PGW(Gm)28(CDF)

Rookwood Hospital  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Cardiff  

Llandaff  

315015  

178070  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal gardens.  

About 1776 (possible); 1866-1902  

Registered for its historic interest as the grounds to Rookwood, a large Victorian house situated on the north side of Fairwater Road in Llandaff, Cardiff (Cadw ref: 13686; NPRN 31877) and for group value with the listed house, octagonal Gothic summerhouse and entrance lodges. In the second half of the eighteenth century the grounds were part of the estate of Thomas Edwards of Llandaff House. A large part of the grounds were sold in the middle of the nineteenth century and new grounds were developed by Col. Sir Edward Stock Hill between 1866 and his death in 1902, though landscaping may have begun in the 1770s. By the late 1860s a new house had been erected and named Rookwood House. From 1917 the house was turned over to health care. The grounds were laid out informally with areas of lawn and trees and shrubs. Much of this layout and planting remain. A wide range of trees was planted, and fine specimens of cedar, wellingtonia, pine, lime and beech remain. Specimen trees were planted to commemorate family events, and two wellingtonias on the lawn mark the birth of the Hills's sons. In 1901, the O.S map shows walks, summerhouse, pond, lodge, glasshouses, isolated geometric copses, conservatory, carriage drive and woodland. To the north-west of the house is a circular flat-topped mound about 2 m high, its sides planted with laurel and bay, which supports an octagonal gothic summerhouse in ruinous condition (Cadw ref:13687). A summer house is shown in this position on an estate map of 1776 but its appearance is not known. The grounds were originally more extensive. They included two fields to the west and one large one to the north which were ornamented with boundary belts of trees and specimen plantings. A drive ran north-westwards from the south front of the house to an entrance and lodge (Cadw ref: 20276) on Llantrisant Road. By 1940 the west field had become a sports ground, and both the outlying parts are now built on. The drive has also gone but the half-timbered lodge, designed in 1881 by J. Prichard, remains. On the east side of the south-east entrance, stands another two-storey lodge, to which modern hospital buildings have been added. The area to the south of the house taken up with hospital buildings is outside the registered area. This area was originally sparsely planted with trees and fenced off from the rest of the grounds to the north and west which were more highly ornamented. Source: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)28(CDF)). Ordnance Survey Second Edition 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XLIII.10 (1901).