PGW(Gt)9(MON)

Abergavenny Castle  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

329962  

213948  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Picturesque walk and landscaping at medieval castle ruins.  

c. 1800; late nineteenth century.  

Abergavenny Castle is registered for the early nineteenth-century landscaping around the medieval castle ruins with Picturesque walks and gardens and affording extensive views over the Usk Valley. Further landscaping took place in the later nineteenth century when the castle grounds became a public park. The registered park and garden has important group value with the castle (scheduled monument MM056; LB: 2376), the early nineteenth-century shooting box (LB: 86811), late nineteenth-century lodge (LB: 86897) and the entrance gate, gatepiers and boundary wall (LB: 86805). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, c.1800, the grounds were landscaped with Picturesque walks created within the curtain walls. The walk around the south end of the castle was created at this time and possibly the winding walk ascending the motte. Mavor (1806) describes ‘a terrace walk, conducted round the site it occupied, commanding the charming vale through which the Uske meanders, shews much taste, and must be an agreeable promenade for the inhabitants.’ In 1818/19 a shooting box was built on the castle motte by Lord Abergavenny. It was later used to provide refreshments when the grounds became a public park and is now the home of Abergavenny museum. A formal garden was laid out in the later nineteenth-century when works were carried out by William Nevill, 5th earl and 19th Lord of Abergavenny, as a 'place of recreation' for the general public. The entrance lodge probably dates to this phase of development. The grounds were taken over by the Abergavenny Improvement Commissioners in 1881 and became a public garden. Early photographs show an elaborate layout of winding paths and beds outside the northwest curtain wall, also shown on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1920). The curtain wall and towers were embellished with rustic fence-work, lookouts and gazebos, including a walk lined with rustic fencing along the top of the curtain wall. This is all now lost. The OS map shows further walks through the outer ward. The bailey bank appears to have been modified and terraced as part of this layout with a walk along it giving views back across the town against the backdrop of the Sugarloaf. The castle grounds remain in use as a public park. Setting: Situated above the river Usk and to the southwest of the historic core of Abergavenny. The registered park and garden is located with Abergavenny Conservation Area. Significant Views: Views to the south and west across Castle Meadows and the River Usk, and towards the Blorenge. Views to the north across the town and towards the Sugarloaf. The castle and shooting lodge are also prominent landmarks in the local landscape. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, p.3 (ref: PGW (Gt) 9) Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map of Monmouthshire, sheet VI.15 (1901). RCAHMW air photos 945076/46-7; 965104/57-8.  

PGW(Gt)55(MON)

Abergavenny Priory Deer Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

328443  

217784  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Medieval monastic deer park.  

Twelfth to fifteenth century.  

Registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved example of a medieval deer park with almost complete boundary bank and internal ditch and some surviving boundary wall. The deer park is thought to have belonged to the Benedictine priory of Abergavenny. The priory was founded soon after the Norman Conquest by Hamelin de Balun but at what stage in the priory's history the deer park was formed is not known. The deer park covers an area of 5-600 acres situated on the south-east flank of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, between the Rholben and Deri ridges. It lies at the head of the steep-sided valley of the Afon Cibi. The park pale runs near the summit of the ridges, round the top of the valley at the north end, and across it at the south end. It encloses a roughly rectangular area consisting of open moorland on the highest parts, with open oak woodland, scattered trees, and pasture fields below. In places the bank is surmounted or revetted with a drystone wall. The southern side runs straight across the valley. In the valley bottom it has been reduced to a field boundary, visible only as a slight bank, topped by field hedges. Along the west, for most of its length, it is well-preserved, with a flat-topped bank revetted with an outer drystone wall and with a steep-sided inner ditch. Halfway along the west side, to the north of a more recent cross field wall, the boundary becomes a steep-sided bank, c. 1-2m high. A low bank runs parallel to it (approximately 3-4m inside it) as far as the wide gap where a track comes in from the west. It may be the remains of an earlier boundary. Just to the north of the wide track, inside the bank, is a short stretch of wide cross bank with a drystone revetment wall on its south side and a slight ditch to the north. This appears contemporary with the park boundary, but its relationship to it is unclear. The boundary continues as a steep-sided bank to the north end of the park, where there is a further gap through which a track runs into the park from the moorland. The bank continues along the east side, at the north end of which it runs through woodland, and is very overgrown. In the middle of this side the bank is topped by a later field wall. The park is traversed by a number of stony tracks, some of which are probably contemporary with the deer park. Two tracks enter the park from the south leading to Park Lodge, with branches leading to the park boundary at the gaps in the west and the north. The western track passes Porth-y-parc (gateway to the park) just south of the registered area boundary. The track continues north to Park Lodge Farmhouse (LB: 86798). It is set into the hillside, and has two stone barns (LB: 86812). Above the barns is a small wedge-shaped pond. Setting: Situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park and above the town of Abergavenny. The deer park covers a steeply sloping area situated on the south-east flank of the Sugarloaf Mountain between the Rholben and Deri ridges. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, p.7 (ref: PGW (Gt) 55)  

PGW(Gt)60(MON)

Bailey Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

330089  

214638  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Urban Public Park  

1884  

Registered as a good example of a late Victorian public park, surviving in its entirety, which makes an important contribution to the townscape of Abergavenny. Bailey Park was laid out for the town by the prominent local ironmaster, Crawshay Bailey in 1884 and was intended for public access from the outset. From 1890 the park passed out of the Crawshay Bailey Estate and into local authority ownership and management. The park has both ornamental and sporting components. The imposing main entrance, through wrought-iron gates (LB:80881) lies towards the south end of the east side, set back from the B4521 Hereford Road. The park is rectangular and lies on ground sloping gently to the south. The central part is largely open, taken up by sports pitches and a bowling green. Around the perimeter are trees (both deciduous and conifers), paths and small areas of garden. To the north a small area of the park extends westwards and is laid out as a formal garden, with island beds and a few specimen trees, enclosed by iron railings and hedges, and flanked along the south side by a wide tarmac path edged with stones. To the north of the garden is a small compartment with derelict glasshouses beyond which is a small, disused and derelict concrete-walled lido (1939) with changing rooms and café. The north side of the park is laid out with a belt of mainly evergreen planting along the boundary and two bowling greens. Setting: Bailey Park is the main public open space in Abergavenny. It is situated just to the north of the centre of Abergavenny on the west side of the Hereford Road. The surrounding roads are mostly residential. Sources Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, additional and revised entries part 1 (ref: PGW(Gt)60(MON).  

PGW(Gt)11(MON)

Bertholey House  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llantrisant Fawr  

339682  

194561  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Early nineteenth-century landscape park; remains of nineteenth-century pleasure garden, wild garden and walled kitchen garden.  

c.1795-c.1830; second half nineteenth century.  

Registered as an example of a small early nineteenth-century landscape park surviving in its entirety and incorporating the remains of a nineteenth-century pleasure garden and remnants of a wild garden and a large walled kitchen garden in the grounds. The registered park and garden has group value with the ruins of Bertholey House (LB: 22918), outbuildings (LB: 22919; 23868) and dovecote (LB: 22920). The park is situated on rolling ground on the east side of the Usk valley. From the house, views stretch over the park to the west and over the Usk valley. The park is relatively small (but extended to 393 hectares in 1895) and consists largely of rolling pasture with isolated deciduous trees and a few clumps. The original drive from the west is still in use but the original entrance off the minor Llantrisant-Caerleon road has been cut off by the A449 which has sliced across the drive. The main area of woodland in the park is Garden Wood to the north of the house. It was landscaped with walks, ponds and planting. The walled kitchen garden is situated to the northeast of Garden Wood, at some distance from the house. The park was landscaped and the garden made at the same time that the new house was built, in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. The garden can be divided into two sections: the remains of the pleasure garden immediately around the house, to its west and south, and the wild garden in Garden Wood to the north. The pleasure garden is relatively small, enclosed largely by iron dwarf fencing. The main entrance, on the west side, is flanked by iron gate piers and curving railings. In the north corner steps lead down to a short stone-lined tunnel leading to Garden Wood. The 1847 Sale Particulars show that at this time an elaborate garden was in place, with a circular pond and ‘lawn, gravel walks and flowerbeds, thickly planted with fine standard trees and shrubs.’ Garden Wood is an irregularly-shaped area of semi-natural woodland to the north of the house. The wood is entered from the garden via the tunnel, and from the drive through an archway in a stone wall. It had begun to be developed as a landscaped area by the time of the 1847 Sale Particulars, which mention the walk through it to the kitchen garden at its northeast end. However, it is thought that the ponds and evergreen planting probably date from later in the nineteenth century, as the ponds are not mentioned in the 1847 Sale Particulars, nor do they appear on the 1887 six-inch OS map. It would appear that Garden Wood was developed as a wild woodland garden towards the end of the nineteenth century. The kitchen garden lies 0.4km northeast of the house, beyond Garden Wood. It was reached from the house by two paths, a direct one through the field and a winding one through Garden Wood. Traces of both remain. In the 1847 Sale Particulars it was described as a 'capital walled kitchen garden' with a fishpond in the centre, and well stocked with wall and standard fruit trees, a grapery, an outside shed, a second garden, a gardener's house (3-room), a wash-house and a tool-house. The brick walls, with curved corners, stand more or less to their full height (c.2.5 m.). The interior layout has gone. Significant Views: Views west over the park and across the Usk Valley. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 17-18 (ref: PGW (Gt)11(MON)).  

PGW(Gt)12(MON)

Brynderwen  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanarth  

335504  

206952  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Nineteenth-century landscape park; Edwardian garden; walled kitchen garden.  

Nineteenth/early twentieth century.  

Brynderwen lies to the south-east of Abergavenny on the east bank of the River Usk. It is registered for its historic interest as a small, well-preserved, landscape park with an Edwardian pleasure garden and a walled kitchen garden. The park was laid out at the same time as the main house was built in 1820. Its linear layout extends from the River Usk on the west to the Usk-Clytha road on the east where the entrance with lodge opens onto a drive which winds through the park to the house on the west. The landscape is rolling, with a steep drop to the west of the garden to the river flood plain. The park is now farmed as pasture but there are a good number of isolated mature oaks and limes and four large mature wellingtonias, and a large clump of mixed trees south of the drive. The remains of an ancient oak once famed for its enormous girth (and which gave its name to the park), lies at the west end of the drive. The garden area lies around the house but mostly to its south, on level ground slightly lower than the house. It is divided into several compartments: a wide terrace around the south-west and north-west sides of the house with steps down on both sides; to the south-west a large expanse of lawn bounded on its south-west side by a yew hedge, beyond which is a further grassed garden (formerly the rose garden) with a path through it bounded by herbaceous borders backed by espalier apples. To its south are tennis courts and a small tennis pavilion (1920s), on the site of the orchard. East of the large lawn is an area of ornamental woodland planted mainly with specimen conifers. To the north of the house is an area of mainly deciduous woodland. The kitchen garden is a large, roughly square walled garden about 200m south of the house. It is a replacement for a predecessor, on the same site. An inscription over the south door reads '1895. Erected by James Crispin FRHS and Sons, Horticultural engineers, Bristol'. The walls stand to their full height of 2m and are of stone lined internally with brick. There are several entrances. The interior was laid out with a perimeter gravel path and box-edged cross paths dividing the garden into four quarters. These have now gone and remodelling of the interior saw the installation of a circular lily pond and bog garden. Against the outside of the south wall are two lean-to vineries and other utilitarian brick buildings; there was once extensive glass on either side of this wall. Setting - Brynderwen is located in the Usk valley, in a rural area surrounded by farmland. Significant views - its fine position on the east bank of the River Usk, above the river floodplain, affords views extending out over the surrounding scenery. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 20-1 (ref: PGW (Gt)12(MON)). Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map: sheets Monmouthshire XIX.2 & XIII.14 (1899). Google satellite imagery.  

PGW(Gt)63(MON)

Cefn Ila  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanbadoc  

336195  

200429  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced garden; informal woodland garden; orchard; walled kitchen garden  

1865; 1925  

Cefn Ila is registered for its historic interest as a good example of a Victorian garden, surviving it its entirety, with most of its structure intact, despite the loss of the house. The registered area comprises a formal terrace garden, an informal woodland garden, an orchard including some old apple and pear trees, and a well-preserved walled kitchen garden. An important aspect of the garden is the Victorian plantings of ornamental trees and shrubs, now fine mature specimens, including some rarities. The original house, belonged to the Williams family of Llangibby Castle, a few kilometres to the south. This house was bought in about 1846 by Edward J. Trelawney, a friend of the poets Shelley and Byron. In about 1865 it was bought by Edward Lister, who was recorded as ‘of Cefn Ila’ in 1869. He rebuilt and enlarged the house, with the help of ‘Mr Waterhouse’, who was probably a local builder. In 1885 Edward’s son Joseph died in a riding accident and the house and estate were sold by his widow. By the turn of the century Cefn Ila belonged to a French nobleman, Gerard Ducarel, 4th Marquis de la Pasture. In 1925 Cefn Ila went into institutional use when it was annexed to Pontypool Hospital and opened as The Kate Ayres Gustard Convalescent Home for women and children. From 1939 it was used as a sick bay for evacuated children; in 1947 it became a maternity home. The hospital finally closed on 3rd September 1973. Eleven days later it was burnt to the ground. The house site, garden, walled garden and part of the original park were sold to the Woodland Trust in 2007. The approach to Cefn Ila is from a minor road to the south. On the east side of the entrance is a small two-storey, stone lodge. The drive crosses the river over a single-arched stone bridge. In the river is a sluice on the upstream side, forming a small cascade, which creates a pleasing sound effect and is almost undoubtedly a deliberate piece of landscaping, designed to enhance the experience of crossing the bridge. The drive climbs the hill towards the house and garden, flanked in part by iron park fencing. On either side is relict parkland. To the west it has been planted as mixed woodland by the Woodland Trust. A large Cedar of Lebanon stands on the east side of the entrance to the grounds and at this point a subsidiary drive leads off to the west. Iron gateposts survive in the fence on the west side of the drive. The main drive winds uphill through the wooded gardens to a level area. The house stood on this platform. The drive swept around the east side of the house and led to the stable block to the north. The platform is bounded on the east side by a steep slope with battered dry-stone revetment walling at its foot. In front of the house, on its south side, was a level lawn. The gardens can be divided into two sections: the terraces immediately adjacent to the house site and the informal wooded grounds beyond. The terraced garden lies to the south and west of the house site. It is no longer lawned, as shown in early twentieth century photographs. The terraces are linked by two flights of steps. They, and a path below the lower flight, are flanked by overgrown yews, suggesting former yew hedges. The wooded part of the garden occupies a large area to the west and south of the house. The drive curves through it, passing banks of rhododendrons. The woodland is dominated by large conifers, including fine specimens of Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica Elegans), Lawson’s cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), Scot’s pine (Pinus sylvestris), Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba), Monkey puzzle (Araucaria arucana), Incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens), Himalayan cedar (Cedrus 4 deodara) and Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica Glauca). Other specimen trees in the woodland include Red horse chestnut (Aesculus Carnea), Evergreen oak (Quercus ilex), lime (Tilia x europea) and yew. At the end of the drive, near the house site, is a huge Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), shown clearly on the lawn in twentieth century photographs. To the north of the garden is an old orchard. The orchard is an area of well-spaced, large old apple trees on the slope and large pear trees at its foot. Near the top of the slope a wide, levelled path runs northwards across the slope to a handsome doorway in the south wall of the kitchen garden. The doorway has a cut stone surround and a wooden door, which appears original. The kitchen garden is rectangular, enclosed by roughly coursed, mortared stone walls, with flagstone coping. Along the outside of the east wall are two ruined stone bothies. The general layout of Lister’s gardens is shown on the first edition 25 in. Ordnance Survey map of 1886-87. This shows the gardens, set in parkland to the east, west and south, with their present configuration of winding drive, wooded southern half of the garden, terracing to the south and west of the house, orchard and kitchen garden. The photograph also shows a pond (which has recently been restored) and well in the valley floor to the west, below the terraces. Much of the substantial planting of trees and shrubs in the gardens can be attributed to Edward Lister. Setting: Cefn Ila is located in rolling countryside in an isolated situation about 1.5 km to the west of Usk. To the north the ground rises to a low ridge and to the south it drops to a small river valley running eastwards to the river Usk. Sources: Cadw 2013: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales Ordnance Survey, 25-inch sheet Monmouthshire XXIV.2 (1882) Ordnance Survey, 6-inch sheet Monmouthshire XXIV (1887)  

PGW(Gt)31(MON)

Cefn Tilla  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Raglan  

340680  

203266  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park, terraced and informal gardens, walled kitchen garden.  

Seventeenth century; 1856.  

Cefn Tilla is registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved mid-nineteenth century small landscape park and garden, with remnants of a formal seventeenth century garden. The site has historical associations with the architect Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77) who re-modelled and extended Cefn Tilla house in 1856-60 for the 2nd Lord Raglan. The park and garden has group value with the listed house (LB: 24741), coach house and court yard (LB:24751) and forecourt walls at Cefn Tilla Court (LB:24750). The park at Cefn Tilla was created in 1856 when the house and some land were bought for the second Lord Raglan. It is a long narrow strip of land lying mainly to the north and south of Cefn Tilla Court; a landscape park in character, with grassland and isolated trees, the ground rolling on a westward-facing slope with Cefn Tilla situated in a hollow. The park is bounded on the east by the Gwernesney-Llandenny road. Until 1933 this was the main drive, now a public road, but it is still partly tree lined. The main entrance now is at the southern end of the park and the tree-lined drive runs along its western boundary up to the north side of the house. To the north a secondary drive crosses the park north-east/south-west from an entrance on the Gwernesney-Llandenny road. The garden lies to the south, east and north-east of Cefn Tilla Court and was created in two main phases; in the seventeenth century and soon after 1856. The rectangular area enclosed by dry-stone walling south of the house probably represents the extent of the original seventeenth-century garden. The rest of the garden layout - the terracing and topiary walk east of the house, the arboretum, the outer paths and forecourt - belongs to the mid nineteenth-century phase, as does much of the tree and some of the shrub planting. The informal arboretum to the north-east of the house retains some of its Victorian feel with more recent planting of trees and shrubs. Some of the largest trees date from the 1850s and a few Victorian rhododendrons remain, though only a relic of their former extent. A small ornamental pond in this area has been enlarged and deepened. There is evidence that the ground to the north of the house was originally sloping and that it was raised and levelled in the 1850s using a considerable depth of rubble and soil. About 100m south of the house is the walled kitchen garden of nineteenth century date. Square in shape, its brick walls surviving to full height with doorways in the centre of each wall, and lean-to bothies of brick and slate against the outside of the north wall. To the north is an outer garden, also of nineteenth century date, which used to contain hothouses as shown on the 25” Ordnance Survey map of 1882. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, 22-3 (ref: PGW(Gt)31.  

