Who was Lady Bagot?

I'm not Lady Bagot!

Just a few miles south of Denbigh at the village of Rhewl you can find Lady Bagot's Drive which was a carriage road running beside the Afon Clwedog. We'd been running up there as well some years ago on a summer evening social with Denbigh Harriers and Prestatyn Running Club. Followed by a pint at the Drovers Arms (more about the Drovers another time!) This week we took a very nice but chilly winter walk along the drive - which led me to investigate who Lady Bagot was. Or who was the Lady Bagot of the time when it was built?

Well I think it might be this young 'Dollar Princess" Lilian May. William Bagot, the fourth of his line, was apparently the despair of his parents, he didn't show the least interest in any of the eligible young ladies to whom they introduced him. Finally at the age of 47 he met with a young American lady whilst on holiday on the French Riviera. He brought her back to England and married her in 1903 - a ceremony that was attended by King Edward. The family home was in Staffordshire but it seems that Pool Park Hall at Bontuchel was a holiday home of theirs. Lady Bagot's Drive was built not long after they got married in the style of carriage roads that are to be found in country parks in the US. We saw a network of similar carriage roads at Bar Harbor in Maine, USA, where John D Rockefeller created the beautiful Arcadia National Park in the early part of the 20th century. So it seems that Lord and Lady Bagot would drive their carriage along this beautiful driveway by the side of the fast flowing river. Lady Bagot produced one daughter Barbara, goodness knows what happened to her. And they promptly got divorced. Maybe she didn't like the locals in the Drovers Arms. Lord Bagot died in 1932 but he may have been on a downward spiral as he'd lost Pool Park Hall in a bet at the races! A local timber merchant bought the surrounding land but the house ended up being leased by Sir Henry Tate of the Tate and Lyle sugar dynasty. Ultimately the house became an offshoot of the Denbigh Asylum and, despite being a Grade II listed building, it is now derelict. Bagot's cousin inherited the mansion in Staffordshire but sold it to The South Staffordshire Waterworks Company in 1945 - another member of the family bought it back and restored it and it's now the venue for the annual Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.

Where do you Goat Two my lovely?

This has nothing to do with goats apart from the fact that the Bagot coat of arms features the Bagot Goat, a primitive breed of goat that has been kept by the Bagot family since the 14th century. Their largest current flock of Bagot Goats is at Levens Hall, another of their estates, up in the Lake District.

Me walking up Lady Bagot's Drive.