Erddig, two miles south of Wrexham, is the country house that turns the usual story upside down: the Yorke family lived here from 1733 until Philip Yorke III handed it to the National Trust in 1973, and for two centuries they commissioned portraits and rhyming verses of their servants, which hang in the servants' hall beside the most complete set of domestic outbuildings in Britain. Upstairs the state rooms keep their Chinese wallpaper and tapestries. The restored 18th-century formal garden runs along pleached lime walks and apple orchards to the long canal, where reviewers say the fish come begging for crumbs, and estate paths lead to the Cup and Saucer, a circular weir in the park. Dogs get an off-lead zone. Tips from visitors: the upper floors close on hot days or when volunteers are short, so check before making a special trip, and the map is hard to follow, so ask a volunteer for the route to the Cup and Saucer.
