PGW(Gm)76(CDF)

Ty Gwyn  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Cardiff  

Lisvane  

318890  

182818  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal garden; informal garden; walled kitchen garden  

c.1906; 1926  

Ty Gwyn is registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved grand garden dating to the early twentieth-century. The garden is eclectic in style, containing formal terracing and informal garden areas. The Japanese garden is authentic in layout and planting and reflects the popularity of Japanese design at the time. The garden contains fine, well-preserved pavilions, classical features and an ornamental fountain that is Victorian in style. There is also a well preserved walled kitchen garden which retains its original layout. The garden was designed to complement the house of the great Cardiff builder James E. Turner, senior partner of the Cardiff building firm of E. Turner &Sons, who were responsible for many civic and private buildings in Cardiff, including the civic centre at Cathays Park. It has not been altered significantly since it was laid out and planted. The registered area has group value with the grade II listed house (LB: 26942) and coach house (LB: 87733), entrance lodge, walled garden, glasshouse and gardener’s cottage. Ty Gwyn is located in the Lisvane area of Cardiff. The house, built (1906) in Portland stone was set in larger grounds than most of its neighbours and its elevated position commanded extensive views of Cardiff and the coast. The garden was laid out to complement the house in terms of its style and principal building materials. Architectural detail from the house is used throughout the garden. The house is set in the centre of a large garden. Part of the west side of the garden now lies in the separate private garden of neighbouring Pen y Maes. The garden at Ty Gwyn can be divided into six main areas: an informally planted sloping area to the south (front) of the house; a formal terraced area to the north; an informal water garden to the east; the tennis court and lawn below containing the rose arbour; the glasshouses; and a walled garden in the south-east corner. The garden contains some fine mature planting throughout. The estate is entered through ornamental double iron gates and the winding drive passes an entrance lodge and continues up the slope winding around to form a loop in front of the house. Two secondary drives lead off of the main drive, the first leads eastwards to the coach house and kitchen garden, passing a mature horse chestnut tree; the second runs past the east side of the house to the glasshouses. In front of the house the garden consists of a sloping lawn informally planted with some fine mixed coniferous and deciduous trees. A sundial, depicted on both the 1920 and 1946 Ordnance Survey maps, stands on the lawned ‘island’ formed by the loop of the drive. On the west side of the house is a lower, square terrace, with a grass bank down to it and a flight of stone steps near its west end. In the centre is an elaborate ornamental Victorian style fountain. The formal terraces are the most highly ornamented part of the garden, situated to the north of the house and divided into a number of lawned terraces stepped up the slope. That nearest the house is bounded by a stone revetment wall and balustrading. Carved sections have central roundels and diamonds bearing the initials ‘E.T.’ (Ephraim Turner) and ‘J.E.T.’ (James E Turner) and the date ‘1926’. Flights of stone steps link the terraces and the gardens are ornamented with urns, a classical stone plinth and column and a fine hexagonal garden pavilion. The private garden of neighbouring property (Pen y Maes) to the west of the main garden was formerly part of the garden and adjoining paddock of Ty Gwyn. The paddock was reached from the top terrace through an ornamental iron gate with flanking gate piers topped with ball finials. The formal garden is a roughly square area reached from the lowest main terrace at Ty Gwyn. An open-fronted square hip roof pavilion, facing south, stands in this area of the garden. The glasshouses: are situated to the east of the house and are depicted on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1920 and 1946, when the glasshouses stretched as far as the steps to the terrace described above. The tiled floors of the former glasshouses remain in the garden. The potting shed also survives. The two glasshouses that remain are ranged side by side, orientated east-west. Further brick outbuildings, including a fruit store and wood store retaining internal features lie immediately to the north. The building appears to be dated 1919, although the wooden date above the door is damaged. To the east of the pavilion terrace, in the north-east corner of the garden, is a hard tennis court, bounded by a high mesh sports fence with three entrances on the north, east and south. Below the tennis court, on the east side of the garden, is a lawn and rose arbour. A stone plinth stands on the lawn. A stone-paved straight path with iron-framed tunnel arbour planted with roses crosses the lawn. Another fine garden building, a flat-roofed octagonal pavilion with an open front on classical columns, with classical niches in the interior stands at the lower end of the lawn. Stone benches stand in the middle of the lawn. Below the lawn is an area known as the Japanese garden/water garden on account of its style and planting. It is an area of narrow, stony paths winding through a rockwork slope, with narrow water channels and informal pools. Next to the largest pond is a yew arbour with stone seats and over it is a single-arched stone bridge with balustrading. Another, smaller stone bridge leads a path over a watercourse. Planting includes acers, azaleas, rhododendrons and hydrangeas. The walled kitchen garden is situated at the foot of the garden, in the south-east corner. It is accessed through large double wooden gates or via an adjacent pedestrian entrance. Another pedestrian access through a double ornamental cast iron gate provides access between the walled garden and the main gardens. The walled garden is a large almost rectangular (except for the southwest corner) sloping garden bounded by high brick walls with terracotta copings, which step down on the east and west to accommodate the slope. The interior is subdivided by cross paths into rectangular beds. There is evidence for fruit growing along all four walls, in the form of nails and wires. In the north-east corner are remains of cold frames and adjacent to them, a well, the water source for the kitchen garden. The coach house (with a date stone of 1906) and other outhouses, all of the same red brick as the garden walls, lie just outside the north-west corner of the garden. A house, Wood Cottage, is built into the east wall of the walled garden. This is thought to have served as the gardener’s cottage. Significant Views: Situated in an elevated position giving extensive views of Cardiff and the coast from the house and garden front. Sources: Cadw 2016, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)76(CDF))