PGW(Gt)43(MON)

Chapel House, Monmouth  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Monmouth  

350888  

213223  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal walled terraced town garden.  

c. 1700.  

The garden at Chapel House in Monmouth is registered for its historic interest as a rare example of a substantial terraced town garden dating to the early eighteenth-century and of importance for its group value with the listed Chapel House and its railings, gates and garden walls. The garden of Chapel House lies to its west on the steep slope between the house (Cadw LB: 2309) and the river Monnow. On the street boundary is a small forecourt bounded on the east side by iron railings and entered via double ironwork gates. The railings are flanked by high red brick walls (Cadw LB: 2310). A wide central flagstone path leads to semi-circular steps up to the front door of the house. The garden to the west of the house is bounded by high brick walls, and there are two small garden compartments on either side of the house also bounded by high brick walls. A wide, lawned terrace with gravel path, built out over the slope and revetted by a substantial buttressed brick wall, runs the full length of the garden, parallel with the west front of the house. Steps descend to a path running along the foot of the revetment wall, below which is a steep tree and shrub-covered slope, with two paths running diagonally down it from the steps. Below is more gently sloping ground next to the river, formerly an orchard. A levelled area of lawn, formerly a lawn tennis court, lies at the north end. There are some substantial trees, both deciduous and coniferous, in the garden, and particularly on the slope below the terrace. The garden was described in 1804 (Heath) as spacious with lots of fruit and an extensive lawn. A map of 1835 shows the present layout plus an orangery. The latter was a substantial building the brick footings of which are visible against the boundary wall at the north end of the upper terrace. The map also shows a further area of garden, probably an orchard, to the north. Setting and Significant View: To the west across the water meadows of the river Monnow. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, 96-7 (ref: PGW(Gt)43.  

PGW(Gt)61(MON)

Chepstow Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Devauden  

349156  

197696  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Medieval deer park; seventeenth-century deer park and deer course, with lodge.  

About 1270s; about 1630  

Registered as an unusually well-preserved and well-delineated deer park that belonged to Chepstow Castle. The park has two distinct phases of development. In the medieval period it was a simple deer park bounded by a wooden fence. In the 1630s it was walled and probably used for deer coursing; the one mile track probably ran from the entrance at Pen-y-Parc to the now ruined lodge. The deer park has group value with scheduled monument Chepstow Park Wood Moated Site (MM103) which comprises the remains of a moated hunting lodge situated in a central position in the park. The deer park is situated to the northwest of Chepstow Castle to the west of the Wye valley. The park is bounded on the north side by the Devauden to Chepstow road and on the west side by the Devauden to Itton road. The park is bounded by a more or less continuous drystone rubble wall and the boundary can be traced in its entirety. There are six possible principal medieval entrance points and several further minor ones that may be medieval in origin. The park is largely taken up with commercially managed coniferous plantations but amongst these are pockets of deciduous native woodland. Within the park are a number of built structures. The most significant is the deer park lodge (MM103) situated on high ground in the centre of the park, from which there would have been extensive views south towards Chepstow. The site consists of a circular earthwork, about 50m in diameter, within which are a ruined building and vaulted spring. There are two spring-fed ponds on the higher ground in the middle of the park. A short distance to their south-west is a small reservoir, probably dating to the nineteenth-century. To the southwest of Pen-y-Parc, close to the park boundary, is a substantial raised platform. It is roughly rectangular and faces eastwards, out from the park. The east side is about 4.5m wide and 1.4m high and is faced with a rubble stone wall with splayed ends. The park was established under Roger Bigod (1245-1306). The first references to the park are in accounts of 1283, which refer to the wages of two parkers. It is therefore likely that the park was established shortly beforehand, probably in the 1270s. From the records, which continue until 1303/04, we know that the park was bounded by a tall fence of wooden palings that required frequent repair. There are references to an entrance gate that was fitted in 1288/89 and given a new lock in 1299/1300. No mention is made in the medieval accounts of a park lodge. The second major phase of development came in the 1630s when the fifth earl of Worcester of Raglan Castle, who owned the land at that time, enclosed the park with a drystone wall. The wall followed the medieval boundary. A keeper of the park was included in a list of the earl’s officers, implying the management of deer. The reason for the park’s re-enclosure and stocking by the earl of Worcester may have been to set up a deer course with the lodge in use as a deer coursing grandstand. Source: Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, additional and revised entries part 1, 39-41 (ref: PGW(Gt)61(MON).  

PGW(Gt)6(MON)

Chippenham  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Monmouth  

350765  

212455  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Medieval common; early twentieth-century public park.  

Common - medieval; public park 1909.  

Chippenham is a public park lying on level low ground in the centre of Monmouth in the angle between the Rivers Wye and Monnow. It is registered for its historic interest as an historic common in the centre of Monmouth, later laid out as a public park. Formerly 18ha (45 acres) in extent its area has been curtailed in the twentieth century by the building of the A40, which cuts off the section nearest the River Wye from the rest (this part is now allotments and flood plain pasture) and by the conversion of the part nearest Monnow Street to car parks. The history of Chippenham as a public open space goes back to the medieval period. Horse racing took place on Chippenham throughout the nineteenth century and probably earlier. A map of 1835 shows no paths. The Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1902) shows five paths crossing it, two roughly in the position of present-day paths. The main part of the park is a large level grassed area crossed by three straight paths lined with deciduous trees; mainly lime with some sycamore. These were laid out and planted initially in 1909 by the Improvement Association. The southern end of Chippenham is occupied by a sports ground, bowling green and tennis courts and Ordnance Survey maps show that it was not used as a sports ground until the late 1960s, when the sports ground, bowling green, tennis courts, putting green and a swimming pool were added. Setting: Located in the centre of Monmouth and within the Monmouth Conservation Area. There are fairly uninterrupted views to the east and south-east towards the rural backdrop of wooded hills beyond. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.99 (ref: PGW (Gt)37).  

PGW(Gt)15(MON)

Clytha Park  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanarth  

336439  

209013  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Medium-sized late eighteenth-century landscape park, ornamental garden (part twentieth-century) and kitchen garden.  

1790s; 1821-28.  

Clytha Park is registered grade I as a very fine late eighteenth-century landscape park with well-preserved castellated eye-catcher folly, the structural remains of an ornamental garden and walled kitchen garden. It has historical associations with the eighteenth century architect and garden designer John Davenport. The registered park and garden shares important group value with Clytha Park house and its associated estate buildings and structures. Clytha House (LB: 1966) is a two-storey neo-classical building of Bath stone, built for William Jones the younger by Edward Haycock of Shrewsbury between 1821 and 1828. Clytha Park is a medium-sized landscape park, to the south of the village of Llanarth, just to the east of the river Usk. The northern part lies on low-lying gently undulating ground in the river valley, the southern part on higher ground above it, culminating in the knoll on which the folly, Clytha Castle, stands. The main entrance to the park is at the lodge (LB: 23003; 1967) on the north side of the A40 road and a winding drive leads north-eastwards to the house. The present park was largely made by William Jones the elder in the 1790s. A considerable amount of work was carried out for William Jones on the grounds and garden in the early 1790s by John Davenport, a landscape gardener from Shropshire. He provided both plants and plans, including that for the walled garden. William Jones's work includes the Gothick gateway, screen (designed by John Nash) and lodge at the entrance to the park, and Clytha Castle (LB: 1968), a fine Gothick castellated, largely two-dimensional eye-catcher folly on the top of the hill at the south end of the park, built in memory of his wife (designed by John Davenport). Jones also did a considerable amount of tree planting, some of which survives. It is assumed that the haha was built at the same time as the new house in the 1820s. Further tree planting took place in the nineteenth century, many of which survive as fine, mature specimens. The gardens lie immediately around the house. To the south and west of the house are lawns sloping gently down to the ha-ha, as it was laid out when the new house was built in the 1820s. Apart from the removal of a central path to the ha-ha and fountain (shown on OS first edition) on the south-west side of the house, and a curving path to the north-west of the house, this area is unaltered. To the north-west of the house is an area of mostly informal tree and shrub planting around a roughly rectangular small lake. To the east of the house a ridge of higher ground is planted with deciduous trees and evergreen shrub understorey (the 'shrubbery'). The gardens were laid out in several stages. William Jones the elder, with the help of John Davenport in the early 1790s, is known to have laid out gardens which went with the previous house, but there are no discernible traces of them, except possibly one or two trees. A lake is known to have been in existence in the eighteenth century (and probably earlier) on the site of the present one, but it was dug out further and given a more picturesque outline in the 1820s, when material from it was used to build up the mound that the house was built on. Various alterations were made to the gardens under the direction of H. Avray Tipping in the 1930s. The basic structure remained unchanged, but some more formal elements were added near the lake. The D-shaped walled kitchen garden (LB: 22998) lies to the north-east of the house. Its brick walls stand to their full height and there are entrances on all sides. The garden was designed and built by John Davenport in the early 1790s (including hot-houses). The internal layout, however, with its curving cross paths, may date from the 1830s Significant Views: Views overlooking the park in a northwest to southwest arc from the house and gardens. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 25-26 (ref: PGW (Gt)15). Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map, sheet: Monmouthshire XIII.10 (1882).  

PGW(Gt)30(MON)

Coldbrook House  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanover  

331333  

212678  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park of 18th and 19th centuries, with origins as medieval deer park; partial remains of 16th/17th-century terraced gardens, early nineteenth-century pleasure grounds and Edwardian terraced gardens; eighteenth-century walled kitchen garden.  

Sixteenth/seventeenth centuries (terracing); eighteenth century (park planting, kitchen garden); early nineteenth century (pleasure grounds); late nineteenth to early twentieth century (terraced gardens).  

The registered area at Coldbrook represents the development of the park and garden associated with Coldbrook House (demolished 1954) from the medieval period to the early twentieth-century. The eighteenth and nineteenth-century landscape park has origins as a medieval deer park. The gardens include the partial remains of sixteenth/seventeenth-century terraced gardens, an eighteenth-century walled kitchen garden, early nineteenth-century pleasure grounds and Edwardian terraced gardens. Coldbrook House had its origin in the medieval period, and was one of the most important houses in the county. It was owned by the Herbert family until 1720, when it was sold to Major Hanbury of Pontypool Park. In 1889 it was sold to Lady Llanover, of Llanover House, thus bringing it back to the Herbert family. Coldbrook House was demolished in 1954, and nothing of it remains. It stood in a small valley to the south of the Ysgyryd Fach hill, with a steep slope behind it (to the southeast). The main front was to the northwest, which looked out over the park. The approach was up a drive from the north front of the house to the Abergavenny-Raglan road to the west. The house was surrounded by parkland which was disparked sometime after 1749 when it still had a herd of deer. The stone boundary wall along the south west side of the park is possibly medieval. Trees were planted in the mid eighteenth-century after the park came into the hands of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. New plantations are recorded and late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century visitors talked of the 'well wooded park, and grounds beautifully diversified, and richly clothed with oak, beech, and elm'. Older park features, such as avenues, remained. A 1753 drawing by Meredith Jones shows avenues leading off all four fronts of the house and they survived in part until the early twentieth-century. Planting also took place in the 1820s and 1880s. By 1849 (survey map) the main clumps to the south of the house were in existence, and by 1888 (sale particulars) the park to the north was shown dotted with trees, with part of an avenue, and with the main drive lined with trees. Apart from the avenue these features remain. The park is now rolling pasture dotted with mature clumps and individual trees, mainly deciduous. The main drive is flanked by limes, probably planted in the 1880s, but the early nineteenth-century Gothic lodge at the entrance, on the line of the old road, has been demolished. The gardens and pleasure grounds lie mainly to the east and west of the house site, in the small valley in which the house stood. A stream runs through this valley augmented by springs on either side; to the west of the house, it is dammed to form a small elongated lake. The gardens were developed in three phases. First, probably in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, the steep slope behind (to the south east of) the house was formed into several narrow terraces with stone revetment walls. These survive along with a small cold bath nearby. Later came the development of the pleasure grounds to the east and west of the house on either side of the stream valley, either in the mid eighteenth century when 'new plantations' were planned in 1754, or from the early nineteenth century. But by 1849 the pleasure grounds (‘shrubberies and plantations’), lake and kitchen garden were in existence, with an open lawn area north-west of the house, with the stream running along the boundary between lawn and park. The pleasure grounds were planted with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees and shrubs but most were destroyed in gales during the early 1990s. Other features present include an artificial waterfall and two small ponds. Finally, after the gardens passed to the Llanover estate in 1889, the area to the east of the house (north of the stream) was formalised into terraced gardens with paved walks and steps by Lady Llanover. The stream was canalised with revetment walls and a mini waterfall. An overgrown yew tunnel walk remains. A chapel was built to the south of the stream (LB: 87654). It is thought to be on the site of an earlier, medieval chapel, which was converted into a grotto/bath-house. Bradney reported this ruined in 1906 and turned into a bathing place. The walled kitchen garden is situated north of the lake, between the lake and the stream. The garden was made by Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams in the second half of the eighteenth century. It is a four-sided irregular rectangle, long axis east-west, with stone walls faced with brick on the inside except for the south side which is open to the lake. The east wall is the best preserved with a round-arched doorway in the centre. The north wall has a two-storey brick and stone house against it (now a private house) and nearby a ruined glasshouse. Significant Views: Views over the park from the house site (northwest front). Views over the park to the east from the house site. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 6-7 (ref: PGW (Gt)30(MON)).  

PGW(Gt)44(MON)

Dewstow House  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Rogiet  

346731  

188871  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal gardens, with a network of underground chambers and passages as the principal feature; rockwork areas with water channels, pools and paths above ground.  

About 1900-1919  

Dewstow House is located to the immediate north-west of Caldicot, on the north side of the M48 motorway. It is registered for having the most important, best-preserved and extensive Pulham garden in Wales, unusual in consisting partly of underground grottoes and tunnels. The gardens, both above and below ground, were designed and built by the famous firm of James Pulham & Co, mostly using their trademark 'Pulhamite' artificial stone. The underground layout is highly elaborate, with tunnels linking underground, top-lit chambers and also leading to former glasshouses. The chambers have pools, fountains and cascades and are thought to have been used for growing ferns in the numerous planting pockets. The largest glasshouse - the tropical house - has an unusual layout of winding paths, channels and pools, all in Pulhamite rockwork. There are extensive areas of rockwork above ground, complete with water channels, pools and cascades. The importance of the grottoes, underground gardens and their associated features is underscored by their Grade II* Listed status (LBs 23059-61), and there is group value with Grade II Listed Dewstow House (LB 23039). The gardens occupy about 7 acres, and lie mainly to the west and south of the house. In their present form they were mostly laid out by Henry Oakley, who lived here from 1893 to 1940; it is likely that they were made from 1900, completed by 1919. Above ground the gardens are mainly informal, with rockwork and water gardens and an area of lawn with specimen trees. There are some formal elements, such as Classical balustrading, a terrace, and a small rectangular sunken area in the southern part of the garden. The house was originally approached along a drive from an entrance and lodge on the road west of the house. The lodge, built in about 1915, was occupied by the head gardener. The straight, tree-lined drive passes over a balustraded bridge and runs to the south front of the house, where it widens to a turning circle. A modern winding drive runs south off the drive, to the west of the bridge, and is now the main drive. Originally a drive ran from the north by Dewstow Lodge (now a farmhouse) but is disused. Immediately west of the house is a formal grass terrace with ornamented stone walls on its north, west and east sides. Near the centre is a circular, stone-lined well, uncovered in 2002. In the south-east corner of the terrace is the formal entrance to the underground gardens. They comprise a network of grottoes, or sunken chambers, linked by tunnels and passageways, made from Pulhamite artificial rockwork, concrete, cement-coated brick and real stone, both above and below ground. Decorative features built into the arrangement include dripstone pillars, stalactites, and arched doorways, with niches and planting beds for growing ferns. Water runs in over cascades into pools which are sometimes tiered, with islands and stepping stones, over waterfalls, and along winding streams crossed by bridges. Careful control over water flow is achieved with standpipes and water-cocks. Some sunken features had been infilled but were uncovered during recent restoration work. A further sunken, unroofed chamber, was destroyed when a swimming pool was built. To the north of the house and underground gardens lay the greenhouses, in which many exotic plants were grown, but which became derelict in the later twentieth century and were converted to farm buildings. The largest, immediately north of the pool of the open rockwork area, was Oakley’s tropical house made by McDowall Steven & Co. Recent excavations revealed a complex, sunken layout of paths and water channels through Pulhamite rockwork. A central, brick-lined path runs through the area, and rockwork paths pass over water channels. Flights of steps lead through to the tunnel to the underground chambers. Against the north wall of the garden, to the west of the former tropical house, is a range of outhouses, former glasshouses later converted but possibly accessed by at least one tunnel. Against the outer north wall is a disused water tank and the boiler house, used for heating the glasshouses and possibly for supplying water for the gardens. To the south of the house is the second main area of the garden, a roughly triangular area sloping gently to the south comprising lawn, specimen trees including mature conifers, rockwork and pools. At the north-eastern end a small stream runs through a small rockwork pool and then underground into the third main area of underground gardens, which lies in the eastern half of this area. Constructed entirely of Pulhamite rockwork, it is approached from the north down steps to a path that winds through a complex system of passages and chambers lit by small ceiling grills. Features include pools; a narrow rill which widens into a pool in the central, cave-like chamber; a sunken bog garden; and a sunken rectangular garden revetted with drystone walling and with a central, cruciform pool edged with flagstones. To the west of the bog garden is a large area of sunken Pulhamite rockwork with a 3m high waterfall, falling into a sinuous narrow pool with two island stepping stones. The slopes flanking the pool are lined with rockwork and at the south end is a small, slightly arched rockwork bridge. At the south end of this area the water runs into a small ornamental lake with a small island in the centre with a single jet fountain. To the east of the lake is an area of rockwork with a series of sinuous, rills and pools. A flagstone path runs through it, passing over the rill on a single-slab bridge. Another path runs westwards to a flight of steps up a mound. The mound has a low drystone revetment wall around its foot and a small summerhouse, known as the pagoda, on top of it. This is a simple, roofless, hexagonal structure with an open front facing the lake. Below the pagoda, on the north side of the mound, is a wide flight of flagstone steps leading down to the lake. At the far south-east end of the garden is a series of naturalistic pools, lined with Pulhamite cement and edged with rockwork. The northernmost was used at some time as a swimming pool. A path along the west side of the pool leads to a small ornamented pumping house originally for pumping water back up to the top of the garden. To the south are three more pools, arranged one above another on ground sloping northwards, the south end of the area steeply embanked with massive rocks arranged to look like natural rock outcrops. Setting - The gardens lie to the north-west of the village of Caldicot from which it is separated by the M48 motorway. It lies in a largely rural area though much of the immediately surrounding land has been converted to a golf course. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 6-7 (ref: PGW (Gt)44(MON)). Cadw HAD database.  

