Piercefield House & Park

The beautiful setting of the Chepstow Horse Trials is the 370 acre Piercefield Park.

The grounds of the park back on to its' neighbours and owners: Chepstow Racecourse - "The Capital Racecourse of Wales".

Dominating the park are the ruins of Piercefield Mansion, now a stark shell, and merely a shadow of its former glory. It is apparent from the details still found around the park, and from the layout of the mansion and the outbuildings, that this was once the epicentre of a grand estate.

Records since the 14th century refer variously Peerfield, Peersfield, Persfield and Piersfield and local historians report an enlargement of the house in the early 1600s.

The earliest recorded resident of Piercefield is one John Walters in 1515. The next researched fact skips to 1727 when the estate was sold for £3,366, 5.6d to a Thomas Rous (an emiment sugar planter & merchant returning from Barbados) , and when he died, his son decided not to keep the estate.

In 1736 the Morris family bought Piercefield for £8,250 and Valentine Morris soon added to the magnificent splendour of the estate by landscaping the parkland (possibly with the help of Capability Brown) that was so much admired at the end of the 18th century. In the 1770s Valentine Morris's gambling, business and political dealings bankrupted him, and he was forced to leave his beloved Piercefield and set sail for the West Indies.

In 1784 Piercefield was sold again - this time for £26,200 - to one George Smith. He prepared plans for commissioning a new facade in a neo-classical style, and additions to the structure which incorporated Valentine Morris's House at the rear. The task was given to a young architect, later to become famous, Sir John Soane. The new three-storey stone building had slowly reached roof level when Smith found himself in financial difficulties and had to sell Piercefield in 1794 to Colonel Mark Wood.

It is rumoured that Nelson spent a night at Piercefield house on one of his visits to Monmouthshire. Nelson was closely connected to the town of Monmouth through his mistress Lady Hamilton. It is possible that he stayed in the Summer of 1802 with his lover Lady Emma Hamilton and her elderly husband Sir William Hamilton, on a journey to a friend's Pembrokeshire estate via Monmouth.

Nathaniel Wells bought the estate in 1801/2 for £90,000 cash. He was born in St Kitts in 1779, and was the Black son of William Wells, a sugar merchant and planter of St. Kitts in the Caribbean (but originally from Cardiff) and Juggy, one of his house slaves. With his inherited fortune he continued to add to the Piercefield estate until it reached almost 3,000 acres. In 1818 he became Britain's only known Black sheriff when he was appointed Sheriff of Monmouthshire.

The next owner was John Russell, who completed the purchase in 1856. Five years later the (now) 1,300 acre estate was bought by Henry Clay for £60,000. His son, also Henry, moved into the house in 1872 and inherited the estate on his father's death in 1874. But when he died in 1921 the Mansion and land, which he left to his son, Henry Hastings Clay, stood empty.

In 1925 Henry Clay formed the Chepstow Racecourse Company and part of Piercefield land was sold to the form the country's youngest Racecourse.

The first race on the track was staged on 6th August 1926 and the first National Hunt race on 2nd March 1927. In recent years it has established itself as one of our leading Jump courses, but it will always have a place in turf history for the feat achieved on the flat by Gordon Richards in 1933. He won all six races on October 6th and five the following day to set a record that will surely stand forever.

Chepstow Horse Trials has enjoyed 22 years in the beautiful, natural amphitheatre of Piercefield Park, and looks forward to many more.

Credits:

With thanks to Chepstow Racecourse and to Robin Clay for his kind suggestions and amendments.

Additional details were sourced/clarified at:

• Data Wales : http://www.data-wales.co.uk
• Information about Nathanial Wells was sourced from a summary
  by John Evans at:
  http://gwent-county-history-association.newport.ac.uk/newsletter/piercefield.html
• Information about Nelsons visits to Monmouthshire were sourced from:
  http://www.thisisgwent.co.uk/gwent/archive
  http://www.monmouth.org.uk/attract.html
  http://www.monmouth.org.uk/nelson.htm