A Welsh manor house beloved by Romantic poet Shelley which was submerged under a reservoir for more than 100 years has been unearthed for the first time in generations – thanks to the UK-wide drought.
Key remnants of the mansion in the Caban-Coch reservoir in Elan Valley have been rediscovered, including foundations where the poet, whose full name was Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote during his visits and the garden walls where he and his teenage wife Harriet used to walk.
When he was just 18, the 19th Century wordsmith walked 250 miles from his family estate in Sussex to the stately home in Wales after he was invited by his uncle to stay – and was so infatuated with the abode’s oak staircase that was desperate to buy it with his young partner.
Ten years later, just before his 30th birthday, he drowned after capsizing into the Bay of Lerici off the north-west coast of Italy.
The Welsh Manor house loved by Romantic poet Shelley has been unearthed for the first time in decades after the UK-wide drought
A garden wall (pictured above) where Shelley and his first wife Harriet used to walk together. After they separated they both drowned years later at separate loctions
Shelley wrote of his love in the countryside around the previously flooded valley and described the area as enchanting and ‘highly romantic’
His old mansion sat in the beating heart of Wales (location above) but the site in 1903 made way for the Caban-Coch, the lowest of the four dams in the Elan Valley reservoir
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was most famous for works such as Ozymandias and Ode to the West Wind.
The 19th-century wordsmith was infatuated with the abode’s oak staircase and was desperate to buy it with his young partner in 1812.
In his letters from the time he spoke of his love for the countryside around the now-flooded valley.
Shelley wrote: ‘Rocks piled on each other to tremendous heights, rivers formed into cataracts by their projections, and valleys clothed with woods, present an appearance of enchantment.’
‘This country is highly romantic; here are rocks of uncommon height and picturesque waterfalls. I am more astonished at the grandeur of the scenery than I expected.’
‘I am not wholly uninfluenced by its magic on my lonely walks.’
Shelley left a memento to himself – with a diamond ring he inscribed his name and the date into a glass window pane. He wanted to move there to start married life but could not agree a lease.
But the large manor house called Nantgwyllt House was taken over by engineers making the Caban-Coch reservoir in 1903 – one of a serious of reservoirs to supply enough water for 500,000 people in Birmingham.
It was recorded that one of the most striking features of the interior of the house was ‘a very broad and imposing staircase made of old oak.’
The mansion was demolished before the completion of the dams although the garden walls, stone bridges and footprints remain.
Walker Martin Thomas said: ‘It is incredible to see it emerge from under all that water. It must have been an incredible place to stay if someone like Shelley loved it so much.
‘It is so rare to see the water so low because of the drought. It is beautiful here but just in a different way now.’