PGW(Gt)1(MON)

Dingestow Court  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mitchel Troy  

345182  

209645  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Mid nineteenth-century medium-sized landscape park with mid and late nineteenth-century garden layout, part formal, part informal. Some surviving earlier features.  

c. 1845; c. 1883.  

Dingestow Court is registered as a good example of a mid-nineteenth century landscape park with a mid to late nineteenth century garden layout, incorporating some earlier features and providing the setting to the house. The gardens have historical associations with the well-known designer Edward Milner (1819-1884) who laid out the gardens in the 1880s. The registered area has group value with the associated estate buildings, including Dingestow Court (LB: 2061), the former stable block (LB: 25779; 25780). The house lies at the northern end of a small landscape park. The park was landscaped after the 1760s, when James Duberley bought the estate. At this time (1789 plan) the public road to the north of the house ran immediately north of it, partly along the line of the present east drive. The road was moved to its present position in the mid nineteenth-century by Samuel Bosanquet IV. The ornamental lake also dates from the mid-nineteenth century, replacing earlier fishponds. Much of the park planting of individual parkland trees, both coniferous and deciduous, and clumps of oak, lime, beech and horse chestnut, dates to the nineteenth-century. The ha-ha (pre-1789) provides an uninterrupted view of the park from the garden. There are two drives to the house with a lodge at each entrance, from the east (Lower Lodge) and west (Upper Lodge). The east drive is the main one, and its western end, where it approaches the house, was designed by Edward Milner in a sweeping curve through an area of specimen trees and shrubs. The gardens lie to the north, southeast and east of the house. There are three main components: the formal terrace along the southeast front of the house, lawns, and trees, which lie mainly in the eastern half of the garden. Within this framework are further features - a ha-ha along the southeast edge of the garden; gravel paths; a mound in the north corner, next to the east drive (called 'Happy Dick's mount after Richard Jones, the last Jones to live here, who died in the 1760s); a small pond to the northwest of it, on the opposite side of the drive; and a long straight grass walk called 'The Vista' lined with nut trees, Scots pines, sweet chestnuts and other trees, which runs eastwards from the east end of the house. This layout is the result of an overlay of several periods of construction and planting, the main ones of which are the mid-nineteenth century and the mid-1880s. A 1789 plan shows a formal layout, surviving features of which are the mount and the ha-ha. By the 1840s some of the formal elements had gone and plans show a proposed terrace and paths south of the house, all of which were implemented. In 1883 Edward Milner prepared a plan for proposed changes to the gardens and all of his proposals were implemented except for the elaborate parterre to the southeast of the terrace. To the north he proposed a wide gravel area, with new trees to the south of the east drive. The terrace along the south front is modified with a wide gravel walk, grass banks, steps at the east and west ends of the south side and curving paths to east and west. The east path lead to a circular area labelled ‘the seat’. A circular rustic summerhouse (now gone) was situated here but part of the path survives. To the east of the house were further winding walks and a straight walk, The Vista, which remains. To the west of the garden Milner proposed a rectilinear fruit garden (now the kitchen garden) and to the south of it, a balloon shaped kitchen garden, both remain. There have been a few changes in the twentieth century. In the 1920s the lawn in front of the terrace was levelled to form a lawn tennis court, and at about the same time the steps near the west end of the terrace were removed and since replaced. In 1933/34 the grass bank of the terrace was replaced by a stone wall. At some stage all the curving paths except that from the east end of the terrace to the ha-ha became grassed over. The ha-ha has been remade as a grass bank and fence. A new raised gravel walk with retaining wall below has been made (1988) running eastwards from the east end of the house to a modern stone statue of a lighthouse (by Philip Chatfield). A gravel path in exactly this position is proposed on the Milner plan. At the east end of the garden the boundary (fence) has been pushed further out (c. 1982) and a hard tennis court added. Significant View: The principal view is that from the terrace on the south side of the house. This takes in the sloping field down to the lake, the lake, the field with clumps on the far side of the lake, and the wood known as The Park on the ridge beyond the A449. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 37-38 (ref: PGW (Gt)1).  

PGW(Gt)36(MON)

Glen Usk  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanhennock  

336369  

192587  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Regency villa garden; Arts-and-Crafts garden.  

1820s; 1920s.  

Registered for its historic interest as a good example of a 1920s Arts and Crafts terraced garden set within an earlier Regency garden layout of the 1820s. Also important for its group value with the Neoclassical villa and other estate buildings for which the small-scale designed landscape provides the setting. Glen Usk (Cadw LB: 2697) is located above the north bank of the river Usk at Llanhennock. The gardens lie mainly to the south and south-east of the house on ground that slopes steeply southwards down towards the river, which is visible from the gardens. In the 1820s the curving drive from the north was built along with the forecourt, a walled garden south of the stable block (Cadw LB 84372) and a lawn to the south of the house. This layout is retained. The lawn was bounded by a low wall ornamented with urns and a ha-ha, the edge of the present lawn. The 1903 Sale Particulars refer to an octagonal conservatory/monkey house to the east of the house (now demolished), a tennis court and an orchard. Woodland north of the road was already developed in a small cwm, and laid out with picturesque walks, with a reservoir and fountain, and an (unwalled) kitchen garden, now a rough field, at the south-west end of the wood. Extensive remodelling in the early 1920s extended the gardens to the south and east with a series of terraces linked by stone steps (Cadw LB 84370). There are three terraces to the east of the house. At the lower level are two large terraces, formerly tennis courts, the west one now a lawn. The east one is backed by a high stone wall with central pavilion and surrounded on the other three sides by a stone pergola (Cadw LB 84371). The formal terraced gardens are flanked by slopes planted with trees and rhododendrons through which are woodland walks. A sunken rectangular area above the hard tennis court was a formal rose garden but is now grassed over, with a massive rockery at its east end. At its east end is a large stone statue of an archer, originally from the park at Llantarnam Abbey and probably of seventeenth century date. Most planting in the gardens is relatively recent. The present kitchen garden, to the south of the stable block, was originally a nursery garden, built in the 1820s. It is rectangular with a circular pool in the middle, bounded by stone walls but on the north side is flanked by the stable block against which are two lean-to glass-houses. In the south wall an iron gate with a yew arch leads to steps down to the sunken garden. In the field below the gardens ponds have been created. Setting - located in a fine position overlooking the river Usk. Significant views - picturesque views from the south front of the house and gardens across the Usk valley. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 40-2 (ref: PGW (Gt)36(MON)).  

PGW(Gt)45(MON)

High Glanau  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Trellech United  

349764  

207380  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Arts-and-Crafts and wild garden.  

1922-1929  

Registered as a well-preserved example of an Arts and Crafts garden designed by Henry Avray Tipping (1855-1933) and in a magnificent situation on a high plateau to the west of the Wye Valley. The registered garden has important group value with the grade II* listed house and associated garden buildings and structures of a contemporary date. High Glanau is located about 2km north of Trellech. It was the last home of H. Avray Tipping, architectural historian and garden designer, who lived there from 1922 onwards. The house (LB: 2813) was designed in an Arts-and-Crafts vernacular style, and is surrounded by a landscape laid out by Tipping as a complex of woodland and open gardens, between 1922 and 1929. Before 1922 Tipping had acquired an estate of 2000 acres in the High Glanau area, and chose the spot for his new home carefully, to give maximum scope for wild woodland gardening, for the views, and for the wide range of habitats it offered. In 1922/23, the architect Eric Francis (1887-1976) with whom he had collaborated on his other Gwent houses, designed High Glanau in an Arts and Crafts/Vernacular style. The gardens lie mainly to the north, west and south of the house on high ground sloping to the west. Around the house a little formality was allowed, in the form of terraces, but this was quickly dissolved into a naturalistic, wild garden beyond, consisting of winding walks through woodland and along a stream in the valley bottom. Although this area, to the north and west of the house, was heavily planted, and in places levelled and cleared, all was contrived to seem as natural as possible. The garden thus falls into three distinct areas: the formal terraces around the house (LB: 2814); the woodland garden to the north of the house, and the lower woodland garden in the steep-sided valley to the west. The main entrance is off the B4293, to the north of the house, the drive winding through woodland to a small forecourt on its east side. To the south of the house is a small paved terrace built out over the slope, below which is a long rectangular terrace of lawn flanked by flower beds and bounded by a wall (east) and hedge (west), grass areas flanking each side. At the far south end is a pergola on stone piers (LB: 2817) set against the boundary wall of the kitchen garden beyond. On the west two stone-revetted terraces with flanking borders linked by central stone steps run the length of the house. The steps continue down the steep grass slope below the terraces to a paved area centrally set with an octagonal pool and fountain. To the north-west is an oblong lily pool located above the lower 'wild' garden on the west. This is an area of semi-natural deciduous woodland in a small, steep-sided, north-south stream valley. On its east side a number of winding paths were made and still remain. The stream was dammed in places. A still-functioning hydraulic ram was installed by Tipping to lift water to a reservoir in the wood to the east of the house. The water is used for the pools in the garden. To the north of the house a west-sloping area of semi-natural deciduous woodland was converted into a naturalistic wild garden and glades with winding paths bordered by plantings of semi-shade loving plants. Paths connect to the drive and the area of the octagonal pool. To the south of the octagonal pool is a smaller similar area. The kitchen garden lies to the south of the ornamental garden, divided from it by a high, east-west, stone wall. The garden area is roughly rectangular in shape and descends the east-west slope in two terraces, between which is a scarp. Near the west end of the wall a single-storey stone bothy straddles the wall, its north side protruding into the garden the other side (the grass slope below, and flanking, the long terrace). Next to this is a free-standing wooden-framed greenhouse on a stone and brick base. It has been restored and all fittings (pipes, staging, ventilation etc.) are original and in working order (LB: 25755). Significant Views: Spectacular views west from the house and garden terraces. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 48-50 (ref: PGW (Gt)45).  

PGW(Gt)22(MON)

Hilston Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llangattock-Vibon-Avel  

345059  

218658  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Nineteenth-century landscape park, pleasure grounds and garden; nineteenth-century walled kitchen garden.  

c. 1840 onwards.  

Registered for its historic interest as a good example of a nineteenth century landscape park with some well-preserved features including an ornamental lake and a folly tower. The registered park and garden has group value with the house, entrance lodges and associated estate buildings. Hilston House (LB: 2059) stands on the top of a ridge to the west of the Monnow valley. There has been a house on the site since at least the seventeenth century. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was owned by the Needham family. The house was severely damaged by fire in 1836 and was sold to a Mr. Cave in 1838 who carried out the main phase of rebuilding. The park was made at the same time as the house was rebuilt, in about 1840, by Mr. Cave. At the beginning of the twentieth century his plantations were 'now just coming to their prime' (Bradney). The landscape park is situated on rolling ground, to the west of the Monnow valley. Its chief ornamental features are the plantations, and it is now largely in agricultural use for pasture and orchards. The house stands on high ground in the western half of the park and from it and the garden much of the park can be seen across the ha-ha. The house was approached via a drive from the south and another from the north-west. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show the tree-lined south drive passing through the parkland skirting around the north side of the lake before arriving at the north-west (main front) of the house. At both entrances there are gates, gate piers and a two-storey entrance lodge (LB: 25052 – north lodge). The north drive is currently used to access the house and the south drive is now a farm track. In the north-east corner of the park the ground rises to a small hill overlooking the Monnow valley. On the top of this hill, in the middle of a wood is a circular stone folly tower, Hilston Tower (PRN: 06099) which may date to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth-century. It is three storeys high, with an open top, and windows and an entrance on the ground floor. Holes for floor joists and stair treads are visible, and a down-pipe is exposed in the wall, suggesting that there was originally a roof. The garden and pleasure grounds lie to the southeast and southwest of the house. They were made at the same time as the house was rebuilt in about 1840 by Mr Cave. To the southeast of the house is a levelled lawn bounded by a grass scarp. A further lawn and former rose garden lies to the east of the main lawn. In the middle are the remains of a circular stone-lined pool and fountain. This feature appears to be first shown on the O.S map surveyed in 1918. To the south of this area, in the corner of the garden, are the remains of an ice-house. The garden is bounded on the east by a stone revetment wall and on the south by a ha-ha and some iron parkland fencing. From the south front of the house there are panoramic views of the park. A grass path on the west of the main lawn runs down to the pleasure grounds and lake. The lake is dammed at its south end. The path is shown on the six-inch Ordnance Survey (1886) leading to a boathouse. The stone boathouse is now a ruin, approached by stone steps and a simple domed alcove ‘grotto’ set into a rustic wall. The stone revetted lake has a sinuous outline with a long inlet on the west side, at the end of which are steps up to a rustic stone arch leading to the south drive. There are two stone revetted islands in the lake ornamentally planted with evergreens. The woodland around the lake is planted with a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees and shrubs including pine, monkey puzzle, cypress, yew and laurel. The nineteenth-century walled kitchen garden stands to the northeast of the house. It is rectangular and is orientated southwest-northeast. The brick walls stand to their full height and there are entrances on all sides with an arched doorway on the south. The interior is grassed over. A low revetment wall divides the garden in two, with two flights of steps down to the lower part. This is an extension to the garden, built sometime between 1903 and 1918. Significant View: Views from the terrace and lawn across the park. Setting: Hilston Park is situated to the south of Skenfrith in rolling countryside to the west of the Monnow valley. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 53-54 (ref: PGW (Gt)22).  

PGW(Gt)21(MON)

Itton Court  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

St. Arvans  

349756  

195037  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Remnants of formal seventeenth-century layout; eighteenth-century landscaping; nineteenth-century ornamental tree planting.  

Seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century.  

The registered area at Itton Court represents a good example of an historic park and garden, which survives in its entirety, with remnants of a seventeenth-century layout, eighteenth-century landscaping and nineteenth-century/early-twentieth century alterations and planting. The registered park and garden has important group value with Itton Court house, its associated estate buildings and the church of St Deiniol, which was rebuilt by the Curre family of Itton Court in 1869 and contains a collection of monuments to the family. The fourteenth-century gatehouse is probably the only part of the medieval Itton Court still standing. It is incorporated into the present-day house (LB: 23971) on the east side of the forecourt. In the early eighteenth-century the owner, John Jeffreys, demolished the medieval house, apart from the relatively new William and Mary Wing, and the Queen Anne wing was built. The formal layout of avenue and groves to the east and north of the house respectively was already in existence in 1695 when a plan of the grounds was made by Thomas Crofts (copied in 1782). In about 1749 Jeffreys sold the house to John Curre of Rogerston Grange, and the house remained in the possession of the Curre family until the 1950s. Edward Curre (1855-1930) who inherited in 1868, had the major extensions by Guy Dawber (1861-1938) built in 1890-1910. The small early eighteenth-century park lay to the north and east of the house on ground sloping gently away from it. A map of 1782 ('A map of the manor of Itton ... copy'd from an old survey by Tho. Crofts in 1695 ...') shows the layout in 1695, with parallel rows of trees beyond the formal garden to the north, and a short avenue to the east terminating with two transverse double rows of trees on either side. This pattern of planting is still discernible on the 1880s six-inch Ordnance Survey map, with some of the rows to the north of the garden, the north side of the short avenue, and both transverse rows shown. Also shown is the great horse chestnut avenue which continues from the outer ends of the transverse rows eastwards for approximately 750m. It is probable that the avenue was planted at the same time as the house was rebuilt, in the early eighteenth-century. The avenue was broken up in the 1950s, with only a few trees remaining on the north side, but more on the south, particularly near the east end (possibly later replacement trees). Immediately south of the avenue, the slightly sunken line of the old road, later the east drive, can be made out in the grass and on aerial photographs. By 1900, Howick Lodge was built at this entrance to the park. This formed part of the landscaping in picturesque style carried out by Edward Curre. He was also responsible for the long winding drive from Wellhead Lodge (LB: 24770 – gates & gatepiers at Wellhead Lodge) in the south, which passed through woodland and Middle Lodge before crossing the park and arriving at Itton Court on its west. This drive is now a track and no longer in use to access Itton Court. To the north of the house the garden has been extended to take in the area of the park which was planted originally as a grove. The original trees have gone, but the area has continued to be planted with trees. The earliest evidence of a garden at Itton Court is the 1695 plan (copied 1782) which shows a rectangular formal garden to the north of the house. Its north end was apsidal, with a central feature. This area appears on the 1886 six-inch Ordnance Survey map, flanked by rows of trees and without its apsidal end. It is now a lawn, and the only trace of the seventeenth-century layout is the grass bank along its east edge, which extends southwards to form the east boundary of the upper terrace to the east of the house. The approach to the house is through the garden, to the west and south of the house. Both drives arrive at the walled forecourt to the west of the house built in the late nineteenth century. To the east of the house are two long terraces. On the east edge of the lower terrace is a ha-ha, beyond which is the park. To the south of the house the ground slopes gently southwards and most of the area is laid out as lawn with specimen trees. There is a small formal terraced garden next to the south end of the house, laid out largely with lawns and paths. Along the east side of the churchyard (now in the church's extended cemetery) is a row of large wellingtonia trees. The walled kitchen garden lies to the south of the pleasure garden, south of the church. It is a large, rectangular garden surrounded by stone walls. Against the north wall are derelict glasshouses, without their glass but with their superstructure intact and still with interior fittings including cast iron staging and grills for underfloor heating. Along the outside of the north wall is a row of brick lean-to outbuildings. The walled garden is now the garden of Court Garden House. Setting: Itton Court is situated in the small village of Itton to the northwest of Chepstow. The surrounding rural landscape is one of mixed pastoral and arable fields with hedgerows and woodland. Itton Village Institute (LB: 2894) built for the Curre family in 1901 and designed by Guy Dawber is located to the northwest of the registered area. A pair of estate cottages, probably also by Dawber, are situated just outside the registered area to the north. Significant View: View from the east side of the house across the ha-ha and park along the former avenue. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 57-58 (ref: PGW (Gt)21). Ordnance Survey six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXV (1886) Ordnance Survey six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXV.SE (1902) Ordnance Survey six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXV (1922)  

PGW(Gt)59(MON)

Linda Vista Gardens  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

329534  

214096  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small urban public park, formerly a private garden  

1875; 1957-64  

Registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved, richly planted, urban public park with origins as a private garden. This is illustrated in the intricate layout of the formal part of the garden and in the exceptional nature of the planting which includes some fine specimen trees and shrubs. Linda Vista Gardens is a small, urban public park situated on the south edge of Abergavenny, on ground sloping southwards down to the flood plain of the River Usk. The park was formerly the gardens of a private house, Linda Vista, built in 1875, which is situated near the north boundary. The earliest evidence for the appearance of the garden is on the 1880 25in Ordnance Survey map; later editions show its development over the following 30 years. After the gardens passed to the local authority in 1957 they were extended to include land to the west (part of the lawn) and south (Castle Meadows, now part of the lawn) and were further developed. Landscaping was largely completed by 1964. Below the house is a small, roughly rectangular, gravel forecourt with drives leading eastwards and westwards from it to the two park entrances on Tudor Street. The west drive is flanked on the south side by a border of mixed trees and shrubs including a tulip tree, copper beech and a maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba). The park itself can be divided into two main areas. The upper and eastern part is densely planted and laid out as formal and informal gardens. This area is divided into two sections of different character by the drives: to their north are sloping lawns planted with specimen trees, including London plane, evergreen oak, and cypress; and to their south are formal and rock gardens laid out on a steep slope through which runs a network of narrow paths. Features here include a wide variety of exotic plantings around the rockery; and a rose garden, a semi-circular area laid out in a radiating pattern of box-edged rose beds. The second area of the gardens is mostly informal and occupies the lower west and south-west part. This is largely open lawn dotted with specimen trees, including weeping birch, corkscrew hazel, dawn redwood, corkscrew willow, foxglove tree, and a monkey puzzle, amongst many others. Other features are an oval bed planted with several trees in the middle of the lawn, and two round tree-planted island beds towards the west boundary. Significant Views: Views south over Castle Meadows and towards the Blorenge. Source: Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, additional and revised entries part 1 (ref: PGW(Gt)59(MON).  

