Chirk Castle
The ECW Travelogue made a packed lunch (or as we in Derbyshire say 'a pack up'), and headed over the border into Welsh Wales. Wrexham to be precise. Chirk Castle is in the care of the National Trust, so expect the obligatory café, and shop selling fudge and wooden swords. Built in the late thirteenth century, Chirk was part of Edward Longshank's chain of castles across North Wales. From a Civil War point of view we'll fast forward to 1593 when the Myddleton family bought the property. Sir Thomas Myddelton II was an MP having represented Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in the 1620s, before he represented Denbighshire in 1625, then again 1640-1648. Sir Thomas Myddleton II The area around Chirk was on the whole sympathetic to the Crown, so it was somewhat unusual that Sir Thomas declared for Parliament. At the outbreak of war he was made Sergeant Major General of the Parliamentary forces in North Wales, and went off campaigning. In the summer of 1642 he returned to Wales to...