PGW(Gd)10(CON)

Benarth Hall  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Conwy  

Henryd  

278764  

376750  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Woodland, small park, walled gardens, rockery, 'wild garden' and small formal garden area, with views over the Conwy valley.  

1790 and 1810; after 1916.  

Benarth hall is registered as an interesting example of an early twentieth century garden layout set within older woodlands and parkland with extensive late eighteenth or early nineteenth-century walled kitchen gardens. Benarth occupies a sloping site on the west bank of the Conwy estuary and from it there are lovely views over the estuary. The park and gardens have group value with the other estate buildings including the grade II listed Benarth Hall and balustrade terrace, summerhouse and icehouse. Benarth also has historical associations with art patron Sir George Beaumont (1753-1827) for whom Benarth was a summer retreat and who sketched the house in about 1801. The parkland lies to the north and south of Benarth Hall (LB 17710) occupying an inverted 'L'-shaped area, with the stem of the 'L' along the edge of the river. It was probably laid out when the house was built in 1790, but is possibly earlier. The area to the north of the house consists almost entirely of woodland, through which the drive approaches. The south drive (now disused) is also wooded part of the way, but begins alongside open parkland near the home farm, with more woods along the edge of the estuary. The combined length of the drives is over 1.25km, both are flanked by ornamental plantings. There are lodges at both entrances; a third lodge, just north of the house, was demolished (date of demolition unknown). By 1890 there was a network of paths through park and woods but by 1913 many of these had already disappeared and today few survive. Some are overgrown and disused, others have developed into new drives. The woodland is concentrated mainly to the north of the house and is mostly oak, sycamore and beech, with a natural understorey. There are also wooded areas to the south-east and south-west, along the shoreline and flanking the south drive respectively. Most of this, together with part of the garden, is included in the Benarth Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest. Some of the woods, at least, may pre-date the house. A brick-built ice house (LB 17711) lies in woodland to the west of the house. All of the open parkland is to the south of the house. It is bounded by farmland on the south, the garden on the north and woodland on east and west, the home farm is situated at the south-west corner. It is dotted with trees, but fewer than in 1890, and part of the area has been drawn into the garden. The gardens consist of several components formed on sloping ground falling away to the south of the house, and have been subject to alteration throughout their history. In front of the house (the south-east) is a level revetted terrace, which is probably contemporary with the 1790 house. The house was built for Samuel Price of Lincoln’s Inn and he was probably also responsible for creating the terrace in front of the house. The lawned terrace is oval with a yew hedge around it, and remains an open area. Sales particulars of 1805 describe the grounds as ‘beautiful pleasure grounds laid out with great taste and enriched with forest trees and the choicest evergreens', as well as a 'hot house, green house, pinery, melon pit and peachery, and ice house.’ A viewing platform of c.1900 gives views over the Conwy estuary (LB 17710). At the north-east end of the main terrace is a circular, brick-built summer house with attached aviary for small birds (LB 17712). Below the terrace and platform lies the rockery, partly terraced revetted by dry-stone walls. At the foot of the rockery is a small concrete-lined oval pool fed by rainwater collected in a channel crossing the terraces. The rose garden is a terraced level area south of the house, below the south-west end of the main terrace. Steps lead down into it from above, and out of it into the wild garden below. A sundial lies in the centre of a large circular bed, and a tiny stone-edged circular pool near the southern edge of the terrace by the walled garden. Below the rockery and rose garden is the final retaining wall, up to nearly 2m high at the rose garden end, and below this the natural slope. An angled flight of steps down through the wall below the rose garden gives access to the slope of the 'wild garden' below it. These improvements were made after 1913 and before 1931 and can be ascribed to the Tattersalls, who owned the house from 1914 to 1933. Photographs in the sales particulars of 1931 show the gardens at this time. Extensive walled gardens lie to the south-west of the house, covering almost three acres. The garden is roughly rectangular in shape, long axis north by south, rounded at the north end, and enclosed by brick-lined stone walls with brick cross walls. The whole area slopes down from west to east and, less noticeably, from north to south. In the late nineteenth century the interior was divided into three enclosures with a layout of paths which divided them into six roughly equal segments. This tripartite division seems to have been in existence by about 1810. A fourth, southernmost, enclosure is a later addition as it was a paddock with parkland trees in 1890. It is unlikely that any part of the extant garden predates the 1790 house. The garden was used mainly to grow fruit. By 1931 there was also a vinery and peach house and a modern three-part greenhouse, later demolished. Wall fruit and orderly lines of vegetables are recorded on an aerial photograph, together with what looks like a rose pergola to the west of the central north-south path. At the time of registration, in the 1990s, the walled garden had become completely overgrown with only the northernmost area fully accessible. Early maps show a stone-built range of buildings outside the north wall, which included the boiler house and potting sheds, all intact at the time of registration; the apple store outside the east wall was then roofless. More recently, a dwelling, The Vinery, has been built against the north wall, in the location of the former glasshouse and the rest of the walled garden serves as the garden to the new dwelling. Setting: Benarth is located on the edge of the town of Conwy and on the west bank of the Conwy estuary. Significant Views: Fine views from the house and grounds facing southeast over the Conwy estuary. Sources: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 48-53 (ref: PGW(Gd)10(CON)). Ordnance Survey six-inch maps: sheet Denbighshire III.SW (editions of 1875 & 1906).