PGW(Gt)13(MON)

Llanarth Court  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanarth  

337958  

210487  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Early nineteenth-century landscape park; nineteenth-century terraced garden.  

Early nineteenth-century (park); mid-late nineteenth century (garden)  

Llanarth Court is located in gently rolling countryside, south-east of Llanarth village, between Monmouth and Abergavenny. It is registered as a well-preserved early nineteenth-century landscape park, with possible work by designers Samuel Lapidge and J C Loudon, the former a draughtsman who had worked for Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and who adopted his style. There is group value with Grade II* Listed Llanarth Court, a Georgian mansion, and the nearby Church of St Mary and St Michael (LBs 1925 & 1971), the Grade II Listed cross outside the church (LB 22991), the Grade II Listed gatehouse at the entrance (LB 15661), and the Grade II Listed gates and gate piers to the north drive (LB 22994). Llanarth Court is also notable as the home of the Jones family, an ancient Catholic family who maintained the church which was disguised as an outbuilding. Much of the present landscaping dates from the very early nineteenth century when pre-existing formal gardens were swept away and the park was re-landscaped in the style of Brown, with later softening by Loudon and subsequent modifications. The house and its surroundings are now used as a private hospital. The house lies central to the park which covers a roughly rectangular area bounded on the north-west by the village and elsewhere by minor roads, tracks and field boundaries. The main approach is off the Llanarth-A40 road west of the house, to a wide terraced forecourt, with a second, north-west, drive from the village. A further drive entered from a gate on the south boundary, crossing the park over a bridge on a stream by the lake to join the main drive. This is now mostly grassed over but the bridge remains. The configuration of woodland within and around the park is similar to that of the nineteenth century with the addition of a block north of the house and a few smaller strips. There is a narrow strip of mainly deciduous woodland (The Grove) either side of the main drive, and a few isolated mature trees in the north-west half of the park, but the main ornamental park is to the south-east of the house. Along the south-east edge of the gardens is a long sinuous lake, now more or less silted up and overgrown. The garden lies mainly to the south and south-west of the house between the house and the lake. Its main features are two large terraces in front of the house, the upper one revetted in stone, the lower one edged by a steeply-sloping grass bank. These are now grassed over but had been laid out with formal beds on the lower terrace, a short canal south-west of the house, and gravel paths. To the west is an area of lawn, a few shrubs and isolated trees between the woodland to the north and the lake to the south. North of the house, below the forecourt, a grass walk and some ancient steps up to the drive are perhaps remnants of the formal gardens of the previous house, swept away c.1805. East of the house, below the lower terrace, is a short walk flanked and covered by pleached limes and nearby, on the edge of the lake, a roofless boathouse. Further gardens to the east were destroyed by later developments. Between the house and the stable block to the north was a trapezoidal walled kitchen garden built in the nineteenth century. This has now been almost completely demolished and the area redeveloped for hospital buildings. The 1880s Ordnance Survey map shows it was divided into four quarters by cross paths and with a perimeter path, all tree-lined. To the east was an orchard. Setting - Llanarth Court was set in parkland and gardens much of which survives. However, twentieth-century developments have devoured large parts of the grounds in the vicinity of the Court. Significant views - From the south front of the house there are views south-east across the terraced gardens, the ornamental parkland and the countryside beyond. From the north front there are views north-west to the Black Mountains. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 64-6 (ref: PGW (Gt)13(MON)). Additional notes: D.K.Leighton  

PGW(Gt)14(MON)

Llanfihangel Court  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Crucorney  

333102  

220305  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal garden; remains of formally laid out park; walled kitchen garden.  

1670s; eighteenth to twentieth century  

Registered as a rare surviving example of a seventeenth-century formal terraced garden and the remains of a formally laid out park including a seventeenth-century avenue of sweet chestnuts. This grade I registered park and garden is a rare survival of exceptional quality. The registered park and garden has important group value with the listed buildings at Llanfihangel Court. The house stands on levelled ground on the east side of the Honddu river valley, to the southeast of the village of Llanvihangel Crucorney. It has late medieval origins which has developed over the centuries and has well-preserved features from several periods (LB: 1919). To the south of the house are various outbuildings, including a fine early seventeenth-century brick stable block (LB: 19288), threshing barn (LB:1944) and cider-house (LB: 19286). A coach house (LB: 19284) stands to the north-west of the house next to the entrance gate. It is thought that John Arnold laid out the park with axial avenues in the 1670s (he succeeded his father in 1665). A painting dated to about 1680 shows the house and park in a bird's-eye view. The house is in the centre, with the Skirrid Mountain in the background, the Honddu River on the right, and the Abergavenny-Hereford road next to it, forming the western boundary of the park. A straight drive in an avenue leads from the centre of the north front of the house to the main park entrance off the road, where there are gates flanked by piers with ball finials. A wall runs eastwards from the gate, marking the boundary of the park. The park is shown laid out with formal groves of trees to the north-east, north-west and west of the house, and with a further large wood to the east, further away from the house. As well as the north avenue there are two further ones to the south of the house - one running south (the sweet chestnut avenue that survives) and one running diagonally off to the south-east and then bending to the east. It appears to have gate piers on either side of it just short of the bend. The straight drive from the village east to the entrance at the foot of the terraces is also shown on the painting, with formal groves of trees on either side. The rest of the park appears in the painting to be open grassland apart from some faintly drawn conifer plantations at the north end, to the east of the drive. There is no reason to doubt the rough accuracy of the painting, which therefore gives a very good idea of what the park looked like in the 1680s. There appears to have been little alteration to the park after this date. Some landscaping took place, probably between 1796 and 1822, mainly to the east of the house, where a ha-ha was made roughly on the line of a wall of the earlier formal gardens, and a small lake was made below. This, combined with the removal of the walled garden on this side, opened up views of the park from the house. The layout of the park at the end of the nineteenth century is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map. The avenues to the north (pine) and south (sweet chestnut) of the house were the principal features of the park. The north avenue survived until the 1940s, and was said not to have been Scots pine but a more unusual variety. It has recently been replanted. The carriage drive that accompanied it had already gone when a map of the park was made in 1822. The avenue to the south still survives, as does the grove of sweet chestnut trees to the west of the north end, but the trees appear to be coming to the end of their lives, and some are already dead. The avenues to the south-east have gone. The park today consists largely of pasture, orchard and isolated deciduous trees, mainly oak. The gardens lie to the north and east of the house. Aligned on the centre of the north side of the house are three terraces with stone revetment walls, some brickwork walls and a wide flight of central steps with a semi-circular flight at the bottom (LB: 19289). These are thought to date from the 1670s, when John Arnold owned the Court. The first documentary proof of their existence is the painting dated to the 1680s, which shows the terraces to the north and further formal walled gardens to the east divided into square compartments. Below the terraces the painting shows a walled enclosure and the north drive and avenue leading off from a central path. The enclosure remains, without a wall on the north side, but the central path and drive have gone, and the area is now level lawn flanked by woodland with a gravel forecourt at the foot of the terraces. On the west side of this is an entrance gate. Just outside this gate, to the south, is a brick coach-house. Some of the stone piers in this part of the garden were rebuilt in the early twentieth-century. To the east of the house the garden is now largely lawn. The formal walled gardens shown in the painting were removed between 1796 (Williams engraving) and 1822 (Davies estate map) and replaced by a level lawn next to the house bounded by a ha-ha. A small lake was probably made at the same time at the foot of the slope (1822 map). All that is left of the original formal garden on the east side is the circular 'Guardhouse' (LB:1945) a two-storey pavilion of stone, brick and slate now standing on the northern edge of the lawn, S of the lake. Originally it formed the northeast corner of the walled garden on this side, and there were at least two more (shown on the painting), one in the southeast corner and one in the northwest corner of the lower compartment. This one is shown on an engraving in Williams' History of Monmouthshire (Pl XXVII), which shows it to have been a similar circular structure built into the garden wall, with single-storey outbuildings to its west (also shown on an engraving in Coxe's Tour). Both engravings also show the north terraces. The lawn is bounded on its north side by an area of mixed woodland and the sinuous lake. The woodland to the east of the lake has been planted (probably early twentieth-century) with mixed conifers and rhododendrons. To the southeast of the house the ground slopes up steeply above the level terrace, and is partly revetted in stone, with stone steps up the slope near the house. At the foot of these is a small lily pool (1930s). The square walled kitchen garden (LB: 19287) lies south of the house and outbuildings. It is shown on Davies estate map of 1822 and probably dates to the late eighteenth-century. The brick walls in English garden wall bond stand to their full height with stone coping. The former head gardener’s cottage is situated to the north of the walled garden. Significant Views: From the house and garden, north across the park along the former pine avenue, and east across the park. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 69-70 (ref: PGW (Gt)7).  

PGW(Gt)27(MON)

Llangibby House  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llangybi  

336927  

197303  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Terraced garden, walled garden, avenue.  

Late seventeenth to early eighteenth century.  

Registered for the survival of a late seventeenth/early eighteenth century formal layout of terraces, walled garden and avenue associated with Llangybi Castle House (demolished 1951) situated in a former deer park. The registered area has important group value with the grade II listed stable ranges (LB: 26228 & 26229) and scheduled monuments Llangibby Castle and Llangibby Castle Mound (MM109 and MM110). The deer park is described by the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust as an extensive 14th century deer park centred on Llangibby Castle and the site of the later Llangibby House containing extensive tracts of woodland bounded by a minor lane and in places by an embanked boundary (GGAT, PRN: 03516). The drive to the house runs west through the park from the park entrance gates and lodge (the lodge is a late nineteenth century addition to the estate) on the Usk-Llangibby road. The axis of the drive is continued east from the road to the River Usk by a great Scots pine avenue known as Llangibby Walks. This was originally planted in about 1707 by Sir Hopton Williams and stretches from the road all the way to the River Usk, a distance of about 1.3km. Continual replacement has retained its original line and character. The gardens lie to the west, south and east of the house site, to the west of the stables and kennels, and to the south of the track leading to Llangibby Castle. To the south and south-east of the house the site has been levelled into two rectangular earthwork terraces. To the east is a sloping grass area planted with ornamental trees and shrubs, and to the west is a natural grass slope bounded by a wall at its west end, and to its north a walled garden with all but its east wall standing. Above this, to its west, is a small area of formal beds on small terraces, and beyond that the wooded hill on which Llangibby Castle stands. The gardens are now derelict. It is assumed that the gardens are contemporary with the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century rebuilding of the house. A map of 1758 refers to orchards, fishponds, garden, fir trees (to the west of the garden), and coneygre, but does not show them in any detail. In 1796 Williams (The History of Monmouthshire, p.294) states that 'the gardens or grounds ... are not assimilated with the country. They are formal, compared with those in England, by Kent, Brown and their disciples.’ The tithe map of 1838 shows the garden layout around the house (parcel 719) much as described above. By the time of the 1880s six-inch Ordnance Survey map, the garden was laid out with straight paths, with an orchard to the south and with the east boundary of the garden nearer to the house site than at present. The drive (now track) takes a straighter course from the stables to the house site than it does now. This would suggest that the eastern part of the garden, informally planted with specimen trees and shrubs (mainly rhododendrons) was created after the 1880s. Planting of trees and shrubs appears to have continued into the twentieth century: ornamental conifers and rhododendrons in particular have been planted on and below the terraces. The 1880s six-inch Ordnance Survey map also shows the layout of the park including the drive, walks, gardens, parkland, woodland, orchards and the fine Scots pine avenue of Llangibby Walks to the east. The walled garden lies immediately to the west of the house site. North, south and west stone walls remain, enclosing a rectangular area. As the house stood to the east there may never have been a wall on this side. There are round-arched doorways in the north and south walls. Above the west retaining wall of the garden is a small area laid out in shallow rectangular terraces, with brick-edged paths. At the south end of this area the south wall of the walled garden continues west for a short distance and there is a door in it leading to the area to the west of the pleasure garden. The motte (MM110) to the east of the stables and kennels is considered as an outlier of the garden, as it was planted with yews, pines and rhododendrons (probably in the nineteenth century) and Bradney (1921) records its flat top as having been used 'for many generations' as a bowling green. The ruins of the masonry castle to the west (MM109) also seem to have been incorporated into the garden as a folly (Wessex Archaeology 2009). By the nineteenth century, the tithe map (dated 1838) records the interior of the castle as Castle Orchard (parcel 368) and the track up to the castle from behind the house is recorded as ‘Road, Plantation and shrubberies, castle’ (parcel 718). Setting: Situated to the north of the village of Llangibby in rural Monmouthshire with the woodlands of Llangibby Park to the west. Significant View: Facing east along Llangibby Walks. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 73-74 (ref: PGW (Gt) 27). Williams D, A History of Monmouthshire (1796), p.294, PLXI. Wessex Archaeology (2009) Llangibby Castle, near Usk, Monmouthshire Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results  

PGW(Gt)41(MON)

Llanover Park  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanover  

331502  

208788  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; abandoned formal gardens and pleasure grounds; informal water and walled gardens; walled kitchen garden.  

1790s; 1830s  

Registered for the survival of a landscape park with planting mainly from the 1830s onwards and a water and walled gardens dating to the 1790s. The registered park and garden has group value with the various estate buildings of contemporary date. Llanover Park is situated in the Usk Valley, on gently rolling ground to the west of the river, about 6km to the south of Abergavenny. The park was an amalgamation, in 1826, of two adjacent estates, that of Tŷ Uchaf to the south-east and Llanover to the north-west. In about 1792 Benjamin Waddington (1749-1828) from Nottinghamshire bought the Ty Uchaf estate. He altered the house and laid out the gardens and grounds at Tŷ Uchaf (NPRN: 265940). He planted many trees and made two carriage drives, one from Rhyd-y-meirch and another from Pen-y-parc. The gardens of Ty Uchaf (LB: 1929) lie along the Rhyd-y-meirch stream, which runs through the park near the south-eastern boundary. They stretch in a narrow band from the park boundary at Rhyd-y-meirch to the walled kitchen garden, with the house in the middle. Waddington made the ponds and cascades and did much tree planting in both park and gardens. There appears to have been no landscaping of the Llanover estate prior to 1826. On Benjamin Waddington’s death, the estate passed to his daughter, Augusta (1802-1896) who married Benjamin Hall (1802-67) (Lord Llanover) of Hensol and Abercarn in 1823. Hall amalgamated the estates and carried out further tree planting. The main phases of tree planting in the park, after amalgamation, were the 1820s-30s, the 1880s, and the 1960s-70s. In the 1830s the park was enclosed by a stone wall along the west boundary and part of the south-east boundary, with three entrance gates and lodges. Porth-mawr (LB: 87175) in the north-west corner of the park, was the main entrance. Next, southwards, was Pen-y-parc (LB: 87168; 87212), and the third was Rhyd-y-meirch (LB: 87215). A further gate was made on the south-east boundary, just east of the kitchen garden, called Porth-y-gwenynen (LB: 87170). Carriage drives led from each to Llanover House. The former gardens and pleasure grounds of Llanover House (built in 1837 by Thomas Hopper, demolished 1936) are situated to the south, west and north-west of the ruined Llanover House (NPRN: 45084). The gardens were laid out in the 1830s by Benjamin Hall. Nineteenth-century maps portray the layout. The site of Llanover House, close to the estates’ common boundary, was chosen for its woodland location that could be adapted for gardens and grounds. This gave the gardens a canopy of mature trees, in particular oaks. Immediately around the house the gardens were formally laid out with wide gravel paths bordered with flowerbeds, with lawns and specimen trees. To the west of the house, at the crossing of the central axes, was a circular pool and fountain. To the north of it a wide straight walk cut through the woodland with further paths through the wood, in the middle of which was a large naturalistic pond with a path around it. A small island within it was reached by a rustic bridge, beside it a rustic summerhouse and, nearby, a boathouse. Along the western edge of the garden was a series of natural springs or wells, one of which was called the 'Nine Wells', heavily planted with ferns, bamboos etc. Little of the original layout is now visible. Paths near the house, the pool and fountain have gone. The long allee running north from the pool is still open but has lost its formality. The lake and island still exist but all built structures have gone. The kitchen garden (LB: 87213) is situated next to the south-east boundary of the park, to the south of the Porth-y-gwenynen entrance, and north-east of the Tŷ Uchaf gardens. It is a large rectangular garden, dating to c.1800, and is bounded by high brick walls standing to their full height. The garden is still in active use. The main central gravel (north-west/south-east) path survives, the cross-path still visible from the air. A central circular feature at the intersection also survives. Some new paths have been created. Along the north-west wall are ranged several glasshouses, which retain their glass and are still partially in use. Elsewhere, glasshouses in the interior in 1900, and others externally to the south-west, have now gone. Tŷ Ardd (LB:87169), just outside the north-west wall, presumably the gardener’s house, survives. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 76-8 (ref: PGW (Gt)41(MON)). Ordnance Survey second-edition six-inch map, sheet: Monmouthshire XII.SE (1899). Ordnance Survey second-edition 25-inch maps, sheets: Monmouthshire XII.16 (1899).Additional notes: D.K.Leighton  

PGW(Gt)7(MON)

Llantilio Court  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llantilio Crossenny  

340166  

215045  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century landscape park; terraced garden (remains of); walled kitchen garden (remains of).  

c. 1775; first half nineteenth century; late nineteenth century.  

