Faulty tower: Lucy Pollard visits Penrhyn Castle
‘“He had money and I had history. His money bought my history.”’
I recently visited Penrhyn Castle, a National Trust property in North Wales. The castle, designed by Thomas Hopper, was built over the years 1820-37 by the Douglas-Pennant family. They made their money in the sugar plantations of Jamaica, from enslaved people, and in the slate mines of their native country, from maltreated employees. After slavery officially came to an end in the early nineteenth century, the family received huge financial benefits from compensation payments.
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