Powis Castle: The Resilience of an Aristocratic Estate in Wales

Keynote speaker: Dr Melvin Humphreys (Honorary Research Associate, Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates)

Dr Melvin Humphreys has been studying the Powis Castle estate for some 45 years.  The external examiner for his PhD was the late Professor Gordon Mingay, who once asserted that it was chiefly a matter of scale that differentiated the aristocracy from the gentry.  But what a difference that scale made!  It gave aristocratic estates a formidable survivability, and it allowed them to exploit their resources in ways that were well beyond the capacity of their lesser neighbours.  In this talk, Melvin will look at three facets of one of the greatest aristocratic estates in Wales: the cyclical rise and fall of the Powis family; their great land grab of enclosure, and their obsession with lead mining.

This seminar will be delivered through the medium of English.