PGW(Gt)63(MON)

Cefn Ila  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanbadoc  

336195  

200429  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced garden; informal woodland garden; orchard; walled kitchen garden  

1865; 1925  

Cefn Ila is registered for its historic interest as a good example of a Victorian garden, surviving it its entirety, with most of its structure intact, despite the loss of the house. The registered area comprises a formal terrace garden, an informal woodland garden, an orchard including some old apple and pear trees, and a well-preserved walled kitchen garden. An important aspect of the garden is the Victorian plantings of ornamental trees and shrubs, now fine mature specimens, including some rarities. The original house, belonged to the Williams family of Llangibby Castle, a few kilometres to the south. This house was bought in about 1846 by Edward J. Trelawney, a friend of the poets Shelley and Byron. In about 1865 it was bought by Edward Lister, who was recorded as ‘of Cefn Ila’ in 1869. He rebuilt and enlarged the house, with the help of ‘Mr Waterhouse’, who was probably a local builder. In 1885 Edward’s son Joseph died in a riding accident and the house and estate were sold by his widow. By the turn of the century Cefn Ila belonged to a French nobleman, Gerard Ducarel, 4th Marquis de la Pasture. In 1925 Cefn Ila went into institutional use when it was annexed to Pontypool Hospital and opened as The Kate Ayres Gustard Convalescent Home for women and children. From 1939 it was used as a sick bay for evacuated children; in 1947 it became a maternity home. The hospital finally closed on 3rd September 1973. Eleven days later it was burnt to the ground. The house site, garden, walled garden and part of the original park were sold to the Woodland Trust in 2007. The approach to Cefn Ila is from a minor road to the south. On the east side of the entrance is a small two-storey, stone lodge. The drive crosses the river over a single-arched stone bridge. In the river is a sluice on the upstream side, forming a small cascade, which creates a pleasing sound effect and is almost undoubtedly a deliberate piece of landscaping, designed to enhance the experience of crossing the bridge. The drive climbs the hill towards the house and garden, flanked in part by iron park fencing. On either side is relict parkland. To the west it has been planted as mixed woodland by the Woodland Trust. A large Cedar of Lebanon stands on the east side of the entrance to the grounds and at this point a subsidiary drive leads off to the west. Iron gateposts survive in the fence on the west side of the drive. The main drive winds uphill through the wooded gardens to a level area. The house stood on this platform. The drive swept around the east side of the house and led to the stable block to the north. The platform is bounded on the east side by a steep slope with battered dry-stone revetment walling at its foot. In front of the house, on its south side, was a level lawn. The gardens can be divided into two sections: the terraces immediately adjacent to the house site and the informal wooded grounds beyond. The terraced garden lies to the south and west of the house site. It is no longer lawned, as shown in early twentieth century photographs. The terraces are linked by two flights of steps. They, and a path below the lower flight, are flanked by overgrown yews, suggesting former yew hedges. The wooded part of the garden occupies a large area to the west and south of the house. The drive curves through it, passing banks of rhododendrons. The woodland is dominated by large conifers, including fine specimens of Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica Elegans), Lawson’s cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), Scot’s pine (Pinus sylvestris), Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba), Monkey puzzle (Araucaria arucana), Incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens), Himalayan cedar (Cedrus 4 deodara) and Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica Glauca). Other specimen trees in the woodland include Red horse chestnut (Aesculus Carnea), Evergreen oak (Quercus ilex), lime (Tilia x europea) and yew. At the end of the drive, near the house site, is a huge Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), shown clearly on the lawn in twentieth century photographs. To the north of the garden is an old orchard. The orchard is an area of well-spaced, large old apple trees on the slope and large pear trees at its foot. Near the top of the slope a wide, levelled path runs northwards across the slope to a handsome doorway in the south wall of the kitchen garden. The doorway has a cut stone surround and a wooden door, which appears original. The kitchen garden is rectangular, enclosed by roughly coursed, mortared stone walls, with flagstone coping. Along the outside of the east wall are two ruined stone bothies. The general layout of Lister’s gardens is shown on the first edition 25 in. Ordnance Survey map of 1886-87. This shows the gardens, set in parkland to the east, west and south, with their present configuration of winding drive, wooded southern half of the garden, terracing to the south and west of the house, orchard and kitchen garden. The photograph also shows a pond (which has recently been restored) and well in the valley floor to the west, below the terraces. Much of the substantial planting of trees and shrubs in the gardens can be attributed to Edward Lister. Setting: Cefn Ila is located in rolling countryside in an isolated situation about 1.5 km to the west of Usk. To the north the ground rises to a low ridge and to the south it drops to a small river valley running eastwards to the river Usk. Sources: Cadw 2013: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales Ordnance Survey, 25-inch sheet Monmouthshire XXIV.2 (1882) Ordnance Survey, 6-inch sheet Monmouthshire XXIV (1887)