PGW(C)44(DEN)

Llanrhaiadr Hall  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Denbighshire  

Llanrhaeadr yng Nghinmeirch  

308515  

363408  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park with formal approach; small garden.  

1770s; 1840s.  

Registered for the historic interest of its walled garden and surrounding area of the 1770s, probably designed by William Emes, for its landscape park with 1840s formal approach and layout by Thomas Penson, and for its picturesque walk through the wooded pleasure ground in the Dingle to St Dyfnog’s Well. The registered park and garden has group value with Llanrhaeadr Hall and the many associated estate buildings and structures. Llanrhaiadr Hall is situated on level ground on the western edge of the flood plain of the river Clywedog, in the Vale of Clwyd. The house (LB: 795) has sixteenth century origins but its present-day appearance results from the third phase of building, when Thomas Penson, County Surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire, remodelled the house in neo-Jacobean style for John Price in 1842. The former park of Llanrhaiadr Hall lies to the east of the Denbigh-Ruthin road, to the south and east of the house. Originally, the park extended west of the road, south of the village of Llanrhaeadr. The flat pasture land of the park is divided into a few large fields. Isolated deciduous trees scattered throughout the park are the remnants of landscaping. The approach from the Denbigh-Ruthin road is a wide straight strip of drive flanked by grass and trees, bounded by iron fencing, leading to the main front of the house. Flanking the drive are the stumps of an avenue but with some mature limes remaining and some more recent planting. At the entrance, simple iron gates are flanked by low stone walls and tall gate piers with neo-Jacobean decoration (LB: 22690), with similar piers flanked by iron fencing at the entrance to the forecourt (LB: 22689). Thomas Penson designed the approach, entrance gates and lodge at the same time as he was remodelling the house in 1842. In 1971-2 the Llanrhaeadr by-pass was built, cutting off the lodge and western end of the drive but the gate piers and walls were re-erected at the new entrance. The park was first landscaped for Richard Parry in the 1770s. There is a plan by William Emes dated 1771 which shows a winding approach from the road, planting in clumps and isolated trees, and a long, narrow, sinuous lake with two islands to the east and south-east of the house. The plan also shows the house and kitchen garden surrounded by shrubberies with winding paths, and a proposed new house to the south (not built). A contemporary map also shows the lake, which no longer exists (and is not shown on the Ordnance Survey 1870s map), and describes it as acting as a drain to the wetlands above it. It is uncertain how much of Emes's proposed landscaping was carried out, but even if implemented very little remains: the clumps have gone, there is no sign of the lake, and the winding drive has been replaced by the straight approach. John Byng, who toured north Wales in 1784, thought that Parry's 'plantations and the laying out of his grounds bespeak him a man of taste', which lends weight to the argument that some landscaping was undertaken in the 1770s. The garden of Llanrhaiadr Hall is small, and lies to the south, east and north of the house. The drive enters the garden on the south-west side of the house, opening out into a square forecourt with lawns around the house. The basic present-day layout of the garden dates from the 1840s, when Thomas Penson laid out the drive and forecourt. Much of the planting is more recent, but some of the trees date to the Victorian period. Nothing remains around the house which bears any similarity to the layout given in William Emes's plan of 1771. However, the layout around the kitchen garden does appear similar, with a wooded area and winding walks (gone) bounded by a ditch. Although the planting has changed the general layout remains. The small triangular raised area west of the house is also shown on Emes' plan, as a wooded area: this also may be a remnant of the 1770s. The Dingle is situated to the west of the A525 and the village of Llanrhaeadr, behind the church of St Dyfnog (LB: 792). It forms part of the designed landscape, providing a picturesque walk to St Dyfnog’s Well (LB: 22684) through the Dingle along a lower (streamside) path with small, stone bridges over the stream, and an upper path close to the Dingle boundary. The Dingle was accessed from the park via a tunnel under the road. The path layout is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1879) and the tunnel access was probably part of Penson’s improvements of the 1840s. The Emes plan (1771) shows a path through the park leading to the church and the Dingle, but does not extend as far west to show the Dingle or the village. It is described by Fenton (1808) as ‘a deep and narrow Dingle shaded by lofty trees’ with a small rippling stream fed by the spring of St Dyfnog. He describes the bath as once having a building round it and roofed ‘but now exhibiting one shapeless ruin, the Bath being choaked up and all the building fallen in – a most shameful neglect, as this Dingle, connected by a Tunnel going under the Road with Llanrhaiadr, constitutes the prettiest part of their Grounds.’ He also notes ‘Several Walks wind on the side of the Hill above the little rill' Significant Views: The view on the approach to the hall along Penson’s straight drive. Views from the hall and gardens across the park over the Vale of Clwyd and towards the Clwydian Range. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 156-8 (ref: PGW(C) 44). Fenton, R., Tours in Wales (1804-1813) The Cambrian Archaeological Association (1917) Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map, sheet: Denbighshire XIV.SW (1879).