THE history of a Chirk tourist attraction features in an interim report looking into the links between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust.

Chirk Castle is one of many National Trust properties to feature in the report, which looks at the links between some properties and historic slavery.

The report, published by the National Trust, aims to research, interpret and share the histories of slavery and the legacies of colonialism at the places the Trust cares for.

An extract from the report reads: “Those histories are deeply interwoven into the material fabric of the British Isles; a significant number of the collections, houses, gardens and parklands in our care were created or remodelled as expressions of the taste and wealth, as well as power and privilege, that derived from colonial connections and in some cases from the trade in enslaved people.

“We believe that only by honestly and openly acknowledging and sharing those stories can we do justice to the true complexity of past, present and future, and the sometimes-uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history since the sixteenth century or even earlier.”

It later adds: “This gazetteer focuses on the places and collections owned by the National Trust that meet key criteria relating to colonialism and slavery for this interim report.

“Where possible, all dates are taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB).

Although most of the entries in this section are of a similar length, this does not imply that the relationships of each of these places to histories of slavery and colonialism are of equal significance.”

The report includes an extract about Sir Thomas Myddelton, who purchased Chirk Castle in the late 1500s, and had links to companies involved with the slave trade.

It reads: “[Myddelton was] A prominent figure in late-sixteenth-century sugar trading, in investment in privateering activities, and in the East India Company.

“Myddelton was apprenticed to the London grocer Fernandino Poyntz (fl. sixteenth century), became a sugar trader in Antwerp around 1583, and later acquired a sugar refinery in Mincing Lane, London.

“He married Hester (.d.1586), daughter of Richard Saltonstall (1521–1601), who was the uncle of Sir Richard Saltonstall (1586–1661), who arrived in the colony of Massachusetts in 1630 and founded Watertown.

“Myddelton became Freeman of the Grocer’s Company of London in 1582 and liveryman ten years later.

“He was a member of the Merchant Adventurers’ Company by 1585. Along with his brother, Robert (c.1563–1616), he was one of the first investors in the East India Company in 1599 and a member of the Virginia Company in 1609.”

To view the report, visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/addressing-the-histories-of-slavery-and-colonialism-at-the-national-trust