An old oak closed string four-flight staircase bought by Architectural Heritage at auction ten years ago has been identified by architectural historian Mark Baker as coming from Plas Newydd, a mansion demolished after a government clearance order in 1969 in Ruabon, Wrexham.
 
Plas Newydd was built as a gift from Sir Thomas Myddleton, a founder of the East India Company, to his son Charles Myddleton in 1663. Baker thinks that the staircase may have been reused from an even earlier building because it is not in the style of the 1660s, but looks more 1600s.
 
Alex Puddy, the owner of Architectural Heritage, who has re-assembled the staircase in a barn at at Taddington, said that he hoped the staircase would go into a national or original collection of some sort but acknowledged that it could end up far from its original home. Currently it is for sale at £86,000.
 
Mark Baker, 30, reportedly said it was one of the finest Jacobean staircases he had come across and suggested that it might suit a museum looking for an interesting staircase or restoration project, or a good architect could build a house around the staircase because it is so fine.
 
The description of the staircase on AH website states that it has four flights with four landings. The balusters of the long flights have intermediate inline newel posts similar to those found in other Jacobean stairs. In addition the newel posts, handrail and string all have a small ovolo moulding to each corner and shallow "shadow moulding" in the centre, giving a richly moulded effect.
 
The recent provenance of the staircase is to Ruthin Castle, Wales, where it was bought in the 1960s by a Mr Warberton and put into storage after only twelve of the balusters were used. These balusters are still in situ at Ruthin Castle and adorn the minstrels' gallery in the medieval banqueting hall. For the following forty five years the staircase was stored in the old x-ray department block of Ruthin Castle, which before being converted into an hotel was in use as a hospital from 1920-1960. The concrete building, now overgrown in the castle's woodland, was a solid and water-tight structure, keeping the staircase in excellent condition.