PGW(Gd)66(ANG)

Ty Fry  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Isle of Anglesey  

Pentraeth  

251583  

376771  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal garden; water garden  

c.1679; mid 18th century; early 19th century  

Ty Fry is located between Pentraeth and Rhoscefnhir in the south-east of Anglesey. It is registered for its historic interest as an unusual and well-preserved garden contemporary with the important seventeenth-century gentry house. The garden lies to the south, west and north of the house (LB: 5451) and is surrounded by rubble walling and wall/banks. The house is approached from the east, entered between a pair of mid-seventeenth century gate piers (LB: 80830). The garden is laid out with raised walks, rock-cut steps and viewing platforms in a landscape of abrupt rocky outcrops and many springs. The garden can be divided into several areas: a formal inner garden to the north-west of the house, mainly subdivided lawns and shrub and herbaceous borders; an informal outer garden to the south and west, with lawns, mature specimen trees, raised walk, and rock outcrops; a woody area to the west dominated by a rectilinear pond and stream in the floor of the valley, and high steep-sided rocky knolls; and to the north a boggy area of water channels and springs, overgrown with seedling trees, that may once have been a formal water garden. The use made of natural, irregular landforms in the layout is highly unusual for the late seventeenth century. The distant view of Snowdonia from the principal viewpoint, south of the house, is depicted in a contemporary painted panel inside the house. The enigmatic area to the north, laid out with formal water channels, of uncertain date and purpose, may possibly be part of the original layout. Other remnants of the seventeenth century garden also survive. These include a remnant of the lime avenue, close to the boundary wall, which flanked the former drive approaching from the south-west; and the pond, thought to have originated as mill pool, is also likely to date to this period or earlier. A second phase of interest in the garden dates to the mid-eighteenth century, when the lawns and paths next to the house were created. Sources: Cadw, 2013, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Ty Fry PGW(Gd)66(ANG) Additional notes: D.K.Leighton