Built during the Regency period, the Rookery owes much of its style to the Victorian era. The original owner was William Cooke who owned a sugar plantation in Jamaica. In 1867 his heirs sold the hall to Baron William Von Schroder of the London banking family, Schroder & Company. Baron William became High Sheriff of Cheshire before his death in 1912. Rookery Hall was converted into a hotel in 1984.
Carden Hall stood on this site from at least 1570 and it was passed down through the Leche family until 1912 when it burned down after a cigarette was left smouldering. In 1643 the Parliamentary garrison at Nantwich plundered the hall and took the owner, John Leche a supporter of King Charles, prisoner. Sadly very little of the old Carden estate remains now apart from a few charming historic cottages that can be hired by guests of the new hotel.
A hotel has stood on this site for centuries. First it was a Tudor inn, the Golden Talbot, named after the Earls of Shrewsbury, and then in 1784 the Royal Hotel was built. It became a meeting place for local politicians opposed to the powerful Grosvenor family. Ironically the Grosvenors then bought the Royal in 1815 and renamed it The Grosvenor. Finally in 1865 a new hotel, the Chester Grosvenor, was built in a splendid mock-Tudor style of the kind the Victorians enjoyed.
Deganwy's history goes back at least to the sixth century when a fortress was built here by Maelgwn, King of Gwynedd. Several more castles were built down the ages and Deganwy was briefly the stronghold of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last Welsh prince of Wales. In the nineteenth century the quayside and wharves were built here connected by rail to Blaenau Ffestiniog for the purpose of exporting Welsh slate by coastal steamer all round England and Wales.
Bodysgallen stands on top of the stronghold of Cadwallon Lawhir, fifth-century King of Gwynedd. The current hall was constructed as a tower house in the Middle Ages to serve as defensive support for Conwy Castle. In the seventeenth century a manor house was built around the tower and a parterre garden added. Then in the nineteenth century Lady Augusta Mostyn inherited the crumbling house and turned it into a home for her son Henry Mostyn, colonel of the 17th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
The Imperial occupies a central position on the Promenade in Llandudno, the best address in the "Queen of the Welsh Resorts", a title first used in 1864. Until 1847 Llandudno was a small town mainly occupied by fisherfolk and labourers from the local copper mines. All that changed drastically the following year when the Second Baron Mostyn decided to turn 995 acres of marshland behind Llandudno Bay into Wales' premiere holiday resort.
Owen Williams, a Liverpool architect and surveyor, presented Lord Mostyn with plans for Llandudno's Promenade and Parades in 1848. Mostyn's resort developed quickly to include hotels like St George's on North Parade. Because of its mild climate the town was able to bill itself as "The Naples of the North" and Queen Rambi of Siam was a frequent visitor after she and King Rama VII were forced into exile in 1935. The fifth Lord Mostyn who died in 2000 did much to keep Llandudno unchanged.
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