PGW(Dy)47(CER)

University of Wales, Aberystwyth: Plas Penglais, Penglais Campus and Llanbadarn Campus; The National Library of Wales  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Ceredigion  

Llanbadarn Fawr  

259828  

281672  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal gardens and former botany garden; landscaped university campuses; landscaped library grounds.  

1770; 1947-48 (Plas Penglais); 1911-27 (National Library of Wales); 1937-1959; 1965 onwards (Penglais Campus); 1970's (Llanbadarn Campus).  

Registered for its exceptional historic interest as one of the most important modern landscaping schemes in Wales. The sophisticated layout, including the landscaping, is sensitive to the character of the site, and the planting, which is unusually choice and varied, both enhances the buildings and helps to integrate the sites. One section of the Penglais campus was designed by the well-known landscape architect Brenda Colvin (1897-1981) and is one of the very few of her schemes to have survived. A number of women have played a key role in the development and planting of the whole site. The gardens of Plas Penglais, part of which were laid out as a Botany Garden for the university, contain many choice and half-hardy plants. Plas Penglais, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the National Library of Wales lie on the eastern edge of Aberystwyth, on high ground overlooking the town and the sea to the west. Penglais campus grounds. The university campus is located above the town, its main entrance off the A487 road. The Penglais site was obtained for the university in a sequence of land purchases by benefactors in the period 1897-1946. Building began in the early 1960s with landscaping of the site an integral part of its development. The whole campus was extensively landscaped with planting carefully chosen to complement the modern buildings, to suit the sloping site, to tolerate the salt-laden air and to take advantage of the mild, seaside location. The proximity to the sea, facing the prevailing south-westerly winds, make the campus one of the most exposed in Britain and severely limited the choice of plant material. The overall plan of the campus was established in 1965, with buildings roughly grouped in several tiers down the slope. Both buildings and layout were influenced by ideas from Scandinavia, where buildings and landscape were being designed and integrated in a manner sensitive to the character of the site. Planting was mainly the responsibility of the Botany Department but the overall plan was guided by the landscape architect John Ingleby who advised the commissioned architects, the Percy Thomas Partnership. The design also features the work of Brenda Colvin. In 1963 Colvin was commissioned to lay out the area between Pantycelyn Hall and the Biology Building. She drew up two plans. The first, dated January 1963, gives the layout of the area. The main feature – the curving walk – remains as Brenda Colvin designed it. Other sports facilities above Pantycelyn Hall were not built. The second plan, dated June 1963, gives the planting for the area, from the A487 to the football pitch. The suggested planting appears to have been adhered to in general terms, with heathers and mixed shrubs flanking the path and screening planting along the road and around car parks and sports areas. This area is of exceptional interest in being one of the very few of Brenda Colvin’s designs to have survived. Planting began soon after 1959, even before construction started, buildings then inserted in spaces between. Planting was dense, no corner left unplanted, mainly with evergreen shrubs and conifers. From the earliest period of planting, shelter belts, to keep out the salt-laden winds, were important. These now protect the site. The dominant tree species, planted mainly along the boundaries and flanking drives, is the pine. Planting has been used to screen buildings from one another, to enhance buildings and their settings, to screen car parks and other utilitarian areas and generally to create a very attractive environment. Under the direction of the Botany Department the planting of the campus became choice and varied, with an emphasis on South America and Australasia. The foreground to many buildings is banks and mounds of greenery, both tall and low-growing. A wide variety of shrubs is grown but characteristic species include eleagnus, griselinia, ligustrum, hebe, heathers, olearia, phlomis, berberis, escallonia, and cascading planting of Cotoneaster microphyllus. Mixed holly and beech hedges (as also seen at Plas Penglais) are also characteristic. Penglais Botanic Garden Plas Penglais (LB: 10416) formerly a seat of the Richardes family, is now the official residence of the Principal of the university. Its grounds have partly been adapted for institutional use and were at one time the botanic garden for the university. There is little information as to the layout of the garden prior to the late nineteenth century, but it was restricted to the area immediately adjacent to the house. The gardens now descend the slope between the house and a small stream running westwards. Beyond, to the south, lies a field, bounded by the A487 road. Above the house, to its north, is mixed deciduous woodland (Penglais Woods) threaded with a number of paths. In 1947-48 H.A. Hart, a member of the Botany Department, submitted plans for the framework of a new Botany Garden at Plas Penglais to Professor Lily Newton, professor of Botany, who acted at that time in an advisory role to the Buildings Office on the botanical and horticultural development of the site. Hart’s plans were passed and work began immediately on clearing and preparing the site. At the same time as the Botany Garden was developed the garden of Plas Penglais was improved and extended to its present layout, also with the advice of the Botany Department. A wide range of choice plants was used in its planting, including Phormium