Piercefield House
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Piercefield House near Chepstow in Monmouthshire, Wales, resulted from a 1785 commission by George Smith to remodel his existing house in the neo-classical style. The task was given to a young architect, famous today as the benefactor of the London institution which bears his name - Sir John Soane. Piercefield House is now but a shell, and a mere shadow of its former glory.
Records since the 14th century refer variously to Peerfield, Peersfield, Persfield and Piersfield and local historians report an enlargement of the house in the early 1600s. The earliest recorded resident of Piercefield is John Walters in 1515. In 1727, the estate was sold for £3,366, 5.6d to a Thomas Rous (sugar planter and merchant returning from Barbados). In 1736, the Morris family bought Piercefield for £8,250 and Valentine Morris soon added to the magnificent splendour of the estate by landscaping the parkland (possibly with the help of Capability Brown) so much admired at the end of the 18th century.
Piercefield had been developed into a park of national reputation, as one of the earliest examples of Picturesque landscaping. Morris laid out walks through the woodland and included a grotto, druid’s temple and giant’s cave. He also developed viewpoints along the clifftop above the River Wye. One of the many tourists to marvel at this view was Coleridge, who wrote: "Oh what a godly scene....The whole world seemed imaged in its vast circumference"
In the 1770s Valentine Morris's gambling, business and political dealings bankrupted him, and he was forced to leave his beloved Piercefield and set sail for the West Indies. In 1784, Piercefield was sold again - for £26,200 - to George Smith, who prepared plans for a new facade in a neo-classical style, and additions to the structure which incorporated Valentine Morris's House at the rear. The task was given to a young architect, later to become famous, Sir John Soane. The new three-storey stone building had slowly reached roof level when Smith found himself in financial difficulties and had to sell Piercefield in 1794 to Colonel Mark Wood.
It is rumoured that Admiral Nelson spent a night at Piercefield house on one of his visits to Monmouthshire. Nelson was closely connected to the town of Monmouth through his mistress Lady Hamilton. It is possible that he stayed in the Summer of 1802 with his lover Emma Hamilton and her elderly husband Sir William Hamilton, on a journey to a friend's Pembrokeshire estate via Monmouth.
Nathaniel Wells bought the estate in 1801/2 for £90,000 cash. He was born in St Kitts in 1779, and was the black son of William Wells, a sugar merchant and planter of St. Kitts in the Caribbean (but originally from Cardiff) and Juggy, one of his house slaves. With his inherited fortune he continued to add to the Piercefield estate until it reached almost 3,000 acres (12 km²). In 1818 he became Britain's only known black sheriff when he was appointed Sheriff of Monmouthshire.
In 1861 Piercefield Park was bought by Henry Clay, banker and quondam brewer, previously of Burton-on-Trent. He died on 4th January 1874 aged 77, and the estate passed to his eldest son, also Henry Clay, who lived there for 47 years, until his death there in 1921, aged 95. The estate then passed to his eldest son, Henry Hastings Clay, who died on 4th July 1943, possibly at Piercefield. A Company was formed by Henry Clay, to make a racecourse in the Park of the Big House, and this is known today as Chepstow Racecourse. The house itself, that had not one bathroom, was in a sad state of repair, and was evacuated and left to Nature. It is now a ruin, with just the main facade still standing - but for how long? For more information, do a Google search on "Chepstow Racecourse".
