Well Hello and welcome. In today's video I'm going to
have another look at Sker House. A couple of weeks ago
I did the Nottage walk and I walked past Sker
and in the comments section a number of people asked
do I have any more information about the house or any video inside it
as you probably know it's privately owned there's no public access
but I was speaking to somebody who just happened to mention
they took photographs inside the building back in the 80s
before it was restored and they were good enough to lend these
to me and those are coming up very shortly.
Sker House itself is a very imposing building
sitting in the dunes near Sker Point and due to this location no wonder it
is the setting for many ghost stories and legends.
The most famous these being the Maid of Sker
and that was made famous in the novel by R B Blackmore
in the 1800s if you want to find out more about these legends
I made a video about them last year and I'll put a link below
and to bring the legend into the 21st century, last year a local video game
developer released a horror game loosely based on
the story of the Maid of Sker
anyway i think that's enough ghost stories and legends let's talk about
some actual history. Sker House, a grade one listed building.
Well Sker House was originally founded by the monks of neath abbey
back in the 12th century it was one of their five granges which they used to
supply the abbey originally it was just a single story
structure but following the dissolution of the
monasteries back in the 16th century it was extensively remodeled however
doing this rebuilding they did follow much of the original floor plan
dating back from this medieval period the condition of the building declined
rapidly in later years and the south wing actually collapsed
but I still think it was lived in right up until 1977.
The restoration began in 1999 and took 14 years to complete
mainly due to the original contractors going into receivership
and the subsequent legal issues it was finally finished and sold in 2003.
Well the colour, when I was growing up most people remember it as a bare stone
building but the restorers, they analyzed the
fragments of paint they found on the building
and that ranged from oxblood red to a blue grey colour
in the end they went for the yellow ochre
which apparently is the traditional colour for the County of Glamorganshire.
Well one of the conditions of the sale of the house back in 2003
was that it has to be open to the public for 28 days of the year
but that was only for the first 10 years so obviously it's long past and it's no
longer open to the public but just a little shout to the owner
I'm willing to have a look around if they're kind enough to invite me
anyway as promised let's take a look at some of those old photographs taken
in 1986 before the house was restored in the pictures keep an eye out for the
18th century graffiti which apparently they've still kept
and it's all on the wall in the house also, there's some decorated plaster
frieze which they restored and a timber screen.
So the photographs.
So that was a quick look inside Sker House before the restoration
it's a bit of a shame we no longer have the chance to look inside the restored
building but anyway if you haven't seen one of my
other videos about Sker, Sker Point and the surrounding area
they're coming up next and I'll see you in one of those
so until next time, that's a bye from me
bye