PGW(Dy)43(PEM)

Slebech Park  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Pembrokeshire  

Uzmaston, Boulston and Slebech  

203641  

214364  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Extensive park including water features, bridges and surrounding woodland areas. Informal garden and formal terraced garden.  

Late seventeenth century; eighteenth century onwards, some remodelling of the drives and other features from the early nineteenth century.  

Slebech lies above the northern bank of the Eastern Cleddau river, some 8km east of Haverfordwest, in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is registered as a well- preserved park and extensive garden set within an outstandingly beautiful and picturesque location. The ancient site incorporates the romantic remains of the church of St. John the Baptist, both a Grade II Listed building (LB 6101) and a Scheduled Monument (SAM PE275). Although now without the walled garden which was to the north of the stable block, the layout has changed little since its portrayal on a plan of c.1790 which records the park and water features to the north and east of the house. The south-facing terraces, overlooking the river, are of outstanding historical interest and were probably constructed by Sir John Barlow or his successor during the reign of William and Mary, in the late seventeenth century. The range of plant material within the park and garden remains extensive and impressive. There is also group value with Grade II* Listed Slebech Park mansion and its nearby Grade II Listed stable block (LBs 6102 & 19419), and Grade II* Blackpool Bridge (LBs 6089 & 19408). Within the registered area there are Scheduled burial mounds on the island east of the church (PE276). The park is situated on gently rolling and fertile land, mostly pasture, essentially south-facing, dissected by a small unnamed stream which has cut a wide, shallow valley which begins over a kilometre to the north of the house and enters the Eastern Cleddau just to its east. The registered area is linear, bounded by Pickle Wood in the east, the river on the south, and elsewhere by farmland and marginal woodland towards the boundary of Picton Castle Park (PGW(Dy)42(PEM)) on the west. Drives have changed over time but there are now two possible approaches to the house, from the west and from the east. The west drive, about 2km long, enters at a lodge from the minor road to The Rhos. The east drive, also about 2km long, formerly led off the (now) A4075 just to the south of Canaston Bridge. Immediately to the north of the turning is the Eagle Lodge. It follows a line which crosses Blackpool Bridge to the north side of the river and on to the house. Within the park are several ponds, mostly utilitarian in origin but some would also have had an ornamental purpose. To the east of the house on rising ground towards Pickle Wood are the remains of a two-storeyed square tower, known as the Temple of the Four Winds. Its original purpose is not known but it was probably a folly tower, acting both as an eye-catcher and gazebo. The garden lies mostly to the south-west and south-east of the house; there was once a walled garden to the north. Immediately around the house are informal lawns, specimen trees and shrubs. Below and to the south are terraces used for growing fruit trees, soft fruit and flowering herbaceous plants, which thrive in the southerly aspect. Early documentation is lacking but the terraces are thought to date to the late seventeenth century. The series of walled and grassed terraces of varying length and width, reached either via a tunnel from the main garden area or from the walk that links through to the church. The lowest terrace contains the remains of extensive glasshouses which were valued as part of the ornamental garden as well as for their utilitarian function. Much of the grassed terrace area was used as an orchard. The ruined church now forms a picturesque garden feature. A low finger of land east of the church becomes an island during some tides and is thought to have been constructed as a landscape garden feature, probably undertaken in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, and ornamentally planted. Above the river is a terrace walk constructed after 1815. A wide range of exotic plantings of the nineteenth century are still to be found around the garden. Setting - Slebech Park is located in rolling Pembrokeshire countryside, an agricultural area with few development threats. Significant views - From mansion and from the garden terraces there are views across the Eastern Cleddau waterway, and from the towering Temple of the Four Winds there would have been spectacular views south across the Pembrokeshire countryside. Source: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 302-8 (ref: PGW(Dy)43(PEM)).