Powis Castle, built around 1200 as a medieval fortress, sits high on a rock above its world-famous garden. Laid out under the influence of Italian and French styles, the garden is overhung with clipped yews and shelters rare and also tender plants. It retains original lead statues and features.
Remodelled and embellished over more than 400 years, Powis reflects the changing ambitions of the Herbert family, who occupied the Castle from the 1570s. Each generation enlisted artists to grow the family’s collection of paintings, sculpture, furniture and tapestries on view throughout the house.
One of the UK’s most significant collections of Indian objects is displayed in the Clive Museum at Powis Castle. As major figures in Britain’s colonial East India Company, Robert Clive and his son Edward (later 1st Earl of Powis) looted many of these objects during their seizure of power in India and Myanmar and violent subsequent rule in the 18th century. Clive wealth amassed through the East India Company in Powis, contributing to later modernisation of the Castle and Gardens that transformed Powis to how it exists today.