Registered for its historic interest as an example of a late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century landscape park associated with Llantilio Court together with the remains of its terraced gardens, walled garden and remnant Japanese garden. The site of the house (NPRN: 45092) lies to the north of the church of St Teilo (LB: 2073) on the edge of a steep bank down to a small valley to the north-east. The house was built by John Lewis in about 1775, and was altered and enlarged in the nineteenth-century. The main front was on the west side, with drives approaching from the west and south. The house was demolished in 1922 and the site of the house is now grassed over. Stony mounds cover the area and in places there are remnants of walling, particularly along the northwest side and the cellars also remain. A range of late eighteenth century/nineteenth-century barns and stables, now partly converted into a farmhouse, lie to the south of the church. To the northwest is a small gardener's cottage. A water mill with a water-wheel driven pump supplied water to the house and vicarage. It is mostly intact, in an underground chamber, with an overshot wheel, and pump by R. Warner & Co (NPRN: 32401). The small park is a roughly circular area lying between the B4233 on the north (the road was diverted at the time the park was made), the river Trothy on the south, and White Castle Brook on the west. The ground occupied by the park is rolling pasture with scattered isolated trees. Some of these probably pre-date the park, while others, such as the wellingtonias, are part of the nineteenth-century landscaping. The park was made in the late eighteenth-century. It was improved in the first half of the nineteenth-century by Mrs Taddy, daughter of Richard Lewis (1749-1836) who made the winding carriage drive through the park from a lodge on the Abergavenny-Monmouth road on the north-east side of the park. She also made the two ornamental ponds either side of the west end of this drive. A further drive runs from the house site to Raglan lodge, of cottage ornee style, in the south corner of the park. At some stage in the second half of the nineteenth century this drive was lined with wellingtonias, many of which survive. The larger of the two ponds was ornamented with two artificial, stone-revetted islands and a Japanese style garden was created, probably towards the end of the nineteenth-century. The garden incorporated Japanese style planting around the lake, now lost except for a swamp cypress on the island, an arched bridge to the larger island and a Japanese tea-house on the island. The gardens lay to the west and northwest of the house. They are now grassed over, partly as pasture and partly incorporated into the church graveyard. There were two large rectangular terraces to the west of the house and a further smaller one to the northwest. The southwest side of the garden is walled, with a small round look-out tower in the west corner and with curving stone steps up to a lookout platform. Nearby are the headstones of pets’ graves. The northeast boundary of the garden is formed by a steep drop, partly revetted with a stone wall, to the valley below. Halfway down the side of this slope is a levelled narrow terrace or walk. A few mature trees remain in the garden area. The late eighteenth century garden boundary wall, gatepiers, corner turret and pavilion are also grade II listed (LB: 24284). The nineteenth-century walled kitchen garden lies to the south of the house and garden, on ground sloping gently to the south between the road to the church and Court Farm. It occupies a large trapezoidal area, with its west boundary along the road. Most of its walls have now gone or are ruinous. The walls at the north end are the best preserved part, built of stone and lined with brick. Setting: Llantilio Court park and garden is situated in rural Monmouthshire to the east of Llantilio Crosenny and to the north of the River Trothy. The registered park and garden is also situated within the Llantilio Crosenny Conservation Area. Significant Views: Views west across the rolling countryside from the lookout turret. Views from the house site towards the church and east across the park and surrounding open rural landscape. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p85 (ref: PGW (Gt)7).  

PGW(Gt)24(MON)

Lower Dyffryn  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Grosmont  

343438  

222776  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Sixteenth-century formal walled and terraced garden above medieval or sixteenth-century fishponds.  

Sixteenth century.  

Registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved example of a Tudor formal walled and terrace garden overlooking medieval or sixteenth-century fishponds. The garden has group value with the late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century Lower Dyffryn House. Lower Dyffryn is located approximately 3km southeast of the village of Grosmont. The oldest parts of the present house (LB:1950) date from c.1590-1630. In the early seventeenth-century, Lower Dyffryn probably belonged to John Gainsford, who became Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1604. It was subsequently owned by a branch of the Cecil family. The garden lies to the west of the house and consists of a large terrace bounded by a low wall on the west and south, and a higher wall on the north. Below the terrace revetment wall are the remains of medieval or Tudor fishponds. In the middle of the north wall is a round alcove with a small central window overlooking the fishponds and beyond to the River Monnow. The alcove appears to be both inward looking over the garden and outward looking across the fishponds and River Monnow below. A drain carries water underneath the garden to the fishponds, which suggests that the fishponds are contemporary or possibly earlier than the garden. The walls of the terrace garden are also listed (LB:24154). Setting: Located approximately 3km southeast of the village of Grosmont and close to the border with Herefordshire. The surrounding landscape is of gently rolling agricultural fields, trees and woodland. Significant View: From the alcove overlooking the fishponds and towards the River Monnow and rural landscape.  Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.89 (ref: PGW (Gt)24).  

PGW(Gt)35(MON)

Mathern Palace  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mathern  

352281  

190819  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Arts-and-Crafts garden.  

1894-1914.  

Mathern Palace is registered for the historic interest of its well-preserved Arts and Crafts style garden designed by Henry Avray Tipping (1855-1933). The garden is laid out around the medieval bishop’s palace. It has important group value with the late medieval palace of the Bishops of Llandaff and nearby Mathern estate buildings. Mathern Palace (LB: 2007) stands to the south of the churchyard in Mathern village. Throughout the medieval period it was one of the residences of the bishops of Llandaff. The oldest part of the fabric is fifteenth century, when it is said to have been built by John de la Zouch (Bishop 1408-1423). In 1894, H. Avray Tipping bought the palace and began extensive renovation, rebuilding and additions with the help of his architect Eric Francis. Tipping lived here until 1914, when he moved to Mounton House (PGW(Gt)8(MON). The gardens at Mathern Palace lie to the north-west, south-east and south-west of the house with a small forecourt to the north-east. H. Avray Tipping made the gardens between 1894 and about 1900. He laid out terraces on the south-west facing slope, simply walled with limestone. Level lawns, the kitchen garden and a sunken rose garden were made to the south-east, and the whole structure was linked by paved paths and grass walks flanked by clipped yew and topiary hedges. Much of the mature and structural planting remains. At the end of the main NE-SW axis through the sunken rose garden, is a simple stone pavilion, which looks out over the fields beyond the garden. The steeper slope on the north-west side was made into a rockery. It is now a grass slope. Mature trees and the two extant linear fishponds were incorporated into Tipping’s scheme. To the southeast of the house, the compartment at the northern end of the garden is the kitchen garden. This is bounded by a high stone wall at its northeast end, against which glasshouses formerly stood. Significant Views: Views facing southwest from the house and terraces across pasture fields. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.95 (ref:PGW (Gt)35).  

PGW(Gt)47(MON)

Monmouth, St. John's  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Monmouth  

350818  

212712  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal small walled town garden.  

Nineteenth century/early twentieth century.  

Registered for its historic interest as a small Victorian town garden, with the early twentieth-century addition of a tennis court, complete with Coalbrookdale verandah. The garden has group value with the listed house, St John’s. St John's is a small town villa with a complex building history (LB: 2266). At its rear is a three-storey block with Coalbrookdale verandah, of a type advertised in the Coalbrookdale catalogue between 1840 and 1872. The verandah overlooks the rare survival of a small Victorian town garden with its early twentieth-century addition of a tennis court. The garden lies to the south of the house, between it and the public park of Chippenham (PGW(Gt)6(MON)). It is small and rectangular, bounded on the east and west by high brick walls and, on the south, by a low stone wall with a doorway in the middle giving access to the public park of Chippenham. Apart from the levelling for a lawn tennis court, the walls and internal layout appear to be early to mid-nineteenth century in date and may well be contemporary with the verandah. The ground slopes gently to the south, and has been carefully graded, the part nearest the house being steeper than the outer part. The wider southern end is largely taken up with a former lawn tennis court, now lawn, made in 1913 to 1914. The garden is laid out largely to lawn, with wall borders, side paths and a small square pool just above the former tennis court. A kitchen garden once lay to the east of the garden, but this was separately sold in the 1920s and is now built on. Setting: Situated in Glendower Street, a residential street to the south of the town centre of Monmouth and within Monmouth Conservation Area. Many of the buildings in Glendower Street are also listed. Significant View: Views from the garden towards Chippenham. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, 100-1 (ref: PGW(Gt)47).  

PGW(Gt)8(MON)

Mounton House  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mathern  

351578  

192795  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Arts-and-Crafts Edwardian garden, with formal and wild element.  

1907-1912.  

Registered for its historic interest as an Arts and Crafts layout consisting of approach, formal gardens and wild gardens by Henry Avray Tipping (1855-1933) and providing the setting to Mounton House (Cadw LB: 24061) and the ancillary buildings. Mounton was the second and grandest home of H Avray Tipping who lived in the house from 1912 to 1922, when he gave it to his brother’s godson, Major H.C.L Holden of Brasted, and moved to High Glanau near Trellech. The integrated layout consisting of Mounton House, the ancillary buildings and gardens, were designed as a whole and constructed in 1910-1912 by H. Avray Tipping in collaboration with the architect Eric Francis (1887-1976). It stands on a level plateau with a precipitous slope below it to the north-west. It is approached by a long drive from the village of Pwllmeyric. Near the house the drive enters a wide approach with wide grass verges between buttressed stone walls, flanked by outbuildings and cottages, in the same style as the house. The house is set back from the approach with a square forecourt and a central grass circle. The gardens have two main components: the formal gardens, which lie mainly to the south-west and south-east around the house; and the wild gardens in woodland to the south-west of the house and on the steep slope of the gorge to the north-west. The formal gardens on the north side of the house consist of the approach, forecourt and pergola (Cadw LB: 24081). The stone pergola stands at the north-west end of the approach, on the edge of the gorge, from which there is a view of the valley below. A winding track leads down the side of the gorge from the pergola. The formal gardens to the south-west and south-east of the house consist of a series of rectilinear compartments. Immediately in front of the house is a long stone terrace, with a long, grass bowling-green running parallel to the terrace below, surrounded on all but the north-east side by clipped yew hedging. This is rectangular with apsidal ends. To the south-east is the cruciform pergola garden with simple stone piers surrounding a rectangular pool (Cadw LB: 24074). This was a tribute to William Robinson and was originally planted with roses and wisterias trained along the beams of the pergola. In the east corner of this garden is a two-storey timber framed pavilion, called the tea house (Cadw LB:24080) which overlooks a rectangular lawn to the south-east. To the north-east is a raised, stone flagged area called the parterre garden, with walls around it on all but the south-west side. To the south-east of the lawn and parterre garden are two grass tennis courts surrounded by clipped yew hedging. To the south-west of the formal gardens is an area of semi-natural woodland, with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees planted on its fringes. This was originally part of the wild garden and was laid out with planted rockeries and paths. A small pool and rockwork survive near the top of this area. In 1907 Tipping bought land at the foot of the Mounton gorge and constructed a water garden in natural style around the winding stream. This area (now in separate ownership) is now mostly grassed, but a small arched bridge, a small pool and a few trees and shrubs remain of the landscaping. The stream is partly canalized between stone walls. The original kitchen garden, the walls of which remain, was located on the north-east side of the approach, opposite the parterre garden. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest: Gwent (ref: PGW(Gt)8(MON)).  

PGW(Gt)34(MON)

Moynes Court, Mathern  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mathern  

351979  

190943  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Walled garden; fishpond.  

Sixteenth century.  

The garden at Moynes Court is registered for the historic interest of its Tudor walled garden and (probably medieval) fishpond. The garden has group value with the early seventeenth-century Moynes Court (LB:2008) and associated contemporary outbuildings, the medieval gatehouse (LB:2042) and with the medieval moated site (scheduled monument MM187). Moynes Court is of medieval origin, but the present house had a major rebuilding by the Bishop of Landaff in 1609-10 and was occupied as their main seat after leaving Mathern Palace. The Bishop moved to Cardiff in 1763 and Moynes Court was sold by the diocese in 1889. The c.1609 work was probably done by Bishop Francis Godwin of Llandaff. The gardens of Moynes Court lie to the northwest, northeast and southeast of the house. The gardens are largely laid out to lawns, with perimeter borders and a few specimen trees. No planting is earlier than the 20th century. To the northeast is a rectangular walled area between the gatehouse and the house, with a central paved path between the two. To the SE is a square walled garden with perimeter and central paths, and a seventeenth or eighteenth-century stone sundial in the centre. All walls are high and of stone, mostly standing to their full height. The surviving walled gardens are likely to be of the same date as the alterations to the house in the late sixteenth century. A map of 1669 by George Goode shows the approach from the northeast along a tree-lined drive, the house and gatehouse, and a walled garden to the southeast of the house, where the present-day walled garden is. The garden's layout is shown schematically. To the northwest of the house is an open area of garden on a steep slope, at the bottom of which is a rectilinear pond. This part of the garden is probably medieval in origin. A garden at Moynes Court is mentioned in Inquisitions Post Mortem in 1307 and 1340. Setting: Moynes Court is situated on the Gwent Levels to the southwest of Chepstow. A moated site (scheduled monument) lies to the southwest of Moynes Court and is likely to represent the location of the earlier Bishops manor. The registered park and garden is located within the Mathern Conservation Area and the Gwent Levels Landscape of Outstanding Historic Interest. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p105 (ref: PGW (Gt)34).  

PGW(Gt)57(MON)

Nelson Garden  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Monmouth  

350754  

212732  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small, informally laid out Georgian town garden with fine and unusual garden pavilion.  

Late eighteenth century; about 1840  

Registered for its historic interest as a rare survival of an eighteenth-century town garden. Its layout survives more or less intact and it contains an important and unusual early nineteenth-century garden pavilion. The garden has strong associations with Lord Nelson; he was entertained in a previous summerhouse in the garden in 1802. The Nelson Garden is a town garden located in the centre of Monmouth, at the north-west corner of the town park, Chippenham. The main part of the garden is rectangular, aligned along the north side of Chippenham. However, a narrow, east–west section of the garden, to the west of the main area, links it to no.18 Monnow Street, the house with which the garden is associated, though this link is now severed. The house at no.18 Monnow Street dates from the late eighteenth century and the garden was probably created at the same time. It was certainly in place by the time of Nelson's visit in 1802. The space had a history of use as a real tennis court in the seventeenth century and a bowling green in the early eighteenth. At the time of Nelson's visit to Monmouth, on 18 August 1802, no.18 was lived in by Colonel Lindsay, town clerk of Monmouth, who entertained Nelson, Sir William and Emma Hamilton to tea and coffee in the summerhouse ('that charming retreat') in his garden. The present pavilion, or summerhouse, is a small, open-fronted building of brick and wood, set against the east boundary wall, on a platform about 5m long. It dates from about 1840 replacing its predecessor where Nelson, Sir William and Emma Hamilton were entertained in 1802. The seat in which Nelson sat was saved and installed in the centre of the new bench seat. Most of the garden is taken up with a level lawn, laid out informally with a few specimen trees and shrubs. A large cypress tree stood until 2004, when it was felled, near the west side, with ‘1802’ set out in dwarf box at its foot. A gravel path leads around the perimeter of the garden. To the west of the entrance the path, edged with brick and clipped box hedging, slopes up to a wider terrace along the top of the boundary wall, from which there is a fine view of Chippenham. The north boundary wall of the Nelson Garden is a hot wall heated by horizontal flues within the wall. Source: Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, additional and revised entries part 1, 42-4 (ref: PGW(Gt)59(MON).  

PGW(Gt)37(MON)

New Cemetery  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanfoist Fawr  

329031  

213768  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

-  

1894  

New Cemetery, Abergavenny, is located above the south bank of the river Usk, south-west of the town, near Llanfoist. It is registered as a good example of a well-preserved Victorian landscaped garden cemetery. The garden also provides the setting for the Grade II Listed cemetery chapel (LB 17244), the gates and gate piers at the main entrance (LB 17245), and the lychgate at the pedestrian entrance (LB 17246). The cemetery lies on a low hill and is accessed via a lane at the south end of the Abergavenny Bridge. There are two entrances off the lane, the eastern one with a lych gate and the western one a wider gateway flanked by stone piers. The latter may have been deliberately sited opposite an old oak tree on the river bank, which has been drawn into the landscaping scheme; there is an iron bench around its trunk and railings in a semi-circle around it. In the north-east corner of the cemetery is a small lodge. The eastern end of the cemetery was built, landscaped, and opened in 1894. The oldest part is landscaped in the style of a Victorian public park or garden, with sweeping gravel drives (parts now tarmacked), grass and informal planting of trees and shrubs. The planting is mainly evergreen, with many pines, hollies, yews and cypresses. In the centre, on the top of the hill, is a small stone chapel with an octagonal tower. The oldest graves are around the chapel. The east side of the cemetery is bounded by a row of large mature pine trees, and between the cemetery and the river is a row of pines and oaks. The cemetery was later extended westwards, and this part has not been landscaped. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 4-5 (ref: PGW (Gt)37).  

PGW(Gt)10(MON)

Pant y Goitre House  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanover  

334569  

208678  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Late eighteenth-century landscape park; informal garden; walled kitchen garden.  

Late eighteenth century.  

Registered as a well-preserved small eighteenth-century landscape park, informal garden and walled kitchen garden. The registered park and garden has group value with the eighteenth-century country house with 1830s curving orangery, coach house and associated estate buildings and structures. Pant y Goitre House is a large eighteenth-century house situated on a slight rise above the flood plain of the river Usk, which forms the north boundary of the park. The park was probably landscaped by Thomas Hopper after he bought the house in 1770. There are two areas of woodland: the Rookery in the north of the park on a steep slope above the river, and an area of mixed woodland on the south side of the park, in which are a series of ponds. The open park is dotted with specimen trees of varying ages. A small lake shown on the tithe (1841) had gone by 1880. The original main entrance drive approached the house from the north, entering the park just south of the river, at a lodge, now gone. The drive is disused but the entrance remains on the B4598. This drive continues to an entrance on the south, now the main entrance (LB: 87154). A service drive enters the grounds at a lodge off the lane to the southwest of the house. The park layout is shown on the tithe of 1841 and the first edition Ordnance Survey of 1885. The garden lies to the north, east and west of the house. To the west it is bounded by a curving ha-ha, and to the north and east by a curving fence. The gardens are laid out informally with lawns planted with specimen trees, including cedar and wellingtonia, and clumps of shrubs. A curving orangery at the north end of the west side of the house dates to the 1830s and opens out onto the garden. A large square walled garden (LB: 87214) lies to the southwest of the house. The walls are of coursed rubble stone on the outside and red brick internally and stand to about 3m. It probably dates to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth-century, contemporary with the re-modelling of the house. Significant View: From the house and gardens towards the river Usk, and to the west to the rising ground of the park, with the Rookery and the woodland to the south flanking the open ground between. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.115 (ref: PGW (Gt)10). Ordnance Survey, 6-inch map sheet Monmouthshire XIII (1885) Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map sheet Monmouthshire XIII.13 (1882)  

PGW(Gt)53(MON)

Penhein  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Caerwent  

344971  

193144  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small landscape park; small garden; walled garden.  

