Designed by Brampton House Publishing
If Only Walls Had Ears
Televised Tuesday 19th August 2003
7.30 pm to 8.00 pm HTV1
One
woman’s obsession with restoring a Jacobean Hall to its former glory
has turned her dream into a nightmare. Antique dealer and interior designer
Cornelia Bayley bought Plas Teg Hall near Mold almost twenty years ago.
She dreamt of restoring the three-storey, Grade 1 listed building into
a splendid mansion and opulent home.
Although she has succeeded in what Cadw refer to as a “remarkable
restoration”, Cornelia Bayley has suffered a great financial and
personal burden to realise her vision. The Hall had endured years of vandalism
and neglect, but Cornelia has obsessively and lovingly stripped Plas Teg
to its original features and, using reclaimed materials and period pieces,
helped the Hall reclaim its stately elegance. Silks have been used to
cover the walls; beautiful fabrics now adorn the furniture and authentic
crockery lines the dining table, completing a fabulous Regency or Empire
style look.
With its 10 bedrooms, great hall, impressive drawing room, wonderful gallery and many other impressive rooms, Plas Teg is a stylish abode that is of great architectural and social historical importance in Wales. Cornelia Bayley’s lifestyle may seem eccentric. She keeps macaws in the kitchen; lives without a cooker and hot running water and has two octogenarians that help her care for the house and tend to the gardens.
Many people
also believe that Plas Teg is haunted. There have been many ghostly apparitions,
many of which can be attributed to the hangings imposed by the mansion’s
former seventeenth century inhabitant, Judge Jeffries. Despite Plas Teg’s
eerie past and despite the hardship it’s imposed on Cornelia, she
is a remarkable woman who owns an amazing house - and she soldiers on
undeterred by what many would regard as insurmountable difficulties.