colensoi, Cornus capitata and Cytisus sessilifolius on the terrace and Cistus palhinae below the house. The entrance to Plas Penglais, off the A487, opens onto a drive with a small lodge on the east side. The drive approaching the house is flanked by banks of hebe and cistus, with a Griselinia littoralis hedge on a low stone wall flanking the east side and partly screening a service area. It continues, flanked by grass, larger evergreen shrubs, including rhododendrons, and conifers. A gravelled lower drive leads westwards off the main one, curving gently down the slope to the south-east corner of the former Botany Garden, flanked by a bank of azaleas and camellias. The drive passes a hard tennis court on its south side and then runs along the south edge of the main lawn. The eastern half of the garden is largely taken up with a sloping lawn, the upper part is built up into a level, rectangular lawn, probably a former croquet lawn or tennis court. The lawn is flanked by exotic trees and shrubs. Plantings include golden cypress and cedar. The upper half of the western part was once an orchard. Close to the house are shrub beds and a semi-circular rose bed. A terrace runs east-west along the top of the garden, to the west of the house. Its central grass path is flanked by wide borders planted with mixed but mostly evergreen shrubs. The west end of the terrace leads down into the former Botanic Garden which occupies the western half of the garden. It is informally laid out on the south-facing slope, with conifers and island beds in grass. Conifers are planted singly and in groups. Running across the middle of the slope is a shelter belt of cypresses. Plants include ornamental grasses and bamboos, yuccas and three Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) in the south-west corner. There are considerable numbers of half-hardy shrubs both in this area and throughout the garden. The valley running along the south side of the garden has a canopy of mixed deciduous trees, beneath which choice specimen shrubs, such as rhododendrons, are planted in places. Llanbadarn campus grounds The Llanbadarn campus is entirely separate from the Penglais campus, about 1 km to the south-east, laid out on a hillside sloping down to the south-west. The campus was developed from the 1970s onwards and was originally the Welsh College of Agriculture, Coleg Ceredigion and the Department of Library Studies, before it was absorbed by the university in 1994. The campus was landscaped in much the same way as the Penglais campus, with every available space being planted with trees and mounds of shrubs, most of them evergreen. The landscaping and planting was the responsibility of Mrs Alina Rogers, of the Welsh College of Agriculture. The main entrance is off a minor road running along the north-west side of the site. The road is bordered by pines and the entrance is flanked by banks of heather, hebe, Griselinia littoralis and Viburnum tinus, with eucalyptus trees on the upper side and birch on the lower. In the middle of the site, on the south-west side of the Coleg Ceredigion building, is a lawn with a circular bed of Trachycarpus fortunei in its north corner. A path runs the length of the south-west front of the building, next to which are three large concrete planters with oleanders in them. The path down the north-west side of the lawn is densely planted with mixed shrubs. A low residential building to the south has a densely planted long border against it, planted with mixed shrubs including fatsia, lonicera, ligustrum, choisya, berberis, cotoneaster, hebe and escallonia. Further down the slope is a lawn sparsely planted with birch trees. Steep slopes are treated in the same way as on the main campus, with cascading planting of Cotoneaster microphyllus. The National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales (LB: 10417) is situated below the south end of the University’s Penglais campus, on the same hillside overlooking the town. It was built in stages from 1911. The approach drive and the grounds below the main west front of the library have been landscaped in a way similar to the university campus, with shrub borders on the steep slopes. The main access is by a drive off the A487. The drive gently climbs the slope below the library, curving round eastwards to a car park on its south side. A short distance from the entrance is a former lodge on a platform cut into the rock face on the east side of the drive. The immediate setting of the main front of the library is architectural and formal. Below the central steps of the west front is an upper terrace running the width of the building. A tarmac path runs along it, flanked at intervals by clipped euonymus bushes. A central flight of steps leads down to a lower terrace, used for car parking. Below is a sloping lawn and a wide, central flight of steps leading down to the drive. The slope above the drive is planted with mixed evergreen shrubs. Below it is a grass verge planted with clipped euonymus shrubs at intervals. Below that is a steep drop down to a beech hedge on the site boundary. Further down the drive, to the north, the border above it is gently terraced, using natural stones. Plants include heather, hebe, variegated eleagnus, euonymus, holly, dwarf conifers and rock plants. The north end of the bed extends all the way up the bank, the steep slope terraced with stone walling. Narrow paths wind up through the planting. Further north, behind mixed viburnum, mahonia and berberis shrubs, is a cliff face. Significant Views: From many parts of the Penglais campus there are panoramic views westwards over the town and out to sea. Most of the buildings were kept deliberately low so as not to impede views. There are also long views from the Llanbadarn Campus. From the main, west front of the National Library of Wales there are spectacular views over the town and Cardigan Bay. Source: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 86, 91 (ref: PGW (Dy) 47(CER)).