The legacy of Penrhyn Castle (Pt 2)
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How has slavery shaped modern Britain? Today, part two of our look beyond the grand interiors of Penrhyn Castle in northwest Wales, where we discover the dark history its foundations were built on.
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Guests:
- Dr April-Louise Pennant, academic.
- Dr Marian Gwyn, heritage consultant specialising in colonial history.
- Elen Simpson, lead archivist at Bangor University.
Host: Brenna Daldorph.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, David O'Ronovich here. This is part two of our three-part series, The Legacy of Penryn Castle, |
| 0:07.0 | and I'm handing over to one of our producers, Brenna Daldorf. This is a series, so if you haven't |
| 0:13.2 | yet, I'd recommend you go back and listen to episode one first. And before we start today, a warning, |
| 0:19.6 | this podcast is about a grim part of our past that still affects our present, |
| 0:24.7 | and this particular episode contains references to suicide. |
| 0:32.3 | Hi, Brenar. My name is April Louise, and I'm 28. |
| 0:38.0 | April Louise is an academic. |
| 0:39.9 | Focused on education, particularly the role of black British women graduate's identities. |
| 0:48.4 | April Louise grew up in South London, and right at the start of episode one, you heard me meeting her in South Wales in the Central Station in Cardiff. |
| 0:56.9 | Hey, hello. How are you doing? |
| 1:00.7 | After that, you heard historian Marianne Gwyn telling the long and brutal history of a British family called the Penance who made their wealth in Jamaica. |
| 1:09.4 | He was utterly convinced that there was nothing wrong with slavery. |
| 1:15.3 | He denied that cruelty existed. |
| 1:19.9 | This is where the two storylines intersect, |
| 1:23.1 | because April Louise's full name is April Louise Pennant. |
| 1:26.8 | Yeah, pennant. |
| 1:28.3 | The pennants owned six plantations in Jamaica. |
| 1:31.3 | They were incredibly rich, you know, the equivalent of multi-monionaires many times over. |
| 1:42.3 | You're listening to stories of our times from The Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 1:46.6 | I'm Brenna Daldorf. |
| 1:48.2 | Today, the legacy of Penrhyn Castle, part two. |
| 2:08.9 | Growing up, April Louise didn't know about the white family whose story affected her own family story so deeply. |
... |
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