20457

 

II  

Designated  

08/09/1998  

30/09/1999  

Eastern Walled Kitchen Garden  

 

Gwynedd  

Llandwrog  

 

Glynllifon  

245558  

355426  

 

Situated to east of the road up to the estate farm.  

Domestic  

 

The kitchen gardens were laid out by the 2nd Lord Newborough, the easternmost (the nearest to the house) of which was complete before 1824. The 1761 dated plaque on the south side is therefore misleading - it was presumably originally on the C18 walled garden south of the house. Glynllifon was the seat of the Wynn family and Sir Thomas John Wynn became the 1st Lord Newborough in 1776. The house was rebuilt after a fire 1836-48 by Edward Haycock, architect of Shrewsbury.  

Typically these garden walls are rubble to the outside and English garden-wall bond red-brick on the inner side, with slate coping. There is some evidence, especially to the north, to suggest that the walls have been heightened - now approximately 3m high. On the west side the wall adjoins the current machinery workshops and has a brick pointed arch with boarded gate. Nearer its north end is a small round arched doorway with stone surround and a blocked opening almost at the corner with the north side. Against the north side of the garden are the remains of the boiler house retaining its red brick chimney stack. At the north-east corner is a derelict area with three further pointed arches; the central one is tall, presumably for a cart, and is surmounted by a plaque inscribed 'Victoria Jubilee 1897'. The wall returns back down the east side roughly parallel to a farm track. The south end wall is parallel with the cold frames on the back of the quadrangular complex and opposite the small gardeners' cottage. Over the arched entrance midway along this side is the inscribed slate plaque reading "This walled garden was made by Sir John Wynn Bart in the year 1761". As previously described this presumably relates to the C18 walled garden (?1751) and is further incorrect as Sir Thomas Wynn was the baronet in 1761 rather than his father Sir John.  

This garden was originally sub-divided into four unequal parts, those to the south being larger. The Peach House is against the north wall and was restored in 1991; lean-to Plum House to left. Further south is the melon pit which has had the woodwork and glass renewed but retains the original ironwork, pipework, slate flooring and humidity trays for the top of the hot pipes. It was designed by Foster and Pearson. The sundial was moved from the central garden where it stood in the middle. This garden was linked to the next walled garden to the west via an underground tunnel that ran under the road up to the farm. The tunnel was entered midway along the west side under a red brick segmental arch with voussoirs and arch ring. The tunnel itself is segmental vaulted and faced in yellow brick; it turns at right angles to south before rising into the next garden.  

Listed for its special interest as the best preserved of the walled gardens at Glynllifon and for group value with the many listed items within this especially well-preserved C19 estate.