PGW(C)57(WRE)

Gredington Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Wrexham  

Hanmer  

344623  

338769  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; informal garden with some formal elements; Japanese garden; walled kitchen gardens  

Early nineteenth century; late nineteenth-early twentieth century  

Gredington is located to the south-east of Wrexham, close to the English border. It is registered for the historical interest of its medium-sized landscape park and gardens, and for its Japanese garden. Group value is provided by the lodge and listed gates at the north-east entrance (Grade II, LB1666). Most of the landscape development here dates from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but includes eighteenth-century elements. The park is an irregular oval, bounded by public roads on the north and west, by Hanmer Mere on the north-east, and elsewhere by woodland and farmland. It provides a setting for the present house as it did for its now-demolished predecessor. There are two entrances off the Hanmer-Overton road, on the north side of the park. The north-eastern listed one is disused, the drive is grassed over. Further west is the present main entrance with ornate features and a lodge (Penley Lodge). A winding tarmac drive runs southwards to the house towards the southern end of the park. The small pavilion called 'Park Lodge' lies on the drive to the north-east of the house. The park is largely pasture on undulating ground with many isolated mature deciduous trees scattered throughout. Some of the oaks are in lines, suggesting former field boundaries; relict ridge-and-furrow is present. Areas of semi-natural deciduous and planted coniferous woodland lie around the western and southern fringes. Fir Orchard wood, to the north-west of the house, contains some mature conifers. The garden is mainly to the south and north-east of the house, on ground sloping gently to the south and west. The core of the garden area consists of three walled enclosures, former kitchen gardens, to the north of which is the stable court. The pleasure garden lies around them and consists of several distinct garden areas. The drive enters from the north-east down a wide spacious lawn bounded by trees and shrubs. It leads to a small forecourt on the north side of the new house. Yew hedging bounds the drive to the east of the house and opposite is a small sunken formal garden. An informal woodland garden lies in a narrow strip east of the stable court. To its south, alongside the southernmost kitchen garden, is the ‘Boar Garden’ comprising lawns, ornamental trees, yew hedging and gravel paths. The area south of the walled gardens was perhaps once an orchard but is now largely informal rough grass with ancient trees and old fruit trees. In the angle between the two southern kitchen gardens is a small rectangular formal garden, the 'Blue Garden'. The western end of the south part of the garden is more densely wooded, with some large conifers and rhododendrons. In the south-west corner is the Japanese garden. This consists of a roughly circular pond with a gravel path around it and with a small island near the east side reached by an arched wooden Japanese bridge. Planting includes bamboos, an acer, a large birch and a weeping ash. Just south of the pond is a well preserved ice-house under an earthen mound. To the north is a smaller pond and a rockery screened from the walled garden to the east by a row of yews. Finally, a small enclosure on the west side of the main kitchen garden is known as the 'Rose Garden', a rectangular area surrounded by brick walls, and within it a pergola and a half-timbered single-storey store room. The garden is laid out mainly to lawn with wall borders. The conjoining kitchen gardens are surrounded by brick walls up to 3.5m high. The largest, square, enclosure on the north is now entirely grassed over. To the south-east is a trapezoidal enclosure, its north-west corner taken out by the south-east corner of the northern garden. It is largely under cultivation. The north end is used as a yard, the rest is plant beds, with bothies, greenhouses, and sunk glasshouse footings within it. To its west is the third enclosure, south of the square garden, and is the most recent part of the walled gardens, dating to after 1871. The interior is grassed over, planted with trees and grazed, and has an old fruit store in it, once thatched. Setting - The park and gardens are located in rolling borderland countryside. Significant views - The position of the house near the west side of the garden gives fine views from it out across the undulating ground of the park park to the west. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 96-9 (ref: PGW(C)57(WRE)). Google Maps satellite imagery (accessed 26.07.2021)