1813  

Penhein is registered as a well-preserved example of a small nineteenth century landscape park. Its fine situation affords panoramic views to the south towards the Bristol Channel. The registered park and garden has group value with Penhein house and estate outbuildings. Penhein house (LB: 23044) is an early nineteenth-century villa built in 1813 by Samuel Brookes. The park is contemporary with the house and is laid out to the south, east and west of it. The park lies on a south-facing slope with woods and pasture land all around it and with panoramic views to the south. It is about 40 acres in extent, stretching from the house and gardens in the north to Cuhere Wood in the south. The house is approached via a long winding tarmac drive from an entrance to the south-west. From Cuhere Wood northwards, it is flanked at intervals by deciduous trees. The drive passes the south front of the house and enters the gravel forecourt on its east side. A track continues to the farm buildings beyond. The park was laid out with shelter belts along the north and west sides, and the north end of the east side, with trees flanking parts of the drive and isolated trees. Most of the planting was done in the western half of the park and much of it survives. Isolated mature trees include beech, oak, sycamore, horse chestnut, sweet chestnut, pine, Monkey Puzzle and American red oak. Many of them are particularly fine specimens. The north end of the west boundary shelter belt has gone. Along the north end of the east boundary, inside the shelter belt, is a short avenue of oaks. The garden is small and lies mainly to the south and west of the house, with a small area to the east of the forecourt. It is laid out mostly to lawns and is bounded on its south side by a stone ha-ha, giving panoramic views from house and garden across the park and beyond. In the 1870s the west side was divided into three distinct areas: the southern lawn; a rectangular area bounded by trees or shrubs to the north; and the 'Nuttery' at the north end. The two southern areas are no longer separate though the line of division is visible as a faint scarp in the lawn. The 'Nuttery' remains, but is now neglected. It is a rectangular area of coppiced hazels, planted in rows, part of which has been fenced off and now lies in the field. It was originally enclosed by a stone wall, which continued westwards from the ha-ha around the garden boundary. In the garden west of the house is a twentieth-century rockery near the west boundary. The grass path running through the middle of it is flanked by two yews. East of the forecourt is a small area of lawn with rockwork stone walling at its northern end, and bounded on its east side by a curving holly hedge. The walled kitchen garden is situated to the north of the forecourt north of the house. The stone walls are of rubble construction with doors on the east and west sides. A ruined stone building stands against the north side. Setting: Located in rural Monmouthshire to the north of the village of Llanvair Discoed surrounded by pasture fields and woodland. Significant View: Panoramic views to the south. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 118-19 (ref: PGW (Gt)53). Ordnance Survey first-edition 25-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXX.2 (1879); first edition six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXX (1880). Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire V (1882); third edition 25-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXVII.4 (1916).  

PGW(Gt)40(MON)

Piercefield and the Wyndcliff  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

St. Arvans  

352768  

195944  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park, walk with viewpoints laid out along edge of sublime and picturesque landscape of the Wye valley.  

1752-72; 1798; 1828  

Registered at grade I as an early and outstanding example of a 'sublime' landscape, which became one of the most famous sublime/Picturesque walks of the second half of the eighteenth century and an essential part of the 'Wye Tour'. The designed landscape incorporates the landscape park and a Picturesque walk with seats and viewpoints laid out along the edge of the Wye Valley. The registered area shares important group value with the ruins of Piercefield house and associated structures around the house and features throughout the designed landscape. The present park is largely the creation of Valentine Morris the younger who, from about 1752, transformed the entire estate and greatly enlarged it. The parkland lies along the west bank of the River Wye immediately to the north of Chepstow, and stretches as far as the village of St. Arvans. It is a roughly triangular area of about 120 hectares. The house, now a roofless shell (LB: 2013; 24754; 24755; NPRN 20654) stands in the middle of the park, near the cliff on the edge of the Wye valley. The park is gently rolling except for the eastern edge, where the densely wooded ground drops precipitously, with cliffs in places rising to several hundred feet above the River Wye. The river loops in two enormous bends along the eastern boundary and this naturally dramatic scenery, on both sides of the river, led to the fame of Piercefield in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The western side of the park was largely open grassland, known as the 'Upper Lawn' (the northern end) and the 'Lower Lawn' (the southern end, in front of the house) with scattered trees and clumps, some of which survive. At the southern end is a small deciduous wood, Park Grove, and along the western boundary a narrow strip of large mature deciduous trees, some of which may date to about 1794 when the boundary wall was built. The eastern side of the park, along the Wye valley, is largely wooded with semi-natural woodland, mostly beech, yew, small-leaved lime, large-leaved lime, and in places several species of whitebeam. The famous walk, about three miles long, was made between the south end of the 'Lower Lawn' and the carriage road to Tintern, north-east of St Arvans. It is narrow and winding and is in places rock-cut into the cliff face. In one place (the Giant's Cave – scheduled MM282) the walk passes through a tunnel in the rock. A statue of a giant once stood above one of the entrances. Entirely enclosed in woodland, features along the way, some of which retain structural remains. Viewpoints were made to give dramatic views out over the valley, down to the river, over the Bristol Channel, and down to the Lancaut Peninsula on the other side of the river. From the south, the designed features are: The Alcove (a seat and railings - looking out upon spectacular views of the gorge, Chepstow castle and town) (scheduled MM285); The Platform (a stone viewing platform and railings) (MM284); The Grotto (a stone alcove whose inner lining of spars and other minerals has mostly gone) (MM283); The Double View (A natural bluff over the river, with views both up and down river and southwards across the park); Halfway Seat (the seat has gone, but the levelled platform on a bluff over the river on which it stood remains); The Druid's Temple (formerly a circle of upright stones), The Giant's Cave (tunnel through the rock) (MM282); a seat near two beeches; Lovers' Leap (the path takes an outward curve over a natural bluff with a sheer drop below and spectacular views downstream. No built structures remain but it was originally fenced with iron railings); and The Temple (demolished in about 1800). Contemporary visitors also mention a Chinese Seat, but it has disappeared and its exact whereabouts are unknown. A further path (now part of the Wye Valley Walk) runs down into the Wye valley bottom from the Giant's Cave and up again to the Temple. It led to a Cold Bath - a building in a clearing in the wood (MM281). A further path, now gone, led down to Martridge Meadow beside the Wye near the Cold Bath, then along the river southwards and up rock-cut steps to the house, already overgrown and dangerous by 1785. The climax of the visit by tourists to Piercefield was the further walk northwards to the top of the much higher Wyndcliff. The 365 Steps is a winding path, partly cut into the rock, from the foot of the Wyndcliff to the top, near a built feature called the Eagle's Nest from which there were spectacular views southwards over the lower Wye valley, the Bristol Channel and beyond. The walled kitchen garden (LB: 24760) is situated to the north-west of the house. Described in the 1793 Sale Particulars, the garden was built in the second half of the eighteenth century. It is rectangular in shape, aligned north-west/south-east, is nearly 2 hectares in extent, and is bounded on the west by a stone wall and on all other sides by a brick wall on a stone foundation. Beyond the north wall is an underground ice-house. North facing and double cone shaped, it is 3.6m across at its greatest diameter; 1.4m remains above the ground. There is no trace of a mound or passage and the double brick skin has partly collapsed. Significant Views: From the house front across the park south-eastwards to the Wye valley, Gloucestershire, Bristol Channel and beyond. From the features, viewpoints and seats along the Wye valley walk. Panoramic views from the Eagle's Nest stretching as far as the Bristol Channel. Sources: Sylvia P. Beaman and Susan Roaf, The Ice Houses of Britain, p.533. Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, 120-22 (ref: PGW(Gt)40.  

PGW(Gt)42(MON)

Raglan Castle  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Raglan  

341441  

208320  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced gardens, former lake and water parterre, walk with shell niches.  

1550-1628.  

Raglan Castle, a late medieval castle, lies above the village of Raglan. It is registered as a very rare survival of an outstandingly important sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century garden layout which was one of the most advanced gardens of its date in the country. The gardens formed part of the setting for the castle which itself was built to be more decorative than defensive. The castle is Grade I Listed (LB 2101) under guardianship, and the entire area of the castle and the garden earthworks is a Scheduled Monument (SM MM005). The gardens were made by the 3rd and 4th Earls of Worcester, between 1550 and 1628 and were laid out on a grand scale involving massive earth moving. North-west of the castle are three long terraces built out over the steep slope, and retained by a huge revetment wall. They are separated by steep high grass slopes, originally bounded by walls 30 feet (9 metres) high, according to a description of 1674. At the south-west end of the top terrace are the brick footings of a small square summerhouse, and at the north-east end of the main, central, terrace stone steps to the upper terrace are visible. There is some evidence for balustrading in the garden, perhaps along the tops of the terraces. Below, on level pasture in the valley of the Wilcae Brook, is the site of the 'great Poole', with evidence for an island, and to the west of the terraces its earthen dam, now breached by the stream. Beyond the north-east end is a large boggy rectangular area of banks and ditches, all that remains of a water parterre. Its diamond and triangular-shaped islands, portrayed on a map of 1652, can still be seen. South-west of the castle a square level area with raised terraces around two sides is the 'garden plot' described in 1674. Above it, to its south, on high revetment walls, is the grass bowling green accessed by stone steps. Below, is a large rectangular terrace bounded by steep scarps on its outer sides, reached by steps. This overlooks the valley of the Wilcae Brook below the dam. Below this is a further narrow shallow terrace. On the 1652 map the valley below is described as 'Hopyard', with an orchard on higher ground on the east slope of the valley. From either end of the dam former water channels lead from each end of the dam to a large square earthwork at the southern end of the field, a former water garden with four square islands separated by water channels, and possibly of fifteenth century date. The Moat Walk is a curving gravelled walk running around the outside of the moat around the castle's fifteenth-century keep. Evenly spaced out along the walk are fifteen brickwork semi-circular niches, originally decorated and holding statues of Roman emperors, now gone. Within the castle, in the Fountain Court, is the square stone base of a fountain, called the White Horse fountain, in existence by 1587. Setting - Raglan Castle lies north of Raglan village, on the north side of the A40. It is surrounded by farmland except on the east side where the buildings of Castle Farm abut the castle grounds. Significant views - From the north-west terraces there are fine views across the nearby countryside to the Black Mountains beyond. From the south-west there are views towards the South Wales valleys. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 130-2 (ref: PGW (Gt) 40).  

PGW(Gt)46(MON)

Shirenewton Hall  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Shirenewton  

347991  

193272  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced and compartmented garden; informal tree and shrub garden; Japanese garden.  

1880-1900; 1900-1945  

Registered for the historic interest of its gardens chiefly the creation of Edward Joseph Lowe and Charles Liddell, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The gardens include a rare and well-preserved example of an early twentieth-century Japanese garden. The gardens have historical associations with the famous horticulturalist, botanist and fern expert Edward Joseph Lowe (1825-1900) who bought Shirenewton Hall in 1880 and planted the gardens with a wide range of trees, herbaceous plants and ferns. In 1900, the property was bought by Charles Oswald Liddell (1855-1941) a shipper in the Far Eastern trade who created the Japanese garden. He filled both his house and garden with Chinese and Japanese artefacts. The gardens have group value with Shirenewton Hall (LB:2818) and estate outbuildings including the stables and coach house (LB:2823), entrance lodge (LB:2819) gates, gatepiers, railings and boundary walls (LB:2822) and ornamental garden features. The gardens are in two separate areas: those around the house; and the Japanese garden in the field to the south. The entrance, with ornamental gates and lodge, built for Charles Liddell, is on the north side of the grounds, and a curving drive leads to a gravel turning area on the west (front) of the house. In the centre of the turning area is a central Chinese fountain surrounded by planting. The garden is bounded by a high wall on the west, a wall and outbuildings on the north, fencing on the east and a ha-ha on the south. Around the house are terraced gardens and informal areas. Along the south front is a stone-paved terrace with a circular pool in a wider area opposite the loggia at the eastern end. A Chinese bronze bowl ornaments the centre of the pool. Below is a long grass terrace bounded by clipped yew hedges, below which is a further levelled lawn bounded by the ha-ha. There are similar levelled compartments to the east of the house. In these are set several Chinese structures, the largest consists of a raised platform bounded by green and yellow glazed tiling on which stands a tall pavilion housing an enormous bronze bell. Its roof has elaborate glazed tiling. To the east is a smaller pavilion of similar materials, with a dragon on top; used as a summerhouse it has a marble sundial on a stone crouching monster in front of it (LB:2820). Further east is a small square pavilion, or garden seat, with four columns holding up a domed copper roof (LB:2821). The informal areas of the garden lie to the west, north-east and south-east of the house, planted with well-spaced specimen deciduous and coniferous trees and shrubs, with grass between. On the west of the garden a path winds through an area of rockwork planted with ferns. The ha-ha (probably early nineteenth century) separates the gardens from an area of grassland portrayed as parkland by Ordnance Survey in 1900. The Japanese Garden lies to the south-west of the house, in a roughly oblong area fenced off in the middle of the field to the south of the main gardens. The garden is reached by a narrow path across the field, and the entrance is on the north side. The ground slopes to the south. The garden consists of an intricate arrangement of six ponds, winding paths, narrow cascades and bridges. The whole is planted with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees, bonsaied pines and acers, and evergreen shrubs such as laurels, which flank the paths and screen one part of the garden from another. The garden is ornamented with numerous genuine Japanese structures and ornaments, including a tea pavilion, two arched bridges, several stone lanterns, a stone pagoda, a stone mushroom, a well, a crane statue, and red painted wooden archways (one at the entrance). The subtlety of the garden suggests that it may have been designed by a Japanese specialist, as were several in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century. The kitchen garden, possibly dating from the early nineteenth century, lies to the west of the main garden. It is rectangular with long axis east by west and is bounded by stone and brick walls standing to 4m-5m high (LB:24574). Various buildings once lined the inside of the north wall. Edward Lowe raised ferns in the glasshouses. It is now in separate ownership and the interior has a modern house and garden in it. Significant View: Views from the south terrace across the garden and haha and towards the Bristol Channel. Setting: Shirenewton Hall is situated on the southern edge of the small village of Shirenewton, on a high plateau above the Gwent coastal plain. The registered park and garden forms part of the Shirenewton Conservation Area. Sources. Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 139-140 (ref: PGW (Gt)46).  

PGW(Gt)29(MON)

St. Pierre Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mathern  

351235  

190619  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park, with remnants of earlier water features, Pleasure Grounds, and walled kitchen garden.  

Sixteenth/seventeenth century; second half of eighteenth century.  

Registered for the historic interest of its eighteenth-century landscape park with origins as a medieval deer park. The registered area encompasses the landscape park, with remnants of earlier water features, pleasure grounds and walled kitchen garden. The site has historical associations with the Lewis family and important group value with the house (LB: 2009), gatehouse (LB: 2010), Portskewett Gates (LB: 24093), boundary wall (LB: 24098) and church of St Peter (LB: 2043). The house was built by the Lewis family in the late fifteenth to sixteenth century. It was remodelled in the eighteenth century by Morgan Lewis, and again in the mid/late nineteenth-century by Charles Lewis. St. Pierre Park is located south-west of Chepstow and lies mostly to the west of St Pierre House. It is bounded on the north and west by the Newport - Chepstow road (A48) and on all but the east side by a stone wall, which is medieval in origin and rebuilt as part of the eighteenth century improvements. The park has two entrances, one to the north of the house, and one to the west. The north entrance and straight drive, form the present-day access and may be the original approach, as the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century gatehouse and main entrance to the house are on this side. In the late eighteenth century a winding drive was made running from an entrance on the west side of the park to the courtyard to the north of the house, skirting the north end of the lake. In the nineteenth century a lodge was added at the west entrance and one within the park was removed. The park has medieval origins and was originally the deer park of the Lewis family. It engulfed a small medieval community of which only the church remains. It was still a deer park at the start of the twentieth century, stocked with fallow deer. Along the eastern edge, on low-lying ground, is a series of silted-up linear ponds strung out in a curve, one below the other. They are possibly of medieval origin although their development as ornamental features came later. They are shown on an estate map by John Aram of 1781, which names one as the ‘Canal’ alongside which was ‘The Long Walk’. The linear ponds are still clearly shown on the 1st ed. Ordnance Survey map of 1886. The ground is highest on the west side of the park and drops steeply down to the central part in which there is a large artificial lake of curving outline with a massive curving dam at its south end. The main phase of landscaping of the park was in the second half of the eighteenth century and the lake probably dates to this phase of development along with the west drive. The estate map of 1781 shows the upper part of the park, on the western edge, to be well wooded with circular clumps either side of the entrance and a warren to the south. The main area of the park was then mostly open but by the late nineteenth century it is shown dotted with trees, with the south boundary well wooded. The park is now largely rolling grassland, mown for golf courses, with isolated specimen trees. These are largely deciduous and some, in particular oaks, sweet chestnuts and planes, are very ancient, relics of pre-eighteenth-century park planting. The main changes in the park have come with its conversion to a hotel, country club and golf course in the twentieth century. The gardens, mostly to the south of the house, are bounded on their south side by a low stone wall and ha-ha. Named as 'The Pleasure Ground' on a map of 1781, the original outer court, to the north of the house, is now landscaped as a car park, but retains some old trees. The garden to the south of the house was in existence by 1781 and to the south of it was a melon ground and 'The Old Orchard'. Very little is now left; there are only a few large trees and a large magnolia against the south wall of the house, which was mentioned in press reports of 1910. The area to the east of the house, formerly 'The Ox Pen and Fold', later the 'Eastern Garden', has now been built on. In the 'Eastern Garden' was a grotto, but of this there is no trace. Most of the garden area is now sloping lawn and part of a golf course, including a green. The former kitchen garden lies to the west of the house on the gentle slope between the house and the lake. It is shown on the 1781 map and is named 'The Park Garden'. The garden was four-sided, and of irregular shape. Most of its walls remain largely intact but the interior now supports a number of chalets, modern roads, paths and flowerbeds. Setting: Situated on rolling ground to the southwest of Chepstow, near the Severn Estuary. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 134-6 (ref: PGW (Gt)29). Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXXI (1886).  

PGW(Gt)52(MON)

Talycoed Court  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llantilio Crossenny  

342079  

215163  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small late Victorian landscape park; terraced garden.  

1882 - c. 1893.  

