Comments by Robin Clay


17:06 24 January 2010

I have just written at http://tinyurl.com/ydb2jul

Blame the Government. As with most of the properties shown on the "Restoration" TV series, successive governments have imposed punitive inheritence taxes to such an extent that the inheriting owners of these properites could no longer afford to maintain them.

Charles John Clay inherited Stapenhill House from his father, who bought Piercefield in Chepstow - which is now a ruin for exactly the same reason...

My grandfathger, Gerard Clay (see www.spanglefish.com/gerardclay), Charles John's second son, lived at Stapenhill House until he was married in 1906. On honeymoon, he and his bride stayed a few days with his grandfather, Henry Clay, at Piercefield.