‘A very faire house’
OTHER WINDSOR-CLIVE (1923-2018), the 3rd Earl of Plymouth, returned from distinguished service with the Coldstream Guards during the Second World War to find himself thrown into the job of having to rationalise the family estates. Reluctantly, he decided to give up his Welsh seat, a large Elizabethan house in the village of St Fagans, set beyond the expanding western suburbs of Cardiff.
It was a timely word from Sir Cyril Fox, director of the National Museum of Wales (1926-48), that determined the next step. On February 4, 1946, the Earl and his mother, the Dowager Countess, called upon Fox at Cathays Park in Cardiff. They had decided to offer the museum St Fagans Castle—as the house is known—together with its 20 acres of gardens and grounds, specifically for the creation of an open-air folk museum.
Written confirmation of this generous offer led to a flurry of administrative, fundraising and practical activities. Crucially, given the need for space, Plymouth Estates agreed to the sale of a further 80 acres of the adjacent wooded parkland on very favourable terms. St Fagans Castle, meanwhile, was rapidly transformed. For a time, apart from staff accommodation, it would be the only building