Talycoed Court is registered for the historic interest of its late Victorian terrace garden and small landscape park. It was built for the historian Joseph Alfred Bradney (1859-1933) author of ‘A History of Monmouthshire.’ The registered park and garden has group value with the mansion (LB: 2787), former stables and clock house (LB: 2788), forecourt walls and railings (LB: 2789), entrance lodge (LB: 2790) and entrance gates, piers and walls (LB: 24324). Talycoed Court is a large Victorian mansion dated 1882 designed by the architect F.R. Kempson in Queen Anne style. It is situated on ground sloping to the east just to the north of the Trothy valley. It stands in the centre of its park, and is approached from the south by a drive which enters the small forecourt to the west of the house. An avenue of oaks flanks the east-west part of the drive, and continues across the park, to the horizon on the ridge east of Talycoed Farm. Trees have been lost but originally the avenue was continuous (six-inch Ordnance Survey 1902). A late nineteenth-century Queen Anne style lodge, also by F.R Kempson, stands to the west of the entrance gates. Opposite the entrance is a rubble stone wall with an ornamental drinking trough set into it (LB: 24325). Talycoed Park is a small landscape park of pasture and isolated deciduous and coniferous trees set on gently rising and undulating ground to the north of the river Trothy. The park was landscaped at the same time as the house was built, in the 1880s and 1890s, by Sir Joseph Bradney. A small stream runs down the east side of the park, with a wooded slope to its east. To the north-east of the house a small lake was formed, with a dam at its southern end, and a walk to it from the north end of the garden. The lake is now silted up, but it is still surrounded by rhododendrons and laurels, and the straight path to it from the garden remains, although now turf covered. The area between the lake and the garden has a high stepped brick wall along its west and north sides, and may have originally been an orchard. In the north wall is a door into the woodland, which probably originally led to a woodland walk. To the west of the house is a small rectangular gravelled forecourt, entered on the west side, and with a short drive off to the clockhouse and stables to the north. It is surrounded by a low brick wall topped with iron railings. The terraced garden lies to the south, east and north-east of the house. The terraces are built out over the slope and revetted with stone walls and connected by a flight of stone steps. At the north end of the lower terrace is a small stone pavilion, open to the sky, with two pointed arches on its south side. To its west is a doorway in the wall leading to steps down to the walk to the lake. The original layout of paths within the gardens has gone from all but the upper terrace of the north end of the garden, where a wide gravel path still runs along the terrace. The rest of the garden is laid out to lawns and wall borders, with hedges dividing the separate properties (the house is now divided into four separate units). The kitchen garden is situated to the north of the stable court. It is a small, roughly rectangular walled garden, with red brick walls topped with terracotta tiles on all but the west side. There are doorways in its north and south walls. Along its west side is a stone wall of uneven height with a doorway bearing the date '1893' over it. On the outside of the north wall are lean-to brick bothies. To the north is a rectangular area bounded on the east by the walk to the lake, and on the west and north sides by a high brick wall topped by terracotta tiles, stepped down the slope on its west side. It is now a pasture field, but was probably originally an orchard. There is a door in the wall near the south end of the west side, and another in the north side leading to the wood. Significant Views: Views to the east and to the south from the garden terraces across the garden, park and surrounding countryside. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 143-144 (ref: PGW (Gt)52). Ordnance Survey, 25-inch sheet Monmouthshire VII (1901) Ordnance Survey, six-inch sheet Monmouthshire VII.SE (1902)  

PGW(Gt)49(MON)

The Argoed  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Trellech United  

352292  

208454  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal gardens of lawns, woodland and shrubberies, and walled garden.  

Seventeenth century; late nineteenth century.  

The Argoed is located above the steep west side of the Wye valley, about 4km south of Monmouth. Its gardens are registered for the survival of a seventeenth-century layout with late nineteenth century alterations in a magnificent position overlooking the Wye valley. The Argoed was originally owned by the Probert family. In about 1865 it was bought by Richard Potter, chairman of the Great Western Railway. His daughter, Beatrice Webb, was a social reformer and founder member of the Fabian Society. It was visited by George Bernard Shaw, amongst others. Between 1985 -1990 The Argoed was owned by the singer and songwriter Robert Plant. The garden has group value with Grade II* Listed The Argoed, a house with origins in the mid seventeenth century (LB 2892), and the Grade II Listed stable block and Garden House (LBs 2893 & 24949). The gardens lie just south of the village of Penallt, occupying a roughly triangular area with the house located on its east side. The gardens are bounded on the west by two minor roads, on the east by a wall and fence north and south of the house and by a ha-ha to the east of it. The rectangular gravel forecourt on its west side is approached by a straight drive from the south flanked by pairs of ancient sycamore trees. The forecourt is now subdivided and access to the north drive is blocked. This drive is flanked by Wellingtonias, planted in the late nineteenth-century, and runs past the former coach house to an entrance and lodge at Penallt. Much of the present-day appearance of the gardens is due to the late nineteenth-century alterations carried out by the Potter family. Most of the gardens are laid out informally with specimen trees, shrubberies, and lawns. Immediately around the house there is more formality with wide gravel paths and two large grass terraces to the east of the house. These are separated by a low scarp, and the lower one is bounded by a curving ha-ha. In the field below the ha-ha are traces of at least one further terrace. To the north of the terraces is a large rectangular walled garden with roughly coursed stone walls and arched doorways on the south and east sides. Both this and the terraces are probably seventeenth-century in date, laid out in the time of the Probert family who then owned the estate. In the south-east corner of the walled garden is a small raised decorated stone pavilion built into the walls. In the north-east corner an iron armillary sphere stands on a tall squared pillar of the same stone and construction as the walls and pavilion with which it may be contemporary. To the south of the house is a small paved area with an open rustic loggia at the south end, called the 'Italian garden'. A narrow channel runs down the middle with three circular millstones set into it at intervals and a raised millstone at the south end. To the west of the Coach House is a small roughly circular pond with a stone revetted dam along its east side. The western boundary of the garden is planted with a belt of mixed coniferous and deciduous woodland and an underplanting of specimen shrubs including unusual rhododendrons. The rest of the area to the west of the house is grassed, with specimen conifers and deciduous trees. Evergreen shrubs flank the east end of the south drive. Setting - The Argoed is located above the west side of the Wye valley, in a rural area south of the village of Penallt. Significant views - The ha-ha east of the house allows magnificent views of the Wye valley and the countryside beyond from both house and garden. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 8-10 (ref: PGW (Gt)49).  

PGW(Gt)17(MON)

The Hendre  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llangattock-Vibon-Avel  

346552  

213958  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park  

Mid-late nineteenth century.  

Registered as an example of a well-preserved nineteenth-century landscape park, with seventeenth century origins. The park includes a picturesque drive laid out by H.E. Milner (1845-1906), the remains of nineteenth-century formal gardens, an arboretum and a well-preserved nineteenth-century walled kitchen garden. The Hendre has historical associations with the Rolls family who were pioneers of aviation and motoring. The registered area shares important group value with the house and the numerous estate buildings of contemporary date. The Hendre is a rambling picturesque brick mansion (LB: 2773) begun c.1830 by Mr. John Rolls and added to continually throughout the nineteenth century. It was built on the site of an earlier, smaller house of the same name, which the Rolls family used as a shooting box in the seventeenth century. It continued as an occasional residence for the family until Mr. John Rolls made it his principal seat. Around the Hendre is a large well wooded park of approximately four hundred hectares, originally known as the Deer Park. It was enclosed in 1892. Most of it lies to the east and southeast of the house, where the ground is rolling and varied, with woodland (coniferous plantations and deciduous natural) on the ridge on the east side of the park and on the west side of the hill to the south of the house. A large area of woodland bounds the park to the southeast (Hendre Great Wood, Panterris Wood, Calling Wood, Milburn Wood, Great Garrow Wood, Upper Caxton Wood). The park is also dotted with many isolated mature trees (mainly oak) and clumps of deciduous and coniferous trees. The overall effect is varied and picturesque. A map of the estate by John Aram, in about 1800 includes only a small part of what later became the park. The landscaping was mainly done by Lord Llangattock towards the end of the nineteenth century - by the time of the six-inch OS map (1886) the northern part of the park was in existence. Lord Llangattock extended it to about 400 hectares and enclosed it in 1892. Much of the landscaping was related to the building of the long drive, about 4.8km long, from Rockfield to The Hendre. This was designed by Lord Llangattock in conjunction with H.E. Milner, landscape architect, (son of Edward Milner) in the 1890s. It runs from Monmouth Lodge (1896 by Aston Webb) and gateway (LB: 25040; 25053), past Swiss Cottage (LB: 2857 – 1905 by Aston Webb) winds through the park, and ends up curving through the arboretum to the west of the house. It was carefully planned to take maximum advantage of the rolling ground, and was landscaped all the way, with tree and shrub planting, views cut through the woods, stone bridges and rockwork (including Pulhamite). The drive passed an existing small lake, made 1837-50, which was ornamented with a rockwork cascade. Two contemporary descriptions (Gardeners' Chronicle 1900 and Gardeners' Magazine 1903) are full of praise for this most picturesque drive. Between 1883 and 1900, a hunting lodge, now known as Caxton Tower (PRN: 10966 – Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust) was built in the park, to the east of Upper Caxton Wood. The current main drive is from the north at Box Bush Lodge (LB: 25029 – mid-nineteenth century by T.H Wyatt). Further drives approached the house from the west at Raglan Lodge and from the north at North Lodge (LB: 25025 – c.1896 by Aston Webb). The estate village to the north of the house, on the Rockfield-Llantilio Crossenny road, was built by Lord Llangattock in picturesque cottage-ornee style in the 1890s (the cottages opposite the entrance have the date 1893 inscribed on them LB: 25026). A drinking trough (LB: 25023) carries the inscription 'Pure life pure water. 1894'. The gardens and pleasure grounds lie to the southeast, south and west of the house. They were made from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. To the east, southeast and south are level terraced lawns. The lawn to the south of the house is bounded by a ha-ha, those to the east/south-east by a retaining wall and balustrading (LB: 25028). In the southeast corner is a sunken garden with a small circular pond and cast-iron fountain at the centre (LB: 25061) and the remains of formal beds and paths around it. At the north end of this lawn is a small pavilion (LB: 25028). To the west of the house is the arboretum. Within this area is a long walk, running north-north-east/south-south-west, flanked by cypress trees. This walk was known as the Cypress or Cunard Walk (said to be as long as the deck of a Cunard liner) and was originally planted with Lawson’s cypress and Western red cedar, although most have gone and replaced by other cypress trees. To the west is an informal pond with Pulhamite rockwork at the inlet end (north) backed by a small grove of yew. Descriptions of the garden in about 1900 mention these features and many notable tree specimens. The whole of the garden and arboretum area is now surrounded by a golf course. The walled kitchen garden lies to the north of the house. It was built at the same time as the mansion. The brick walls stand to their full height. At the north end is the former gardener’s house and a number of lean-to and free-standing glasshouses. Significant Views: Overlooking the park to the south and southeast from the garden terraces. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 45-46 (ref: PGW (Gt)17(MON)). Ordnance Survey, 6-inch map sheet Monmouthshire VIII (1886; 1902; 1922) Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map sheet Monmouthshire VIII.14 (1901; 1920)  

PGW(Gt)62(MON)

The Hill  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

329551  

215433  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal gardens and walled garden set in informal woodland grounds and a small area of relict parkland.  

Late eighteenth century; 1800-1822; about 1904; 1967-2009  

Registered as the gardens, grounds and relict parkland of The Hill, an early nineteenth-century miniature country estate. A rare and interesting feature is the semi-circular projection of the walled kitchen garden, the line of which dates to at least 1798. The historical association of The Hill with John Wedgwood, eldest son of Josiah Wedgwood, who rented The Hill from 1831 to 1836, is of great interest. John Wedgwood was a horticulturalist of some note and was one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1804. The Hill is a substantial house (NPRN: 407212) surrounded by formal and informal gardens, a large walled garden, informal woodland and relict fragments of formerly extensive parkland. The Hill has a fine situation on the north edge of, and overlooking, Abergavenny, with the open countryside of the lower slopes of the Deri and Rholben ridges of the Sugar Loaf mountain above it. It is situated in the centre of the gardens and grounds, reached by a drive from Hill Road, to the west, through ornate Edwardian iron gates with a single-storey lodge at the entrance. Trees flank the drive. When first built The Hill would have been more isolated from the town than it is now. There has been a house on the site of The Hill since at least the eighteenth century. For much of that century it was owned by a family named Lloyd. Nothing is known about the surroundings of the house during most of the eighteenth century, although, given the size of the house, it is very probable that there was a garden and possibly a small park during the ownership of the Lloyd family. On William Lloyd’s death in 1771 the estate passed, through various bequests, to Richard and Walter Scudamore, brothers of John Scudamore of Kentchurch Court, Herefordshire. The house, however, was sold to William Morgan, at least as early as 1776, when his illegitimate son Thomas (died 1822) was born there. William and Thomas Morgan were key owners of The Hill, in terms of the development of the house and its grounds. Archival and physical evidence suggest that Thomas substantially rebuilt the existing house and its outbuildings and made substantial alterations to the grounds at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The earliest evidence for the layout of the park and garden is a survey by Henry Price of the property of Thomas Morgan, dated 1798. The plan shows that at that time some features of the present-day layout were already in existence. The property extended further south and east than at present. It included a small park, drive, small garden and, most interestingly, a walled garden with a semi-circular projection at its north end. Thomas Morgan’s early nineteenth-century changes involved the removal of field boundaries around the house, creating what was described in 1842 as ‘a rich Park-Like Paddock’, an informal garden and woodland area and the enlargement of the walled garden. The 1842 Sale Particulars state that Hill House had ‘A Walled Garden, abundantly stocked with Fruit; Lawn and Pleasure-Grounds, embracing a beautiful Grove of lofty and varied Timber, at the North Side of the Mansion, through which might be formed beautiful walks’. The 1842 Sale Particulars map and 1843 tithe map show roughly the same layout but the Sale Particulars map is more detailed, in that it shows tree planting and paths. Both show that the overall layout of gardens and grounds has remained substantially intact since that time, although the gardens were reworked in about 1904 and the park to the east and south has been considerably reduced. After Thomas Morgan’s death in 1822 The Hill had a number of owners through the nineteenth century and for much of the time the property was rented out. The next owner was Philip Jones, who let the property. Between 1829 and 1835 or 1836 it was occupied by John Wedgwood and after him William Morgan, a banker, who occupied it from soon after 1836 until at least 1851. The gardens and grounds shown on the 1842 and 1843 maps and described in the Sale Particulars of 1842 would most probably have been in existence when John Wedgwood and his family lived here. As he was renting the property, and was here for only a short time, it is unlikely that John made any major changes. However, his horticultural enthusiasm and expertise is well documented. Of exceptional historical interest is the fact that his gardening diary, now kept at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library in London, covers the period when John lived at The Hill. The next major phase of development to both house and grounds took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, under the ownership of Edward Pritchard Martin, JP (1844 – 1910). Martin, who had had a distinguished career in mining and engineering and had been the general manager of the Blaenavon ironworks, bought The Hill and its wider estate in 1901, on his retirement. Edward Pritchard Martin’s remodelling campaign of about 1904 included extensive alterations to the park and garden, including the terrace and steps to the front of the house. The main sources of information on these changes are the 1916 Sale Particulars and the 1920 Ordnance Survey map. The lodge, which is in the same style as the side wings added to the house, was built at the same time. The present gardens and grounds can be divided into four main areas: the formal and informal garden to the south of the house; the informal and woodland areas; the walled garden and the relict parkland. To the south of the house is a large terrace with an informally planted sloping lawn below. The terrace is bounded on the south by a low stone parapet wall and balustrade. The balustrade, dating to about 1904, is punctuated by square piers and at either end are angled corner projections. In the middle are wide stone steps (also about 1904) in two flights, leading down to a wide gravel path running straight down the slope. A Wellingtonia stands at the east end of the lawn. This tree was probably one of a pair, planted in about 1904 each side of the central axis path running down the lawn from the main house entrance. The position of the second tree, now missing, is shown on the 1920 Ordnance Survey map. To the north of the drive and the house are the informal and woodland areas and the walled garden. The informal areas of garden to the sides and north of the house are complex in layout and have been interrupted and in places destroyed by subsequent development. The woodland occupies the larger area and is wrapped around the north, east and west sides of the walled garden at the centre. The north end of the grounds is occupied by mixed deciduous woodland. The two large beech in the north-west corner and another one on the north boundary are survivors of an earlier planting scheme. In places there is an understorey of laurel, holly and yew. Informal, unsurfaced paths, run through the wood. At the core of the gardens, on the south-facing slope above and to the north of the house, is a large walled garden. This appears always to have been used for both ornamental and kitchen garden purposes. It is an unusual shape, being trapezoidal, with a semi-circular projection in the middle of the north side. The walls are brick on the inside and stone outside. In the early 1990s this part of the garden underwent a radical restoration, part of which entailed the complete rebuilding of the east wall and the repair of the others. The interior layout of the walled garden dates only to the period after 1995, when Coleg Gwent took over The Hill. The remaining parkland area lies mainly below the house and ornamental garden, at the south end of the site. It is an area of open, mown grassland dotted with trees of varying age. Significant View: From the house front and garden terrace overlooking Abergavenny. Sources: Cadw, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales PGW(Gt)62(MON)  

PGW(Gt)5(MON)

The Kymin  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Monmouth  

352815  

212590  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Circular belvedere and commemorative temple on summit, with Picturesque landscaping and views.  

1793/94; 1800.  

The Kymin is registered as a fine example of Picturesque landscaping dating to around 1800. The registered area has group value with The Kymin Roundhouse and The Naval Temple. The Kymin is a high hill (250m) to the east of Monmouth, with a precipitous slope down to the Wye valley on its west side. At the top of this slope, in natural deciduous woodland, are situated two small buildings, the Round House, or belvedere, and the Naval Temple. The views to the west from the Round House are spectacular and far-reaching. On the east side of the summit is a large level lawn which was laid out at the end of the eighteenth century as a bowling green. It was subsequently used for other sporting purposes in the nineteenth century, including hockey in the 1860s. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the summit of the Kymin was a favourite resort of the Monmouth Picnic Club and in 1793 it was decided to erect a building on the spot for its members. The Round House (LB: 2222) is a two-storey circular belvedere in picturesque style, with a crenellated roof, and windows in the upper floor from which the views could be admired, particularly those to the west, over the town and towards the mountains around Abergavenny. It was built in 1794, and immediately became very popular. It is built on a raised platform with a low parapet wall on the west. Walks were cut through the fine woods at the summit, then called Beaulieu Grove, now Beaulieu Wood, with carefully composed viewpoints and seats from which there were spectacular views. It is referred to by Charles Heath in ‘Historical and Descriptive Accounts of the Ancient and Present State of the Town of Monmouth’ (1804). The Naval Temple (LB: 2221) is a small square single-storey classical building topped by an arch on top of which is a statue of Britannia on her rock. It is surrounded by a low stone wall, and is situated some 60 m. to the south of the Round House. It was erected in 1800 and dedicated on 1st August, the second anniversary of the Battle of the Nile, by the Duchess of Beaufort (daughter of Admiral Boscawen, one of the naval commanders commemorated by the temple), who was responsible for the 'fine carriage road' up to the summit (now the public road). In 1802 Nelson visited Monmouth, and made a visit to the Naval Temple and Round House, where he had a meal. All through the nineteenth century the summit was a showground, with bowling green, swings, donkey rides etc. It was used for any important Monmouth celebration, and in 1905 there were huge celebrations there for the centenary of the battle of Trafalgar. Significant Views: Spectacular views across the landscape to the west and east from the Round House and to the west from the viewpoints in Beaulieu Wood. Inter-visibility between the Naval Temple and The Roundhouse. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 63 (ref: PGW (Gt)5).  

