William Randolph Hearst Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === St Donat's Castle === {{Main|St Donat's Castle}} After seeing photographs, in ''[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life Magazine]]'', of [[St Donat's Castle|St. Donat's Castle]] in [[Vale of Glamorgan]], Wales, Hearst bought and renovated it in 1925 as a gift to his mistress Marion Davies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/08/03/lydia-hearst-is-queen-of-the-castle-91466-21454996/|title=Lydia Hearst is queen of the castle|author=Bevan, Nathan|publisher=Wales on Sunday|date=August 3, 2008|access-date=August 3, 2008|archive-date=October 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022101008/http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/08/03/lydia-hearst-is-queen-of-the-castle-91466-21454996/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Castle was restored by Hearst, who spent a fortune buying entire rooms from other castles and palaces across the UK and Europe. The Great Hall was bought from the [[Bradenstoke Priory]] in Wiltshire and reconstructed brick by brick in its current site at St. Donat's. From the Bradenstoke Priory, he also bought and removed the guest house, Prior's lodging, and great tithe barn; of these, some of the materials became the St. Donat's banqueting hall, complete with a sixteenth-century French chimney-piece and windows; also used were a fireplace dated to c. 1514 and a fourteenth-century roof, which became part of the Bradenstoke Hall, despite this use being questioned in Parliament. Hearst built 34 green and white marble bathrooms for the many guest suites in the castle and completed a series of terraced gardens which survive intact today. Hearst and Davies spent much of their time entertaining, and held a number of lavish parties attended by guests including [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Douglas Fairbanks]], [[Winston Churchill]], and a young [[John F. Kennedy]]. When Hearst died, the castle was purchased by Antonin Besse II and donated to [[Atlantic College]], an international boarding school founded by [[Kurt Hahn]] in 1962, which still uses it. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page