PGW(Dy)69(PEM)

Boulston Old Hall  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Pembrokeshire  

Uzmaston, Boulston and Slebech  

198010  

212487  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Walled and compartmented garden, including a long terrace  

Second half of sixteenth century  

Registered for its historic interest as the survival of a walled and compartmented garden dating to the second half of the sixteenth century and associated with the ruins of Boulston Old Hall. An interesting and unusual feature is a substantial, long, rectangular walled terrace built along the shoreline and overlooking the Western Cleddau estuary. The site has historical associations with the Wogan family, who lived at Boulston Old Hall. The former gardens lie around the ruined house (NPRN:21647;PRN:102767). They are now abandoned, ruined and overgrown but their structure and much of the walling remains. No internal layout or planting survives. The main feature is a walled terrace which lies between house and shore. It is 70m long and 8.5m wide with a rubble stone revetment wall on the seaward side, a parapet wall about 1.3m high above it rising to 3.5m on the south-east, and backed on the north by a wall about 3.5m high. Towards the west end is a wide, arched, entrance gap inserted later, a gate opposite leading to the walled area east of the house. To the west of the terrace, on the same line, is a smaller walled bay which may have been an entrance court, as a gap in the north wall at its east end lies opposite the centre of the house. To the east of the house, north of the terrace, is a third walled enclosure. Its east wall, which butts on to the north wall of the terrace, is about 3m high. To the north of the west end of the house are the remains of the fourth compartment, its residual walls on the north and east sides rising to 3.5m. Beyond the immediate vicinity of the house, ancillary features linked to it include Ash Wood, mixed woodland to the north and east; an old, stony track, flanked by low rubble stone walls, running from Boulston Farm southwards through the wood to the shore; and another, similar track running south-eastwards and then eastwards at the northern end of the wood, and crossing the stream through the wood over a small arched stone bridge. The stream flow is interrupted by two, probably ancient, ponds, the upper, smaller one is of irregular shape with an earthen dam along its south side, the larger one below it (PRN:40633). The similarity of most of the walling of the courts and terrace indicates that the whole layout is probably of one date. On stylistic grounds this is likely to be the second half of the sixteenth century. The most probable builder of the garden is Sir John Wogan, owner of Boulston from about 1541 until his death in 1601. The present-day layout of walled compartments is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1899 (revised 1888). Setting: The ruins of Boulston Old Hall are situated on a small inlet on the north shore of the Western Cleddau estuary, to the south of the hamlet of Boulston. Significant Views: The terrace overlooks the Western Cleddau estuary, the parapet wall on the estuary side is low and gives views out across the Western Cleddau landscape. Sources: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 164-7 (ref: PGW(Dy)69(PEM)). Ordnance Survey 25-inch map: sheet Pembrokeshire XXVIII.13 (second edition 1907).