6645

 

II*  

Designated  

28/09/1961  

15/12/1995  

Garden gatepiers to a cross terrace in the formal W gardens at Old Gwernyfed  

 

Powys  

Gwernyfed  

 

Felindre  

318185  

236567  

 

Located approximately 60m W of the SW wing of the W elevation of Old Gwernyfed house, on a cross terrace of the garden earthworks, laid out SSW to NNE, tangentially to and overlooked by the house.  

Domestic  

 

The extensive (3.5 hectares) of gardens at Old Gwernyfed were laid out in 1604 at the time of the marriage of Harry Williams to Eleanor Whitney, a wedding poem in Brecon/Radnoshire border dialect of Welsh being written for the occasion. The gatepiers are the remains of a walled parterre, below three terraces at the N end, and flanked an axial drive leading NW beyond a fishpond to a round-point from which avenues radiated. The gardens contained various water features, some of which survive to the S of the piers.  

Ornamental garden gate piers of c1604, almost identical to those of Hay-on-Wye castle. The square piers are of channel-rusticated limestone ashlar, with stepped necking mouldings, an arcaded frieze and moulded cornice. Stepped pyramidal cap carries a fluted square pedestal to a ball finial. To either side the rubble garden walls survives for approximately 1.5m as piers within the garden, and contain one apse-headed niche each side facing back towards the house. Within the reveals, pintles for double gates opening into the gardens. Within the garden, the terrace is approximately 100m wide, ending with a splayed gate opening 3m wide opposite the piers, set within a rubble garden wall, and taking the driveway out of the formal garden.  

 

Included at Grade II* as a important surviving element of one of the finest relict Jacobean gardens in Wales undamaged by later alterations. Within the scheduled area of Scheduled Ancient Monument B193.