The Chirk Castle collection includes two leg irons, writes education officer Jill Burton. They are made of metal and partly bound in leather sewn along the outside edge. A previous house steward worked out that the locking mechanism comprises two metal spikes with spring plates to prevent opening.
One of the leg irons is in the castle conservation store and one, for as many years as anyone remembers, has been kept around the ankle of the Blackamoor figure displayed in the Chirk Castle Servants' Hall.
The Blackamoor is one of two carved figures made in 1673 by Nicholas Needham for the balustrade of the old staircase. The bracelet was added around the right ankle of one of the carvings but was added later and is not part of the figure.
The Blackamoor and, similarly, some Turk figures were presumably reminders of the sources of the Myddelton fortune, the family who made the castle their home for 500 years.
