PGW(C)48(DEN)

Plas Newydd, Llangollen  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Denbighshire  

Llangollen  

321857  

341635  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal romantic garden; formal garden  

1780-1831; 1890-1910.  

Plas Newydd and its gardens, now a public park, are located in Llangollen on the south side of the Dee valley. They are registered for the survival of most of the structure of the late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century gardens of Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the so-called 'Ladies of Llangollen' in the Picturesque style. In their time the gardens were thought to be a fine example of romantic gardening and were much visited. Group value arises from the Grade II* Listed Plas Newydd house, and with the following Grade II Listed structures: a dairy west of the house (1128), a font on the west boundary (1130), a high cross stem in the forecourt (1129), a dovecot (1131), and the former coach house (1132). Plas Newydd is situated on high ground on the south side of Llangollen, above the narrow valley of the river Cufflymen to the east. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby made the gardens between 1780 and 1831. When they arrived the house was surrounded by fields, and throughout their time at Plas Newydd the ground in front of the house remained a field, separated from the house by simple low wooden railings. Their idea in settling here was to lead a life of rustic simplicity, which included gardening. The garden they created was strongly influenced by romantic literature and by writings on the picturesque. Next to the house, to the north-east, they made a shrubbery with winding raked gravel paths. In 1785 they built a small dairy to the west of the house. Much planting took place, and wooden boards with romantic quotations gleaned from continental writings were attached to trees. A gravel walk around the upper garden, the 'Home Circuit' was established, taking in the shrubbery, dairy, fowl yard, drying green and gardens. In 1784 a new kitchen garden was made, a new rustic 'shed' built, and they began to tinker with the river in the lower garden to make it more romantic. By the early 1790s the garden was already greatly admired. Rustic embellishments made the gardens, both upper and lower, more romantic. They included Lady Eleanor's bower overlooking the valley, rustic bridges, a bird-cote, fencing, and seats. The sides of the valley were cleared and planted with a long birch avenue, and a font from Valle Crucis Abbey was set in a wall in a shady place in the valley bottom, with water dripping into it and ferns and mosses around it. Further work was done in 1799 on reshaping the river into cascades and pools. By 1800 the garden was essentially complete. The gardens lie to the south, east and north-east of the house and fall into two distinct parts: the upper garden to the north-east and south of the house, now mostly formal; and the lower garden in the Cufflymen valley to the east, referred to as The Dell. The gardens have changed greatly since their original appearance, mainly through the work of General John Yorke of Erddig in the later nineteenth century. Then, between 1890 and 1910 when owned by Mr G.H. Robertson, the formal garden in front of the house was created, and in 1908 a Gorsedd circle erected on the lawn next to it for the National Eisteddfod. Despite the removal of rustic and romantic adornments and of the plantings of flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants, the basic structure of the original gardens remains, and they have not been encroached on. The gardens occupy a roughly oval area, elongated north-south, and are entered from the south-west along a winding drive flanked by large beech trees. The upper garden is mostly on level ground to the south of the house. In front of the house is a line of yew topiary and beyond it a circular formal parterre of box-edged beds and golden yew mounds, with the base of Chester High Cross (fifteenth-century) in the centre, flanked by two stone fonts from Valle Crucis Abbey and Llangollen parish church. To the west is a laurel hedge and a tree and shrub border along the boundary. On the south is a lawn bounded by yew topiary and evergreen shrubs and trees and with a Gorsedd circle. Steps on the east side of the lawn lead to a path down to the top of the lower garden. Nearby stands a tall half-timbered water tower, built by General Yorke and a small stone pavilion, the 'Bards' Memorial' of 1958. It stands on the site of General Yorke's peacock house. To its south are some outbuildings (stores and a greenhouse). A large rectangular lawn to the south with a raised walk is bounded by hedges. A shrubbery of trees and underplanting at the south end lies above the steep ravine of the Cufflymen. North-east of the house is a narrow sloping lawn with golden yews, bounded on the north-west by a laurel hedge, modern paths and flowerbeds next to the house. To the south-east are evergreen shrubs and trees, and at the north-west end a shrubbery of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees and shrubs, a survival of the original design. It is bounded on the north-east side by a revetment wall and beyond it a meadow sloping down to the river. The lower garden in the Cufflymen valley runs south-north to the east of the upper garden, and is accessed by paths from above. This is a wilder, more 'romantic' woodland garden, laid out informally. At the top of the northernmost path is a recent belvedere, constructed on the site of Lady Eleanor's bower, with views out over the valley. Paths in the valley bottom wind along both sides of the river crossing it by three small single-arched bridges. At the eastern end of the southernmost bridge a stone wall contains a font from Valle Crucis Abbey set in an alcove. Above it is an iron pipe, now dry, which originally fed the font from the spring behind it. On either side of the alcove are two inscribed poems initialled 'E B S P / 1782' (Eleanor Butler, Sarah Ponsonby). Flanking the wall are angled stone benches, and in front is a narrow stone-flagged terrace. There is no trace of the birch avenue planted by Eleanor and Sarah. A recent National Lottery Heritage Fund project, Our Picturesque Landscape, has funded works to restore The Dell and enhance its rustic, picturesque character, including stone wall repairs, vegetation management and new planting (including a birch avenue) and opening up views. Setting - Although now surrounded by developments related to the urban expansion of Llangollen the gardens have been largely unaffected, and still provide a setting for the house. Significant views - Views towards Castell Dinas Bran to the north. From the balcony of the belvedere above the Cufflymen there are views out over the valley. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 208-11 (ref: PGW(C)48(DEN)).