Locating Temporal Vortices

I was warped in the folds of time, like a reflection in a fun house mirror.
—Haruki Marakammi, Dance Dance Dance (1994)

The lion statue behind the Gothic Pavilion

The Spiraling March of Time

Like a needle piercing the fabric of space/time, a monument typically establishes and “fixes” an historical moment.  For example, the lion statue behind the Gothic Pavilion is inscribed to freeze in time one special birthday celebration in 1973:

Presented to Portmeirion and its Founder, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, by his friends and colleagues on his 90th birthday, May 28th 1973.

However, other Portmeirion monuments diabolically serve a diametric purpose: to spin the river of time into a dizzying whirlpool!  Let’s consider some examples of plaques on statues and structures that serve as dials rather than pinpoints.

The Hercules statue by Hercules Hall

Hercules Does a Pirouette

The years flow around the Hercules statue.

First stop is William Brodie’s Hercules statue (cast c. 1863), erected in front of Hercules Hall and at the top of the Hercules Steps.  Attached to the base of the statue are several engraved tablets:

• To the summer of 1959, in honour of its splendour
• 1971 Highly Commended
• 1975 excelled even 1959
• Nonesuch 1976

Instead of commemorating a single splendid year, like a thumbtack on a calendar, these multiple plaques send the march of time into a maelstrom.  Better, let’s imagine time as a river; the years flow around and around the Hercules statue like a whirlpool around a boulder.

The Bell Tower: Chiming the Centuries

Next stop, the Campanile (constructed 1928).  It should be noted that this area is accessible only by overnight guests of the village, so if you’re a day visitor, consider staying the evening.  The plaque at the base of the tower bears the following inscription:

The Campanile slips the 20th century in between the 12th and the 19th.

This tower, built in 1928 by Clough Williams-Ellis, architect and publican, embodies stones from the 12th century castle of his ancestor Gruffydd ap Cynan, King of North Wales, that stood on an eminence 150 yards to the west.  It was finally razed c. 1869 by Sir William Fothergill Cook, inventor of the Electric Telegraph, “lest the ruins should become known and attract visitors to the place.”  This 19th century affront to the 12th is thus piously redressed in the 20th.

Unlike at the Hercules statue, this is a single plaque, but it encompasses no fewer than eight centuries.  Interestingly, Clough makes a knot of the timestream, slipping the 20th century in between the 12th and 19th.  In his dedication, he actually has the reader counting the centuries backward and forward, thusly: 19, 12, 20.  The flow of time is effectively warped.  Clough’s “redress” is also a regress, just as the “affront” takes us aback.

The Bell Tower as the Reflection of a Platonic Ideal

The Campanile plaque invites another intriguing perspective, involving the theory of Platonic idealism.  According to Plato’s view, our changeable material world is merely an imperfect reflection of a higher, unchanging principle.  So the perfect ideal castle transcends its material creation and destruction throughout the centuries.  Following Plato’s philosophy, the ideal castle inspired the 12th century construction of Castell Deudraeth, was impervious to the 19th century razing, and bolstered Clough’s 20th century reparation in the form of the Portmeirion bell tower.

Concurrent Architectural Periods

Though Italianate in feel, the wildly different buildings that comprise Portmeirion represent an array of architectural periods, seamlessly merged.  Following are just a few examples of periods and styles, primarily gathered by Portmeirion expert Marsha McCurley:

Hence, any casual walk through the winding streets of the village entails time travel.  But look more closely.  Like a fractal, individual structures reflect multiple styles as well.  With bits and pieces gathered from all over Europe, these salvaged buildings hold memories of earlier eras.¹  Following are some prime examples:

The Pantheon
• The Pantheon (Y Gromen) features an ornate façade which Clough salvaged from the demolition of the Ismay home (c. 1882) in Dawpool, Cheshire, where it served as a fireplace surround.  The High Cloister, as it was known, stood in situ for 20 years before the dome was constructed behind it.
• The Campanile (Y Twr Clychau) was constructed using stones recovered from a ruined 12th century castle.  The turret clock which adorns the tower’s belfry hails from an early 19th century London brewery.
• The Gloriette (Yr Orchestfa) consists of four Ionic columns rescued from Hooton Hall in Cheshire.  Clough acquired eight columns from its 18th century Colonnade.  They lay idle on the grounds at Portmeirion for over 30 years until the Gloriette’s conception, when they were found buried beneath a garden which had developed on top of them.

The Gothic Pavilion
• The Gothic Pavilion (Pafiliwn Gothig) is a careful reassembly of materials obtained from the slipshod demolition of a Gothic porch which had been added to Nercwys Hall in Flintshire during the early 19th century.
• The Amis Reunis, or Stone Boat, is a careful reconstruction of a trading ketch which Clough kept moored in the same spot on the quay.  The ship aground consists largely of materials salvaged from the original ship, which had been nearly destroyed during a sudden gale.
• The centerpiece of Bridge House (Ty Pont) is its diamond-paned Venetian window which Clough obtained from Arnos Court with the Bristol Colonnade.
• Battery (Y Batri) is so-named by virtue of the cannons which keep watch over the estuary from its cliffside terrace (accessible by overnight guests).  Clough acquired the cannons from Belan Fort near Caernarfon, which had been built by Thomas Wynn (Lord Newborough, c. 1775) to fortify the Menai Straits during the Napoleonic wars.

The Bristol Colonnade, facing the Piazza.
• The Bristol Colonnade (Colofnres Bryste) was erected in Bristol at Arnos Court during the late 18th century as a resplendent façade to its bathhouse.  Damaged by bombs, the structure’s arduous relocation to Portmeirion involved the precise numbering of each stone prior to disassembly.
• Hercules Hall (Neuadd Ercwlff) is a majestic structure designed around a central ballroom crowned by a captivating Jacobean ceiling which had been installed at Emral Hall in Flintshire in the early 17th century.  Clough acquired the ceiling, which depicts the labors of Hercules, at auction prior to the demolition of Emral.  Hercules Hall features numerous elements from Emral, as well as a grille salvaged from the Old Bank of England.

Photographing Portmeirion On Its Own Terms

In August 2006, photographer Gareth Courage experimented with some time twisting of his own, loading his Kodak Cresta with Ilford film that had expired in the autumn of 1965.  He described the film as being “as expired as film gets without vanishing.”  What better way to photograph Portmeirion than with an old camera and long-expired film?  The result is reminiscent of 19th century copper plate printing.  The images seem to reveal, in the words of one commentator, a signal hidden underneath the noise of strange static.

The Bristol Colonnade and Chantry cottage through the fog of long-expired film.  Photo by Gareth Courage.	The modern-day Pantheon is eerily captured on long-expired film.  Photo by Gareth Courage.
Chantry cottage rises atop a hill.  Photo by Gareth Courage.	The village rises above the estuary, on long-expired film.  Photo by Gareth Courage.
The skyline from the piazza.  Photo by Gareth Courage.

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