PGW(Gm)2(RCT)

Aberdare Park  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Rhondda Cynon Taff  

Aberdare West  

299371  

203223  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Mid-nineteenth-century municipal public park  

1869-70s  

Registered as a well-preserved example of a Victorian public park partly laid out by the eminent park and garden designer William Barron (1805-1891). As well as retaining most of its Victorian built features, including the bandstand and fountain, it has an attractive lake and many of the original trees are now fine mature specimens. The park was laid out on part of Hirwaun Common at the instigation of R.H. Rhys, chairman of the Local Board of Health, who in 1865 informed the local Board of Health that the 'pleasure ground' of nearly fifty acres would soon be made over to the Overseers of the Parish. Rhys intended it to be 'a pleasant place for the dust-begrimed inhabitants'. It was opened on 27 July 1869, and in 1877 the Local Board of Health borrowed £5000 to wall, drain and plant the parkland. Before the major landscaping of the park by Barron in the 1870s it was laid out with two entrances and lodges at the north-east and south-east corners, a circuit walk and two informal fish ponds, the larger near the south end of the park, the smaller at the north end. This layout is shown on the 1st edition 25" Ordnance Survey map (1867-75) and remains unchanged today, except that the northern pond has been filled in. Further ornamental features and planting were grafted on to the early layout by Barron in the late 1870s, but were confined to the outer fringes of the park, the centre being left open as an undulating area of grass. The park is bounded by stone walls varying in height and in places supporting iron railings. The main entrance is in the south-east corner where simple iron gates are flanked by tall square stone piers and pedestrian gates (LB: 10884). On the west side of the entrance is a former lodge. Opposite the lodge is a small formal garden with a path leading to a statue of Lord Merthyr (LB: 10885) by Thomas Brock of London. The statue is set in a T-shaped pool (added later) with a single jet fountain in the middle. A wide gently curving tarmacked walk runs north-west from the entrance up a gentle slope flanked by grass slopes planted with large mature specimen trees. These include pine, cypress, monkey puzzle, wellingtonia, beech, oak, and sycamore. The monkey puzzles, on the west side of the walk, are particularly large and handsome specimens. At the top of the slope the walk branches left and right on to the circuit walk. At the junction is a small statue (originally a fountain) named the Spirit of Industry. It was presented in 1905 by Mr Isaac George. The circuit walk leads to a boating lake to the west. To the south of the pond is a single-storey brick pavilion with a pitched roof and verandahs on both the north and south sides. This is now used as a cafe. To its south is an elaborate cast iron fountain, the Coronation Fountain (LB:10886) manufactured by Macfarlane & Co of Glasgow and presented to the inhabitants of Aberdare by Lord Merthyr to commemorate the coronation of George V and Mary in 1911. To the west of the lake and circular walk is an octagonal bandstand manufactured by the Phoenix Engineering Company in 1910 (LB: 10887). The south-west corner of the park is taken up with sporting facilities - tennis courts and a bowling green. To their north is an area of informal oak woodland flanked by a shallow landscaped ravine. This was landscaped as part of the William Barron scheme, and has been restored. The water enters at the north end, emerging from a wall of rough boulders. It then winds down the valley through a series of small stone-edged pools and over stone cascades. Winding paths follow the stream on both sides, which is spanned by two bridges. Setting: Aberdare Park is a Victorian public park in Trecynon, towards the north end of Aberdare. It lies on a south- and east-facing slope on the west flank of the Cynon valley, bounded on the east by the A4059 road, on the north and south by minor roads, and on the west by the track of a disused railway line. Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)2(RCT) Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map of Glamorgan, XI.11 (1900)