A Welsh castle said to be the “most significant site in Kindertransport history” has been handed a £2.2 million “lifeline” to help save it from collapse.
The grade I listed Gwrych Castle, near Abergele, in Conwy, North Wales, became home to some 200 Jewish refugee children during the Second World War but the site, which requires urgent repairs is currently in a “critical” state after these esssential works were delayed during the coronavirus pandemic.
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The Children at the castle in the 1940s (Photo: Handout)
The country house will be a familiar sight for fans of the ITV reality TV show, I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, which filmed at the castle in 2020 and 2021. But, lesser known to the wider public is the important place in British Jewish history it holds, having housed around hundreds of children rescued from Europe on the Kindertransport between 1939 and 1941.
In 1939, the castle was organised into a hachshara (an agricultural training centre), aimed at preparing the Jewish children for life on a kibbutz in Israel, where they hoped to be reunited with their families.
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New home: The Youngsters were excited by the idea of living in a castle (Photo: Handout)
It was leased by the newly formed religious Zionist Bnei Akiva movement by then owner, the Earl of Dundonald.
Excited by the prospect of living in a castle, the children found themselves in an empty and dilapidated building, without electricity and with an unreliable water supply.
They slept on hard floors and battled hunger until donations from local retailers and a Baptist church helped to improve conditions.
Over time, the group established a bond with the local community in Abergele and regularly played football with local rivals.
However, by 1941, with the castle in a poor condition, the hachshara was allowed to decline in favour of a new centre in Birmingham, and later closed.
In recent years, extreme weather, combined with a delay in development plans caused by the pandemic left the premises in a “perilous condition”, with the roofless main building particularly badly affected, according to Dr Mark Baker, chair of Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust.
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Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales shortly before I'm a Celebrity was filmed (Photo: Getty)b
Now, Gwrych will receive £2.2m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund to undertake the necessary repairs, which, Baker said, would serve as a “lifeline” and “reverse the critical situation that the site is currently in…[returning it] to its former glory”.
Leaders in Holocaust education have welcomed the cash injection, saying the money will help to preserve the site for future generations.
Andrew Hesketh, author of Escape to Gwrych Castle: A Jewish Refugee Story, which traces the often overlooked German-Jewish refugee history of the castle, said: “This grant will help significantly towards the preservation and restoration of what is probably the most significant site in Kindertransport history. The flagship hachshara established at Gwrych Castle housed the biggest single collection of Jewish refugees in the early part of the war.”
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “The Kindertransport was an integral part of this country’s response to the Nazi persecution of European Jewry. Gwrych Castle played a vital role in this rescue operation.
“This funding… will allow this important site to remain open for many years to come.”
Dr Simon Thurley, the chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: “I am thrilled that [we] are able to support Gwrych Castle Trust with this vital grant to safeguard its future, particularly after the challenges that the global pandemic has thrown at the structure and the people who devote such care to it.
“Gwrych Castle is a testament to the rich heritage of Wales, and the UK more widely, and is a notable example of how heritage shapes our lives and the places in which we live.”
