PGW(Gd)1(CON)

Happy Valley  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Conwy  

Llandudno  

278173  

383001  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Urban, public, later nineteenth and twentieth century gardens.  

1887-90; 1930s.  

Registered for its historic interest as a nineteenth-century public garden with later additions containing some interesting features including a large rockery, a camera obscura and a colonnaded walk. The gardens are situated on the Great Orme headland affording superb views. The public park occupies part of the site of a former quarry. Following closure of the quarry, the land was given to the town by Lord Mostyn, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887; the gardens have also been known as the Jubilee Gardens. The southern extent of the park may already have been a public open space prior to construction. The topography has influenced the use of the site so that the garden falls into three distinct sections. The north-eastern part is the focal area with a plantation of pines and native hardwoods and zigzag paths within it. On an area of lawn there is a commemorative drinking fountain with a bronze bust of Queen Victoria, marble basins and iron railings (LB: 5800). A Gorsedd circle has been erected nearby (1896). On a grassy bank below, trees were cleared and the word 'Llandudno' laid out on the turf, probably as beds for bedding plants, designed to catch the eye of steamer passengers. In the north-eastern corner is a playground and along the southern edge various visitor facilities. Occupying the head of the small valley leading up to the west is the rockery or terraced garden, the second main area. Built mainly of rough stone walling, with many steps, some level areas, and numerous paths criss-crossing it, it steepens towards the top, and the revetting walls get higher. The western apex is sheltered with pines. A significant collection of alpine and other plants was planted on the terraces of which part survives. The third, southern, area is separated from the first two by the road which leads to the artificial ski slope above to the west. This is a craggy bluff overlooking the town giving extensive views to the south, east and west. To the west of this are grassy areas levelled for a putting green and, at the south-western extremity, for a possible bowling green. On the top of the bluff, on the southernmost high point in the gardens, is the camera obscura, a replacement of the original nineteenth-century one. At the other end of the bluff is the cabin lift station, giving rides to the Summit Station on the Great Orme. The 1930s seems to have been a period of activity in the gardens and it seems reasonable to ascribe construction of the rockery (which is not shown on the 1913 Ordnance Survey 25-in. map but appears on the 1951 version) to the same time. The putting green had also been constructed by 1951. A colonnaded walkway (LB:25269) opened in 1932, ascends beside the road from North Parade to Happy Valley and a theatre was opened in 1933 (now demolished) to replace an earlier structure which had burned down. Setting & Significant Views: Situated on the Great Orme headland with superb views overlooking the sea and the town of Llandudno. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 116-8 (ref: PGW(Gd)1(CON)).