An exquisite recreation of an 18th century wedding dress with regal Angus connections has arrived in the county ahead of a major exhibition set to launch on royal wedding day.
Glamis Castle staff are putting the finishing touches to the Historic Wedding Exhibition planned for an April 29 opening and renowned designer Jerri Charlton made a special trip to the Angus landmark to ensure personal delivery of the showpiece garment.
The dress is a recreation of the one worn by Mary Eleanor Bowes on her marriage to the 9th Earl of Strathmore in 1767 and at today’s value the original diamond-encrusted gown would probably have been worth around £1 million.
Mary Eleanor was buried in that valuable original in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, in 1800.
Born in 1749, the daughter of coal baron George Bowes MP, Mary Eleanor was his only child and sole heiress to one of the greatest fortunes in England.
She married John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore on her 18th birthday on February 24, 1767, at the Church of St George in London’s Hanover Square. At the time of her marriage, the dress is reckoned to have cost £3000 and the stomacher, or bodice, encrusted with magnificent diamonds was £10,000.
Mary Eleanor’s place in Glamis Castle history is part of the tour visitors enjoy after her name became written into the family history.
“Her father’s stipulation in his will was that her husband should take the Bowes name so, for a generation, the earl changed his name to that,” said castle marketing officer Libby Reynolds. “The family name later became Bowes-Lyon in future generations.”
Designer Jerri created the dress as part of her BA Hons textile design exhibition in 2009 and it has been on display at the National Trust’s Gibside Chapel since then.
“What began as a small idea to celebrate the royal wedding has grown from that and we hope people will enjoy the display when it opens.”