PGW(Gt)23(MON)

Treowen  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mitchel Troy  

346313  

211098  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Tudor terraced garden  

Mid sixteenth century to early seventeenth century  

Treowen is registered for the remains of a formal garden, thought to be contemporary with the early seventeenth-century house, but with later alterations. The small park to the east of the house is included in the registered area together with several fishponds in the valleys to the west and east, possibly medieval in origin. The registered area has group value with the grade I listed house (LB: 2065) and grade II listed range of farm buildings at Treowen Farm (LB: 25786). A long drive approaches the house from the Dingestow road to the south. There is no entrance lodge. The sloping field to the east of the house has the feel of a small park, of grazed open pasture planted with mature oaks, although much of this land was orchard during the nineteenth century. Sheepcot Wood lies to its east. The woodland is shown on the map of c.1800 but had been extended to the west by the late nineteenth century. A stream tributary of the River Trothy runs along the western edge of the wood and feeds into the fishponds in the valley to the east. The gardens lie to the north and south of the house. The garden to the north is thought to be contemporary with the house. It has been restored in recent years. It is a roughly square, levelled lawn, which is slightly wider than the house, and surrounded on its east, west and north sides by a raised walk, revetted on the outside with a stone and brick wall. The garden is enclosed by a clipped yew hedge with an arched opening cut into the north side leading to an orchard. Linear earthwork features are present in the orchard. The three-sided raised walk is shown as an earthwork on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1886) and all of this area is recorded as orchard on this map, on the map of Treowen dating to c.1800 and on the tithe (1844). The garden to the south of the house is a levelled lawn bounded by a modern ha-ha (1960s), which continues to form the garden boundary to the east of the house. From the south lawn there are wide, open views across the rolling, rural landscape. The map of c.1800 shows a garden in this area, which roughly aligns with the garden shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey, although the layout has changed by this time. Bradney describes this area as having the outlines of ‘old-fashioned gardens’ possibly referring to the former layout shown on the 1800 map, but no longer visible. Significant Views: From the south lawn there are wide, open views across the rolling, rural landscape of Monmouthshire. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.151 (ref: PGW (Gt)23). Map of Treowen Farm (c.1800) Tithe map (1844) Ordnance Survey, 6-inch map sheet Monmouthshire XIV (1886; 1902) Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map sheet Monmouthshire XIV.6 (1881; 1901; 1920)  

PGW(Gt)28(MON)

Trewyn  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Crucorney  

333083  

222903  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced garden; small landscape park with axial avenue.  

Late seventeenth century.  

Trewyn is registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved example of a formal seventeenth-century terraced garden with a small landscape park with the survival, in part, of a seventeenth-century Scots pine axial avenue. The registered park and garden has group value with the house and estate outbuildings including a well-preserved, seventeenth-century, octagonal brick-built dovecot (LB: 1932). The terrace walls, steps, garden walls, gatepiers and gates are grade II* listed (LB: 19260). Trewyn is situated in the Monnow valley, just to the east of the Black Mountains. The late seventeenth-century manor house (LB: 1931) overlooks its small landscape park. The park lies to the east of the house, on ground that slopes down to the river Monnow. Park planting includes a short stretch of pine avenue running northeast on an axial line from the main front of the house, a lime avenue running northwest-southeast from the road east of the Trewyn to the Pandy-Oldcastle road, and pines planted along the same road. There is also a large clump and a number of isolated deciduous and coniferous trees in the park. A map of Trewyn dated 1726 shows an avenue on the line of the present pine avenue stretching to the river at Alltyrynys. By the time of the 1880s (Ordnance Survey 6" map) it only reached as far as the Pandy-Oldcastle road. Both maps show it cutting across a pre-existing pond. The original tree species is not known, but it may have been oak, as there are one or two ancient oaks on the line of the avenue near the house. The lime avenue does not appear on the 1726 map but is shown on the 1880s Ordnance Survey map. The size of the trees suggests it was planted in the second half of the nineteenth century. The former drive along the lime avenue no longer exists but the entrance still retains a gate flanked by square, stone gate piers. Trewyn Lodge stands on the opposite corner. The pines along the Pandy-Oldcastle road and the clump are also first shown on the 1880s map, and probably date from the same period. A clump of pines on top of the Hatterall Hill ridge, at the Pen-twyn Iron Age hillfort (scheduled monument: MM064) is probably part of the nineteenth-century landscaping and is prominently visible from the park. The garden at Trewyn lies to the east and south of the house, where the sloping ground has been terraced. To the east (the main front) a rectangular garden is enclosed by a high stone and brick wall on all but the east side, which is closed by railings and central gates. Two stone-revetted terraces are linked by central stone steps in three flights. This garden is virtually unaltered since it was made in the late seventeenth century (it is shown on the 1726 map). From the top terrace there is a fine view beyond the garden along the Scots pine avenue, which continues the axis. Along the south side of the house is a narrow terrace, below which, is a wide rectangular terrace built up over the slope and retained by a stone revetment wall. Below, a stone and brick wall encloses a narrower sloping rectangular area, formerly used as an orchard and kitchen garden. The upper terrace is part of the original seventeenth-century layout, but the lower ones are later, probably nineteenth-century (by the 1880s). Only vestiges of the seventeenth-century layout are still visible on this side of the house. In the nineteenth-century a series of narrow ponds were made along the contour on the western edge of the garden. These are fed by a stream to the west, with dams between them and several stone sluices to control the water level. Below the ponds at the south end of the garden is a level area which was formerly a tennis court. To the east of the ponds, on ground sloping steeply to the east, is an area of ornamental coniferous and deciduous woodland, mostly planted in the early twentieth-century. Setting: Situated in the Monnow valley to the east of the Black Mountains and in the Brecon Beacons National Park. Significant Views: From the house and top terrace along the Scots pine avenue, which continues the axis; and, from the park to the west to the clump of pines on the top of the Hatterall Hill ridge. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.153 (ref: PGW (Gt) 28). Ordnance Survey 25-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire IV.9 (1901) Ordnance Survey 6-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire IV (1886)  

PGW(Gt)16(MON)

Troy House  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mitchel Troy  

350916  

211433  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Seventeenth-century walled garden remains; remains of later garden (probably nineteenth-century); ice-house and game larder in former park.  

Early seventeenth century; nineteenth century.  

Registered for its historic interest as the grounds associated with Troy House and including the survival of the walls and doorway of an early seventeenth-century walled garden. The registered area also has group value with Troy House and Troy Cottage. Troy House (LB: 2060) is situated to the south of Monmouth on low-lying ground just to the south of the river Trothy. The approach is from the north, off the Monmouth-Mitchel Troy road at Troy Cottage (LB: 2734). The drive approaches the house through a pair of wrought iron gates flanked by tall, sandstone gatepiers (LB: 25791) and enters a circular forecourt to the north front of the house. The former park lies to the south and south-east of the house, where the ground slopes steeply up to a 200m high ridge. Most of this land is pasture with deciduous woodland near the top of the ridge (Troy Orles, Troy Park Wood). This area was known in 1804 as the Park, when Heath called it the ‘Back grounds’ and said that Troy had ‘very fine demesnes’. The 1880s Ordnance Survey shows this area much the same as it is now and large areas of orchard to the north, south and east of the house. A map of 1706 also shows these area as orchard and shows ground to the east as ‘Old Parke.’ At some time before 1706 the park was laid out with an avenue from the north front of the house to the confluence of the river Wye and river Monnow to the north. An ice-house lies within the area of the park, in woodland next to the river Trothy, about 300m to the east of the house, set into the steep hillside above the river. Another small, square, stone building, finished with fine dressed and moulded stone with an entrance doorway in the centre of the south side also lies within the area of the park. The ice-house is presumed to be of eighteenth or early nineteenth century date. The square, stone building appears to be older, possibly seventeenth century. The gardens are situated to the east and to the west of the house. The drive enters the gardens at an entrance gate to the northwest of the house, and sweeps into a circular forecourt to the north of the house. To the east of the house is an area of gardens. The northern part of this area is shown as gardens on the 1880s six-inch Ordnance Survey map. To the south a large orchard and a walled kitchen garden east of the Home Farm are shown. A brick wall of the former kitchen garden remains. To the west of the house there was formerly a flower garden, with lawns and gravel walks. This area is now built on. Traces of terracing can be made out near the river, the date of which are uncertain, but may go back to the building of the house in the seventeenth century. Compartments are shown to the north and east of the house on the 1706 map (Badminton). To the west of the house, on the opposite side of the drive, are the remains of a large rectangular walled garden dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century (LB: 2886). This is situated on gently sloping ground to the south of the river Trothy. A high stone wall runs right round it, with an entrance doorway and lobby in the middle of the east side. This is of more sophisticated, dressed stone (red sandstone) and has strapwork decoration and a heraldic shield, with the initials E C S (Charles and Elizabeth Somerset. Charles was a younger son of the 4th earl of Worcester) above the wooden door. The walled garden is shown laid out as an orchard on the 1706 map. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 155-156 (ref: PGW (Gt)16). Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map, sheet: Monmouthshire XIV (1886).  

PGW(Gt)56(MON)

Wonastow Court  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mitchel Troy  

348877  

210983  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal gardens; small park.  

Sixteenth-seventeenth century; early nineteenth century.  

Wonastow Court is located on the north side of the Trothy valley, south-west of Monmouth. It is registered for the survival of the bones of a formal terraced garden with the remnants of wider formal planting, possibly of sixteenth or seventeenth century date. There is a fine lime avenue along a former drive and a small park to the east of the house. There is also group value with Grade II Listed Wonastow Court and Wonastow Lodge (LBs 2064 & 16469), and nearby Grade II* Listed Wonastow Church which lies just outside the registered area (LB 24452). The house is situated at the south-west end of a small park which lies on ground falling away to the east with a large grove, Parkapella Wood, at the east end. A few isolated trees survive in the fields around the wood, indicating former parkland. The main ornamental feature to survive is the lime avenue, which flanks the drive which runs from the early nineteenth-century lodge at the north end of the park, to the grounds north-east of the house. Some of these trees are of considerable age but the drive is now disused. The park dates from at least the seventeenth century and may once have extended much further north. Several orchards shown on early maps have now gone. The gardens lie around the house; a sunken formal garden to the south-east and informal areas to the east, west and north-west. They appear to be of several phases; parts may be of considerable antiquity. Informal belts of trees and shrubs are probably nineteenth-century in origin and there are remnants of Victorian planting, such as the wellingtonias. The sunken formal garden is probably Victorian or Edwardian in its present form but may have much earlier origins. The grounds are entered from the north-west of the house, off the Dingestow to Monmouth road, along a drive running south, west of the house, through an area of lawn dotted with deciduous trees then swinging east to a forecourt area on the south-east side of the house. On the west is a boundary belt of mixed trees, including large conifers, and an overgrown yew hedge which extends to the churchyard abutting the south side of the garden. At the north end of the grounds is an area of large, ancient yews, possibly part of an ancient formal grove. In front of the house, to its south-east, is a level lawn, fringed by ornamental trees. Below, to the south-east, is a steep slope down to a level area where removal of overburden has revealed the framework of a formally laid out garden. Remains include stone edging, steps and a linear terrace. Below the terrace is the lower, rectangular, garden area laid out with a perimeter path of crushed shells, around a central bird bath on a plinth. The west side, next to the churchyard, has stone edgings for either paths or beds along the slope which is planted with large yews. Below this area is the site of a former pond. To the north-east is an area of overgrown woodland with traces of ornamental features including a small pond with dam and some hedging, with ornamental trees including yews and mature limes. The area was partly disturbed by its use during the Second World War. North-east of the house is the kitchen garden, an L-shaped area enclosed in brick and stone walls up 1.5m-5m high, the south corner open. The interior is mostly rough grass with no signs of early layout; part of it is still under cultivation. Setting - Wonastow Court lies in countryside surrounded by farmland, south-west of Monmouth. Despite changes in land use and the loss of ornamental features the overall layout of the grounds is largely unchanged since the nineteenth century. Significant views - From the south-east front of the house there were views out across the Trothy valley. Sources: Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, additional and revised entries part 1, 46-8 (ref: PGW (Gt) 56 (MON). Ordnance Survey 25-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XIV.7 (editions of 1880).  

PGW(Gt)51(MON)

Wyelands  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Mathern  

352389  

192177  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; terraced and informal woodland gardens.  

c. 1820.  

Registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved early nineteenth century terrace garden and informal woodland gardens set in contemporary parkland. The park and garden provide the setting for the house and associated estate buildings with which they have important group value. Wyelands is situated in rolling lowland to the south-west of Chepstow, between the town and the village of Mathern. The house (LB: 24100; NPRN: 21161) was designed in the early nineteenth century by Robert Lugar for George Buckle, sheriff of the county. The park is contemporary (c.1820) with the house and survives in its entirety having been little altered. It is of an irregular shape, elongated north-south, and is bounded on the north-west and south-east, where its boundaries are along roads, with stone walling, elsewhere by iron fencing. There are two entrances at the north and south ends of the park, each with a lodge (to the north Wyelands Lodge LB: 24082; and to the south Mathern Lodge LB: 24108). The north drive is the main drive and winds through the park to the north side of the house. The south drive runs up through woodland, joining the main drive on the north side of the kitchen garden. Most of the park is permanent pasture with scattered isolated ornamental trees, both deciduous and coniferous, including some fine cedars of Lebanon, and some clumps of mixed trees, some possibly contemporary with the creation of the park. To the north, south-east and east of the house are areas of woodland. That to the north is ornamental, with some fine specimen trees. To the south-east and east the woodland is semi-natural deciduous. To the east of the house, east of the Mathern-St Tewdic lane, is a small wood (East Wood) with a lodge at its entrance (LB: 24091). This semi-natural deciduous woodland is also part of the park and has a winding path through it. The gardens at Wyelands are contemporary with, or slightly later than, the house. They are situated all around the house and can be divided into three main areas: the woodland approach to the north; the terraced garden to the west and south; and the woodland garden to the east. To the north of the house the main drive to the house winds through an area of open, mixed ornamental woodland, with large, mature beech and also some cedars and sweet chestnuts. Along its north boundary is a screen of evergreens (yews, Portugal laurel and holly). The house is flanked by evergreen hedging, with clipped yew arches over iron gateways into the the garden on the west and service area on the east. Further open woodland and a modern tennis court lie to the east of the forecourt. To the west and south of the house is a narrow terrace with a stone-flagged path, bounded by a grass scarp down to a wider lower terrace bounded by a stone revetment wall and stone balustrading. The terrace is grassed, with a geometric layout of island beds on the south side of the house. At the north end of the west side wide stone steps lead up to a small platform backed by a stone wall. Below the lower terrace is a smooth grass slope down to the garden boundary of iron fencing, beyond which is the park. Two further terraces lie to the south-east of the house built out over the western side of the small valley to the east. The upper terrace, grassy and partly hedged, supports a sundial and a corner pavilion, linked to the lower terrace, also grassed, by stone steps (LB: 24103). To the east of the house, in a small valley, is a semi-natural woodland area, ornamented with winding, rockwork-edged paths. The path passes through a ruined arch and down rustic stone steps to the bottom of the valley and a small stream crossed by small rustic stone bridges. A similar path leads from a rustic stone archway to the north of the terraces (north of the wall to the east of the house) down rustic stone steps into the valley bottom, and up the other side. The walled kitchen garden at Wyelands Park (LB: 24102) lies to the north of the house, east of the drive. It is rectangular with stone walls curved at the corners. It is divided into three sections; a large central one, with higher walls, and two narrower outer ones at the north and south ends. The doorways have pointed arches. The interior of the main part is laid out with central crossing and perimeter paths of gravel. The inner sides of the paths are lined with iron fencing and old espalier fruit trees. In the middle of the north end is a restored lean-to greenhouse of brick and glass construction, with iron piers and a central hollow wall (for heating). In front of it is a semi-circular flowerbed bounded by the perimeter path. A cast iron vase on a cast iron plinth stands on the central axis on the edge of the bed. Setting: Wyelands is situated in rolling lowlands to the west of Chepstow. Significant Views: from the garden terraces across the park to the west and to the south. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, 158-60 (ref: PGW(Gt)51.  

PGW(Gt)4(MON)

Wyndcliffe Court  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

St. Arvans  

351776  

197239  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

1920s Arts-and-Crafts formal, terraced garden with small wild garden beyond, designed by H. Avray Tipping in conjunction with Eric Francis, architect of the house, and Charles Clay, the owner.  

1920s.  

The registered area comprises an unaltered 1920s Arts and Crafts garden layout designed by H Avray Tipping (1855-1933) in collaboration with Eric Francis (1887-1976) architect of the house, and its owner Charles Clay. The layout of house and formal terraced garden with small wild garden beyond occupies a fine position with views southwards over the coastal plain and the Bristol Channel. Wyndcliffe Court (LB: 24763) was built in 1922 by Eric Francis for Charles Clay. It is approached from the east by a lane lined by parkland fencing. The drive passes the estate cottages (LB: 24766; 24773) and enters the oval forecourt on the north side of the house. The garden is laid out on the slope to the south of the house. Its core is formal with a stone-paved terrace running the full length of the house with a stone pergola at its eastern end. Steps lead to a lower terrace and a sunken garden, in the middle of which is a small pool. In the corner of the sunken garden is a square stone summerhouse, with an open upper floor giving views southwards along a long grass walk flanked by yew hedging, and towards the Severn estuary. The lower floor of the summerhouse was formerly used as a mushroom house. The garden terracing, steps, pool, pergola and summerhouse are also grade II* listed (LB: 24764). Below the lower terrace is a long bowling green bordered by clipped yew hedging and topiary. Yew hedging and yew topiary are a strong feature of the garden. Further from the house, to the south, is a planted wild area of trees and shrubs, with a winding water channel linking two informal pools. A large rectangular walled kitchen garden lies to the west of the house and sunken garden. The main entrance is on the east side with ornamental wrought iron gates flanked by tall stone piers with ball finials. The interior is laid out with perimeter paths and a central path runs east-west from the main entrance to a simpler one in the opposite wall. There are further entrances in the north and south walls. Setting: Situated in a fine position on the west side of the Wye valley. The garden is laid out on a slope to the south of the house. Significant Views: Magnificent views from the garden to the coastal plain and the Severn estuary. Source: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, p.163 (ref: PGW (Gt) 4).