PGW(Dy)70(CER)

Coedmore  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Ceredigion  

Llangoedmor  

219463  

243651  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Terraced garden; informal garden; wooded pleasure grounds; kitchen garden.  

Late seventeenth-early eighteenth century; 1816-33.  

Registered for the survival of a picturesque, early nineteenth-century layout of paths, steps and bridges within the extensive woodland grounds on the steep flanks of the dramatic Teifi valley. There is also a fine view of Cilgerran Castle from the house and garden. Within the woodland is a curious, older enclosed garden with a ruined gazebo. The registered area has group value with the country house (LB: 14778) and service court range (LB: 14779) to which it provides the setting. Coedmore is located above the east bank of the Afon Teifi on the opposite side of the river from Cilgerran Castle (LB: 14491; scheduled monument PE002). There are two distinct areas of garden and grounds at Coedmore. First, there is the garden in the immediate vicinity of the house and secondly there is the large area of wooded pleasure ground beyond it, to the north-west. The house is approached from the north-east by a long drive, which winds through the woodland from the Home Farm. To the north of the house is a gently sloping lawn, crossed by the main drive and bounded by a straight ha-ha. Beyond the ha-ha is an old orchard. An iron gate to the south-west of the lawn opens to the woodland beyond. On the south-west side of the house the ground drops increasingly steeply down to the river Teifi. A narrow strip in front of the house has been terraced and retained by a massive revetment wall. From the garden terrace next to the house, to the north, there is fine view across the Teifi valley to the ruined Cilgerran Castle. At the south end of the garden a flight of ten stone steps leads up to a small stone paved platform, with a stone bench on it. A grass path continues around the edge of the garden. On the immediate south-east of the house and garden in a circular pond lined with herringbone stonework. The wooded pleasure grounds differ in character from the garden, being a large area of deciduous, largely beech, woodland with some conifers nearer the garden. Within it is an intricate network of winding, unsurfaced, picturesque paths enhanced by streams crossed by stone bridges, with steep-sided ravines and a precipitous drop to the river on the west. On steeper slopes there are stone steps. To the north-west of the house, on an elevated bluff overlooking the Teifi ravine, is an irregular, oval enclosure surrounded by a partly-ruined rubble stone parapet wall up to 1.3m high, reveted on the west, and with a ruined gazebo built into its north side. The enclosure was built as a garden feature, probably of late seventeenth century or eighteenth century date during the first phase of the garden development, pre-dating the path network. Early investigations below it, on the banks of the Teifi, by RCAHMW staff during the First World War suggest the survival of early earthwork terracing. It is probable that the garden and grounds took on their present form around the time that the present house was built by Thomas Lloyd in 1816-33, following the destruction by fire of its predecessor. No remains of an earlier garden adjacent to the previous house have been detected. About 500m north-west of the house is the nineteenth-century walled garden. It lies on ground rising gently to the north, above the east bank of the Afon Teifi. It was built some time before 1830, when the present house was being built by Thomas Lloyd in 1816-33. The garden is rectangular, long axis roughly north-east by south-west, and is divided linearly into two compartments. The upper bay is bounded by mortared stone wall 3.5m high, low doorway in it, but 4m high on the south (the dividing wall) which is brick-lined on its south face with a modern entrance gap in the middle. The west wall is formed by the gardener’s cottage and bothies. This compartment now forms the garden of the converted cottage and bothy. The southern bay has a higher quality wall, of coursed cut stone with slate top and 2m high, with an arched entrance on the east side, possibly the family entrance. Inside, the wall is of rubble stone, dressed stone doorway in the centre. The south end of the east wall curves round to the south-west, now partly fallen. In the middle is a low, stone cross-wall retaining a break in the slope, but no wall along the south side of this bay. Against its north wall is a lean-to glasshouse with wooden superstructure on a stone base, working slate water tank in front of it. West of the glasshouse is a large boiler pit and then a dilapidated vine house of earlier date and now ruinous. This compartment also contains a stone-lined cold frame. The garden underwent changes but by 1890 it had achieved its present-day shape and layout. Significant Views: Situated in a prominent picturesque location above the Afon Teifi with views from the gardens towards the ruins of Cilgerran Castle. Sources: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 100-104 (ref: PGW(Dy)70(CER)). Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map: sheet Pembrokeshire III.13 (second edition 1904).