The Courtroom at y Gaer
The restored courtroom in the old Shire Hall is an impressive feature of y Gaer and is enhanced by significant portraits and busts from the Brecknock Museum’s collection. All show characters whose lives were intertwined with the history of Brecon.
The courtroom is a great spectacle, it has been fully restored and is completely open to visitors so they can see where the judge, lawyers, witnesses, and accused stood.
Magnificent paintings and busts of local figures are displayed. All are of interest because of the roles these people played in Brecknock life and the wider world.
The oldest paintings are oils of Col Thomas Wood of Gwernyfed (c.1810), MP for Brecknockshire for over 40 years 1806 to 1847, and of John Jeffreys Pratt, Marquis Camden (c.1825) by William Salter. Pratt was grandson of Nicholas Jeffreys of The Priory, Brecon. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1795-1798 and as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies between 1804 and 1805. William Salter was a prolific portraitist who was for many years a professor at the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts.
Another notable artist featured is John Collier (1850-1934), one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. He was commissioned to paint royalty as well as notable figures such as Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Charles Darwin. On display is his 1901 portrait of Joseph Russell Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk. Bailey was both a long-serving local MP and Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire. In 1899 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Glanusk of Glanusk Park.
The 1910 portrait of Stanley Price Morgan Bligh of Cilmeri (1870-1949) shows a Brecon-born barrister, psychologist, and pioneer in agricultural research who was distantly related to William Bligh of the Bounty. He erected the memorial to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd on his own land near the place where the prince is believed to have been killed in December 1282. His estate endowed scholarships for Brecknockshire agriculture and forestry students.
The six busts displayed around the courtroom are all by the famous local sculptor John Evan Thomas, a prominent figure who was one of the original sponsors of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Three are of members of the Watkins family of Penoyre.
Cleaning and conservation work on the paintings and busts was funded by a grant from the Welsh Museums Federation with match funding for the paintings from the Jepson family of Brecon, whose support of the museum collection is greatly appreciated.