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View of Margam House, Glamorgan, looking South
BRITISH SCHOOL, 17th or 18th century
Date: c.1700
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 146 x 145 cm
Acquired: 2012; Purchase; with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund
Accession Number: NMW A 29924
Margam House was made from of the buildings of Margam Abbey in the 16th and 17th centuries. The North side of the house was the rear and its design reflects its function. The many-windowed family rooms are on the left, and the kitchens, stables and service quarters on the right. The ruined chapter house is in the centre with the parish church, another surviving part of the mediaeval monastery, nearby. The house dwarfs the little thatched buildings of Margam village in the lower right corner.
The house is set in a deer park and surrounded by orchards, and formal gardens. The tower–like building on the left is a banqueting house, built in about 1670. Beyond, a great avenue leads the eye through the adjoining fields to the hamlet of Nottage and the Kenfig sand dunes, lit by a patch of sunlight, with the Bristol Channel beyond.