PGW(Dy)61(CER)

Lodge Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Ceredigion  

Llangynfelyn  

266342  

293524  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Deer park; pleasure grounds; former kitchen garden & orchard; walled kitchen garden.  

Early seventeenth century; 1650's; 1787-91; late nineteenth century.  

Registered for the survival more or less intact of a seventeenth-century deer park, with parts of its boundaries in good condition. During the mid seventeenth-century the eccentric garden-maker, mining entrepreneur and associate of Francis Bacon, Thomas Bushell, lived at Lodge Park. The park was always used for hunting and this tradition continued into the Edwardian period. The registered area comprises the deer park, pleasure grounds, former kitchen gardens and orchard and has group value with the country house (LB: 9835). The deer park of Lodge Park occupies a roughly oval area to the west of the A487 road, north of Tre’r-ddol. From the centre of the park, a ridge just east of the house, the ground drops away in all directions, the slope being quite steep in places. To the west of the park lies the coastal plain of the Dovey estuary and to the east the ground rises on the wooded lower slopes of Foel Goch. The park history goes back at least to the early seventeenth century and possibly earlier, to the Tudor or medieval periods. The park is bounded on the north side by a stone-revetted earth bank about 2m high, which follows the present wood boundary; on the west by a 1.3m high bank revetted with a 1m high stone wall on its outer side, with an inner ditch; on the north-east by a lower wall of upright stone, with a rounded top, inside of which is a ditch (a classic deer-park arrangement likely to have been fenced along the top of the wall); on the east by a line of huge oak trees, a relic hedge and ditch; and on the south by a line now gone except for a boundary scarp between wood and field. On the north the boundary follows the present woodland boundary then runs straight south-westwards in the dip between the park and Coed Trwynybuarth. There is a wide opening halfway along the north-east side. The two approaches to the house are both former drives, now used as forestry tracks. The main drive runs from the south-east corner of the park, where there is an entrance lodge and gates (NPRN: 35034). The interior of the park is now mostly coniferous plantation, with some deciduous and scrubby woodland. Immediately to the south of the house the park is densely wooded and has been ornamented, in the Victorian period, by plantings of conifers and rhododendrons and by paths leading to the sites of two former summerhouses and a rockery at the north end of the woodland. Only the footings of the summer-houses remain. A feature of interest in the northern part of the park is a rock-cut spring on a north-facing slope, a roughly square pool set into the rock. This feature may have its origins in the mining activity of the area, but on the other hand it may also have had an ornamental use as the 1787/88 estate map shows a water feature in the centre of the north end of a rectangular enclosure. There is very little by way of garden at Lodge Park. The approach from the south is flanked by banks of hybrid rhododendrons and in front of the house is a rough lawn area. To the west of the house is a small lawn, planted with a single birch tree, backed by a curving mortared stone wall c.2m high, with a slate top. The wall runs from the north-west corner of the house to the former summerhouse. The drive and parts of the lawn were once bounded by simple iron fencing that is evident in photographs of the house and grounds dating to 1870 - 1910. The ridge to the east of the house was also ornamentally planted as part of the grounds and a walk, some specimen trees and banks of rhododendrons remain here. A path winds through the area, to the east of the kitchen garden, leading northwards up to the top of the ridge. There are remains of a stony surface and the upper part is rock-cut. At the top of the ridge, which is narrow and rocky and from which there are fine views to the east and north, the path loops around to the south. Above the kitchen garden the walk is flanked by overgrown box on the west side and edged with slate slabs. It is probable that little landscaping was carried out around the house before the late eighteenth century. Lodge Park appears always to have been tenanted, the Pryce family (hereditary owners) using the property for hunting, giving little incentive for ornamentation and garden development. The grounds contain two distinct areas of kitchen garden, or former kitchen garden. The first, and earliest, lies to the west of the house; the second, a walled kitchen garden, lies to the north. To the west of the house is a former kitchen garden and orchard shown as a rectangular enclosed area divided into two on an estate map of 1787/88; the nearer half being a kitchen garden, the further half orchard. Its layout can still be traced and some ornamental planting of a Victorian or Edwardian character indicates that the area may have had a more ornamental use during those periods. The area is grassed, bounded by woodland on all but the east side. The main former enclosure is divided into two halves by a scarp. The upper, eastern, half is roughly levelled, the western (former orchard) more sloping. The east side of the upper level is bounded by a low revetment wall of semi-upright stones, the same method of construction as for the deer park wall and therefore possibly contemporary, to the seventeenth century. A walk runs on the terrace above the wall, bounded on the east by an overgrown box hedge. The walled kitchen garden lies to the north of the house, probably dating to 1787-91 during a major rebuilding phase. It is a rectangular area bounded by thin stone walls up to 3m high, mortared courses of slate stone with overhanging top. The ground slopes up gently towards the north. On the south side, nearest the house, is a wide opening, with an ornamental iron gate, brought from another location on the property, flanked by two utilitarian buildings. The southern half of the west side is formed by the back wall of the outbuildings range. The north wall has a round-arched opening in the middle. Outside the north wall are the remains of some buildings which were probably kennels for hounds. An outer brick wall encloses a roofless brick building east of the door and a roofless stone building west of it. Significant Views: Fine views from the ridge and rocky outcrops in the park. Source: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 136-9 (ref: PGW Dy61(CER)).