PGW(C)76(DEN)

Pool Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Denbighshire  

Efenechtyd  

309761  

355740  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; formal and informal gardens; pleasure grounds; walled kitchen garden;  

Medieval; 18th century; 1826-29.  

Pool Park country house is located about 4km to the south-west of Ruthin on a multi-period site with origins in the medieval period, and was the seat of two important families: the Salesburys and, later, the Bagots. It is registered for its fine landscape park, its unusual garden terraced mound, and its well-preserved kitchen garden. There is important group value with Grade II* Listed Pool Park early nineteenth-century country house (LB 16180), and the Grade II Listed Pool Park Farm complex (LB 21221). The park was also the site of a Second World War prisoner-of-war camp. The park is linear in extent, aligned north-east by south-west. The house was originally approached by four drives, each with a lodge. The main one from the north-east end ran southwards from Pine Lodge at the entrance on the Ruthin-Corwen road. The other drives approach from the north (at Bingley Lodge), from the south-west (at Pen-y-maes Lodge) and from the east (at The Lodge, the main lodge); only the latter drive remains in use. The park is mostly rolling pasture and lies mainly to the north of the house on ground rising to the west and north to a ridge running north-eastwards towards Ruthin. The highest ground is on the west boundary of the park, along the Ruthin-Clocaenog road. The ground is characterised by a number of rocky hillocks, some of which have been quarried, leaving uneven depressions. Trees are mostly deciduous and scattered, some are ancient, with clumps of mostly oak. South of the house, the park is largely open pasture, falling gently down from the east and west to the stream that runs north-eastwards through the east side of the park. Here it is canalised into a channel, dropping into a small ravine north of the east drive as it enters the garden area. North of the house a large, roughly rectangular pond, partly fringed with trees possibly has ancient origins and may be the source of the park’s name. Another lies in pasture that was formerly woodland just to the south of the park, to the west of the kitchen garden. Much of the woodland that once fringed the park has gone or been depleted. Coed Efail-y-phidyllon, on the east side, is the most extensive, now managed commercially. A linear earthwork running north-west/south-east down the slope to the drive next to the kitchen garden wall, is possibly a former wood bank, perhaps the boundary of a medieval deer park. Derelict brick buildings on the east side of the park, to the north end, are the remains of a Second World War prisoner-of-war camp (nprn 404009). The house is set within extensive gardens which had taken on much of their present form by the beginning of the nineteenth century. They fall into distinct areas. The main, formal garden, lies east of the house. To the north are further formal compartments and to the west is an informal, wooded area. Further from the house, beyond the formal gardens on the east front, is a wooded valley - the Dingle - which was landscaped in a picturesque way. Beyond the forecourt on the east front is a large mound, or mount, partly planted with trees and shrubs. It is a natural mound about 3.5m high, turned into a formal garden feature by cutting walks and terraces into some of its sides. On the west and north it is stepped, backed by sloping grass banks. The north side is elaborately sculpted, and on its lowest terrace there is a stone pillar about 1.4m high with Ogam inscriptions. The east side is laid out only with a gently sloping walk running its full length, below the top. The south side is without terraces. The top of the mount is a grass platform bounded by steep grass banks. In the middle is an ornate sandstone sundial, about 1.5m high (LB 21220). The north side is carved with the initials C S (Charles Salusbury) and on the east side is the date 1661. To the north of the house is a gently sloping lawned area dotted with trees, extending to the park boundary, the former main drive running northwards across it from the forecourt. The slope is interrupted by a levelled bowling green, cut into the slope on the south side below a small, overgrown rockery area. The valley to the east, or the Dingle, is a steep-sided small river valley, precipitous on the west side. It is planted mainly with conifers, with a forestry plantation on the east side. Upstream, near the drive, is a single-arched stone bridge on stone abutments, with a low parapet, about 0.3m high. There are no signs of paths leading to this bridge. West of the house the slope is revetted, above which is a rock-cut path running north-south through woodland, which includes specimen conifers. It is accessed by a flight of steps up from the lawn area. The path originally joined a network of informal paths through a large wooded area to the west of the house; these are now inaccessible. The kitchen garden, dating probably from the 1820s, lies to the south-west of the house and outbuildings, and is situated on a south-east-facing slope. It is roughly inverse D-shaped and enclosed by walls of brick 2m to 4m high, largely intact. Ancient, decayed fruit trees grow against the higher walls. There is an entrance gap near the south end of the north-east side, another on the curving west side. The west wall was heated. The interior is grassed over and grazed by sheep. The layout of perimeter and two cross paths is visible in the turf and also from aerial views, especially in the south-east part of the garden. The south end of the garden is walled off to form a separate compartment for glasshouses and cold frames. Stone and brick footings of glasshouses survive, together with a modern one. Against the south-east end is a ruinous bothy, and beneath it a vaulted basement (?potting shed & boiler house). Setting - Pool Park is located in rolling countryside, set in extensive gardens, pleasure grounds and landscape park, to the south-west of Ruthin. The topography is rolling, with ridges between rivers running northwards to join the River Clwyd. The house lies near the south end of the park, with its gardens and grounds mainly to the east. It faces east-south-east, the ground rising behind it to the west and dropping, beyond the garden, to a steep-sided small river valley to the east. Significant views - From the north end of the house there are views across the lawn and the park beyond. From within the park, the high ground to the north would have afforded views eastwards across the local countryside. Sources: Cadw Historic Assets Database (ref: PGW(C)76 (DEN)). Infoterra (Google Maps) imagery (accessed 31.08.2021).