Rumours...
Long before Erddig became accessible to the general public, rumours would abound about the big house hidden in the midst of hundreds of acres of parkland.
One rumour was laid to rest when Phillip Yorke took part in the BBC Welsh Home Service 'Town Magazine' programme in November 1949. At the time, whenever Erddig Hall, Wrexham cropped up in conversation the ‘fact’ that the hall ‘has 365 windows, one for each day of the year’ was almost bound to be mentioned.
Alas it wasn’t true but “What it certainly does possess” said Mr Yorke, “Is a room for every week in the year, a bedroom for every day in the month and a staircase for every day in the week.”
In the interview Mr Yorke also told of the gallery of portraits of servants, a quaint and unusual feature of Erddig, and at the time the only gallery of its kind in England and Wales. It was a custom started in 1700 and each servant was portrayed carrying the emblem of his occupation - the butler had his wine bottle, the gardener his spade and a woodman who was in the Denbighshire Yeomanry carried a sword as well as an axe.
He accused the Trust of “carefree abandonment of reason and accuracy when dealing with other people’s money” and there was ominous talk of giving everything to the Welsh Nationalists.