside cottage with him, but her sister Alice was engaged to Eric Clapton, who stayed in the gardeners cottage. Rounding off the Harlech Hippies was Julian, Francis and Victoria. Check this out- I found a family photo.

So thats David and Sylvia on the right. The girl on the far left is Jane, and next to her is Julian and then Victoria, who I've heard is quite lovely.
The smaller children are Alice and Francis.

Julian, struggling with addiction and depression, died in 1974 from gunshot wounds that were said to be suicide. Alice found the body but it was 20-year-old Francis who had to identify it. Had he outlived his father, he would have been the next Baron Harlech.

Their father, David, met his tragic end in a car accident in 1985, swerving to avoid a sheep dog. This was the third car accident to haunt the family. Francis, now Lord Harlech himself, had to identify the body again. Jacqueline Kennedy attended the funeral in Oswestry, along with JFKs brother, Teddy.

It was all a bit much for Francis. Remember, he was dabbling with booze and heroin too! While he kept the land, he apparently ignored the hall due to its memories, and moved into a house on the estate instead.

When Alice turned seventeen, Eric Clapton got her hooked on heroin, an addiction that would take her life in 1995 the day before her 43rd birthday. Here she is with Eric in 1969...

It was several days before Alices body was found and once again Francis had to identify it It's hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy at this point. He was fined heavily in the next few years, for silly things like dangerous driving, having guns on him, and also following an arrest at Crewe train station for having a load of heroin on him in 1999. His wife divorced him in 1998 and Tony Blair then got rid of most hereditary peers, leaving Francis without a job too. In 2001, faced with huge fines and funeral costs, he made the decision to sell the Brogyntyn estate.

So in only a few decades, the Ormsby-Gore dynasty had lost so many, and there are those out there to link the car accidents and the gunshots to the death of JFK, suggesting maybe that David knew too much and was being warned, one family member at a time, of the consequences of speaking out, before they decided it would just be more convenient to remove him from the picture entirely. But that's just a conspiracy theory.

Of Davids surviving children were Francis, Victoria and Jane. Of these three, Jane has remarkable significance as a former lover of Mick Jagger, and the titular character of the Rolling Stones song, Lady Jane.

Francis is said to have had alcohol and drug issues, and was even sectioned in 2011. To his credit, he was said to be an amazing cook and raconteur, and at dinner parties he would mesmerise his guests with tales of his derring-do. However after his death in 2016 his derring-do was derring-done.

His son Jasset currently holds the title of Lord Harlech, but he has also inherited a house in Snowdonia named Glyn, which the family used as a holiday home in the 1800s. His grand plan was to sell Brogyntyn Hall and use the proceeds to restore Glyn with help from his mother and sister, so that he can live there. From what I've seen of various interviews with him, he seems like a nice guy. He describes his mother and sister as having the means to make his house into a home, stating that his job is the nuts and bolts, the roofing and so-on, to create a canvas for them.

It's also worth noting that Tallulah has also been busy, modeling and acting. According to her imdb page, shes been in four roles so far, none of which are films I've heard of, but that's still four more films than me!

While the hall is being developed, the nearby cottage by the lake still falls into ruin, and this iis said to be where Jane lived with Mick Jagger during their relationship.

The lakes of Brogyntyn are actually artificial, created for the Brogyntyn Gardens, by damming a stream. A dam between the lakes causes a waterfall between the southern and northen lakes, making for a nice water feature. A small footbridge allows one to cross over the head of the dam.

Allegedly Mick Jagger once rode a motorbike into this lake, and some say that it was never retrieved.

The cottage itself, doesn't look like it would have the same grand interior design as the main hall, but if anything, it's better.

Lastly, I think it's important to touch on the cellar of Brogyntyn Hall, which was turned into a communications hub in the 1960s, during the Cold War. It was fitted with numerous telecommunications equipment, and oddly two halves of what I assume used to be one mannequin.

The communication hub was staffed by a team of women, nicknamed the Tearaway Girls for the speed that they worked at.

Alas, the main mansion is now being carved up by developers and all of this is lost now, existing only in photos. If any case can be made in the defence of trespassing during urbex, it is that without the documentation of these buildings, this history would be lost forever.

The real crime is that we need to trespass to do it.