The Poor Woman Is Gone and Her Castle's Besieged

From: New York Times - 04 Jan 2003

By NICK MADIGAN

CARDIGAN, Wales, Dec. 29 — Behind crumbling walls and a maze of trees, the ruins of a 12th-century castle loom over the Teifi River, a relic of wars between Welsh armies and invading English kings.

Archaeologists have long dreamed of getting their hands on the two-acre site where, rumors have it, layers of earth hide the foundations of a banquet hall and other rooms. But for years they ran up against the castle's reclusive owner, Barbara Wood, the daughter of a shipping magnate, who bought the castle and an adjacent Georgian mansion in 1940. Until recently, she lived there with countless cats but without electricity, heat or running water, which she apparently could no longer afford.

For years, she kept most people at bay, even as the mansion fell apart around her and tree roots poked holes in the castle walls. Once in a while, she would open the dungeon to visitors for a small fee, and she was sometimes seen shuffling down the High Street to the betting shop, where she played the horses.

"What other woman has a kitchen in a round Norman tower?" she told a reporter in 1979. "I am the queen of the castle, and I have no wish to go anywhere else."

But now Ms. Wood, 85, deaf and unable to walk, is being cared for in a retirement home, and so the Ceredigion County Council plans to take control of Cardigan Castle and turn it into a museum and tourist attraction, a potential boon to the faltering economy of this wind-whipped town on the coast of the Irish Sea.

In Wales, Cardigan Castle's significance is that it was the birthplace, in 1176, of the National Eisteddfod, a cultural festival that still does the rounds of Welsh cities. Advocates of restoration would like it to become the festival's headquarters.

But a man who befriended Ms. Wood and who claims to have power of attorney over her affairs refuses to hand it over and has offered it for sale for $1.28 million. "I'm prepared to fight for it on her behalf," said the man, Brian Rees, a trucking contractor who first heard about Ms. Wood on a local television news program. He gave her a trailer to use when the mansion, built in 1808, was condemned by the local authorities.

These days, the castle grounds are inaccessible behind padlocked gates. Little remains of the fortress — built in 1171 — except two towers, a wall with interior passages and a dungeon with slit windows.

When local officials first tried to take over the castle, in 1971, Ms. Wood was defiant. "Tell them to go fry themselves," she told the local Tivy-Side Advertiser.

In the latest effort, the county council approved a compulsory purchase order for the castle this year. Mr. Rees said the council planned to pay about one-fifth of his asking price, a sum he called insulting. "They can't have it," he said. "We'll take this to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary."

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company