Stately home is public winner

Erddig was built in the 1680s

A little known stately home is celebrating after beating some of the UK's biggest tourist attractions in a popularity poll.

Erddig in Wrexham clinched runner's-up spot in the contest to find the country's favourite stately property as voted by the public.

The house - renowned for the way its former owners treated their servants, beat off stiff competition from top tourist attractions, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and London's Hampton Court Palace.

The property, built in the 1680s, was only pipped to the top spot by Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

Erddig House Manager Jeremy Cragg said staff were delighted with the accolade.

"We were really quite shocked in the first place to be even selected," he said.

Jeremy Cragg: Overjoyed with the award

"To come second was just amazing and we're thrilled to bits.

"Although we are a very little known house we are a bit of an undiscovered secret.

"When you listen to the visitors talking you know they connect with the house in a way they don't connect with other houses, and they come back time and time again," said Mr Cragg.

The original house which stands in acres of parkland was a square block building built in the 1680s.

In 1714 it was sold and new owner John Mellor made it into a grand house by extending it and laying out the garden.

Visitors

"He furnished it with the wonderful 18th century furnishings we have," said Mr Cragg.

When he died in 1733, Mr Mellor, a London lawyer, passed on the house to his nephew who was a Yorke.

The home stayed with the Yorke family until 1973 when it was handed over to the National Trust.

More than 85,000 people now visit the property each year.

Mr Cragg said the Yorkes were renowned throughout the Wrexham area.

"They were very ordinary but in one or two ways they stood out from the crowd," he said.

"At the time the Yorkes were thought of by their neighbours and equals as soft on their servants."

The family had paintings and poetry about their servants on their walls in the way others living in grand houses had pictures of ancestors.

"During the 19th century with the invention of photography there were many, many photographs taken of individuals and groups.

"That carried right on until 1921," said Mr Cragg.

However, the National Trust say the revenue collected from their thousands of visitors to Erddig was not enough to pay for the house's restoration

A major renovation project is continuing because of damage caused by coal mining works in the area.

The National Trust is also currently undertaking a major project to repair the windows.