PGW(Po)19(POW)

Pencerrig  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Llanelwedd  

304294  

253968  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

House and lodge, artificial lake in park, shrubbery, park planting.  

c. 1750 on.  

Pencerrig is registered as a good example of a medium size, mid-Wales estate and was the home of one of Wales’ foremost landscape painters and student of the picturesque, Thomas Jones (1742-1803). Pencerrig and the surrounding landscape provided the inspiration for some of Jones’ paintings and sketches of the Welsh landscape. The registered area has group value with the house (LB: 83723), entrance lodge (LB: 83724) and associated estate buildings and structures. Pencerrig was a Tudor mansion of the Powell family. From c.1750 it was the home of Thomas and Hannah Jones, whose son, the landscape painter Thomas Jones, inherited in 1789. The eighteenth-century house he inherited was substantially rebuilt by Thomas Jones' descendants after 1831. The tithe (1845) and first edition Ordnance Survey (1888) show a drive entering the park at a lodge (LB: 83724) to the southeast of the house. It is thought that this entrance was created following the rebuilding of Pencerrig in the 1830s. The drive is now disused and the entrance is further north, directly east of the house. The east drive dates to sometime after 1905, as it is not shown on the second edition OS map. The park at Pencerrig lies to the north-east and south-east of the house on either side of the present drive, on land which slopes down to the north-east. It is a modest park, being little more than about 50 acres in total. Thomas Jones kept day to day accounts in his Day Book (held at National Library Wales) of expenditure and works undertaken on the grounds. Thomas Jones created the lake soon after 1778 as a feature to be seen from the house. The lake, known as 'the Great Pool', became badly silted and in 1795 it was dug out, resulting in an enlarged lake which covered about five acres. Jones embarked on an extensive period of replanting in 1792-96. His daybook records the transplanting of young oak (1793; 1794) and Scotch fir trees (in 1792) in the Great Wood behind the house. In May 1794 ‘113 young oak were removed from the plantation above the garden to the great wood behind the house as last year.’ Jones also bought some of his tree stock from commercial nurseries; in 1794 from Watts & Co of Piccadilly he received white and black American Spruce, Spanish Chestnut, Filberts, Stone pine, Cluster pine, Ilex oak and Scots pine. Elements of this planting possibly survive today within the plantations in the park and in particular in woodland beyond the park boundary to the north-east of the site, on land which was once within the Pencerrig estate. Jones also refers to new walks being made behind the house in an entry of 14th December 1793. The garden lies to the south and south-east of the house. It is relatively small, covering about one acre. It is dominated by a large circular area of lawn to the south of the house. The lawn is bordered on the south by a raised earth bank against a high stone wall which encloses the garden. Thomas Jones's diaries record that by 1794/95 there was an 'old' and a 'new' garden, the latter being created by himself. It is unclear however whether these are references only to productive gardens as Jones planted the new garden with a variety of fruit trees. In March 1795 he records a parcel from Watts & Agnew of peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries and apples - 50 trees in all – to be planted in the new garden. He also records pears from Maeslough (Maesllwch). In May of the same year he records having received a present of a peacock and peahen from Mr Wilkins at Maeslough. The site of the new garden is not clear but the field below the drive to the south of the house (parcel 177) is recorded as an orchard on the tithe of 1845. In 1796 Jones’ day book records a payment for making a reservoir in the new garden (1796). A sketch dated 1831, attributed to Clara Thomas, records orchards to the south and north-east of the house and farm, as well as the woods to the west and north-west of the house and what appears to be ornamental planting within the vicinity of the house. To the east, below the old drive, is a shrubbery in a small deep valley, with mature planting, where paths have been created around a brook, the channel of which appears to have been modified with pools and a small bridge. This parcel (181) is named ‘Dingle’ on the tithe and may be the same Dingle referred to by Thomas in his diary entry 30/31st March 1796 ‘Transplanted 64 or 65 of the cluster pines and pinasters which I had from London (see Jan 1794) from the Old Garden to the bank above the New garden, and to the little Dingle above the Old Garden – a few of the Ilex which survived the hard winter 1794-5 were likewise transplanted to the above Dingle…’ Jones also refers to fencing ‘the woody Dingle or dell’ (1795). The walled garden lies to the south of the shrubbery/Dingle. Its date is unknown but was likely present when Thomas Jones inherited Pencerrig in 1789. Significant Views: To the east and northeast across the park, lake and surrounding landscape towards the Carneddau. Artistic associations with the work of Thomas Jones are important. Works include ‘Pencerrig’, ‘Carneddau Mountains from Pencerrig’, ‘The Vale of Penncerrig’. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, (ref: PGW (Po)19(POW)). Day Book of Thomas Jones, Pencerrig Ref: NLW MS 23811E Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch maps: Brecknockshire VIII.SE (1888)