PGW(Gd)5(CON)

Bodnant  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Conwy  

Llansanffraid Glan Conwy  

279901  

372285  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced gardens with views; woodland and water garden; rockeries; small area of parkland; detailed layout with many features, and enormous range of plants including many exotic and half-hardy varieties.  

Late eighteenth century; nineteenth century; 1905-14.  

Registered grade I as an outstanding garden in an extremely picturesque setting. The garden was begun by Henry Pochin and developed by the 2nd Lord Aberconway. The two main elements of the garden are the formal terraces around the house, and The Dell, based on Pochin's original plantings around a stream and artificial ponds. There are also important collections of plants, including many hybrids, especially of rhododendrons, raised at Bodnant. The gardens have historical associations with the landscape designer, Edward Milner, who designed the Victorian gardens around the house. The registered area shares important group value with the house and the associated garden buildings and structures. Bodnant is situated on the east side of the Conwy valley. The house (LB: 25063) was originally built by a Colonel Forbes in 1792, a short distance from the original house (Old Bodnod, LB: 81), and was set in parkland, though much of it has since been turned into gardens, or developed as commercial forestry and farmland, during successor ownerships of Henry Pochin and his descendants. Parkland formerly extended around the house on all sides but is now mostly confined to the north and east. The house is approached by two drives, one from the north, the other from the north-west, both with lodges, both running through plantations of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees, with under-plantings of shrubs, which are probably contemporary with the drives. There is also a short access route from the east, on the Eglwysbach road, next to the kitchen garden. The area between the two main drives has the character of parkland, with scattered hardwood trees, mostly oak, and a small copse of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees on top of a rise. There are views across this area from some parts of the garden. To the south there are remnants of the Old Park (around Old Bodnod) which retain some trees probably planted in c.1792, mostly oak and mostly planted where the land rises into hillocks. It has been extensively planted with narcissi. Managed as part of the garden its function now is to provide a pleasant view beyond the garden to the south. The area of the National Trust carpark, on the east side of the Eglwysfach road, retains some parkland planting, as does part of the woodland to its immediate north. A stone ha-ha forms the boundary between the Old Park and the Front Lawn. It was constructed at some time after 1883. Although the garden's main development was in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it could not have developed in the same way without the framework which was already in place. Trees planted by Col. Forbes, from 1792 onwards, were already mature when Henry Pochin bought the house in 1874. These were oak, sweet chestnut and, especially, beech, which had been little planted in North Wales before this time. Pochin was able to indulge his interest in exotic conifers with some shelter already established. In 1876, the first conifers were planted on the east bank of the stream in the Dell. The trees on the west bank were mainly planted in 1886 and planting dates are also recorded during the intervening decade. While Pochin concentrated on planting the Pinetum in the Dell (the steep valley of the Hiraethlyn stream), he engaged Edward Milner's firm to lay out the grounds around the house. Milner designed formal terraces around the house, from which a rather steep grass bank descended to the lawns. There were formal beds and informal shrubberies on the sloping lawn to the west. By 1883 the laburnum arch had been made, rockeries had been created in the Dell and the mausoleum, The Poem (LB: 17565), had just been built. Pochin died in 1895 and left the estate to his daughter, Lady Aberconway, who, with her son, Henry Duncan McLaren further developed the garden. McLaren’s major project was the creation of the five terraces, in 1905-14, which descend west from Milner's terrace on the steep slope (LB: 17562; 17563; 17564). These are bounded by walls of grey granite and are connected by stone steps, luxuriantly planted with climbers and shrubs benefitting from the warmth and shelter of the walls. The Rose Terrace is paved, with rectangular island rose beds, and a long central path with a statue of Priapus at the south end. The lawned Croquet Terrace below (also ‘Bowling Green Terrace’) has a baroque fountain in the centre of the back wall. Steps down from here access the lawn of the Lily Terrace which supports a large rectangular pool with a semi-circular extension on the west. The pool is fed by a narrow canal carrying water to it from a smaller pool in the middle of the back wall. The terrace is fronted by a curving yew hedge its shape echoing that of the pool, and beyond this a grass walk. Flights of steps either side of the semi-circular extension descend to the Lower Rose Terrace through trellis-work pergolas decorated with urns. Again, there are rectangular rose beds, a north-south path, and small lawns with borders. The lawned Canal Terrace below is the longest, with a north-south canal (also called the swimming pool) down the centre, a clipped yew hedge, and a long herbaceous border. At its south end is the Pin Mill, originally built c1730 as a garden house or lodge at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, it was purchased, when derelict, by the second Lord Aberconway, who dismantled it and had it reconstructed at Bodnant in 1938/9. (LB: 65). The Dell continued to be planted and acquired a more woodland character as the trees grew; plantings were altered accordingly. From about 1909 it was developed as a woodland garden along the lines advocated by William Robinson. Henry Duncan McLaren's other great contribution to the garden was the introduction of rhododendrons. Some of the first, with Himalayan varieties, were planted in the Quarry Garden, an area at the top of the valley of a tributary of the Hiraethlyn, where there had formerly been a small quarry. They did well there, and McLaren began to hybridise, planting masses of the species and hybrids he found most successful. He continued to develop and plant new varieties all his life. The kitchen garden was located on the immediate south-east side of the house on the south side of what is now its south wall. It was probably moved to its present position, immediately east of the house, in the early 1880s. The 25-inch map shows a rectangular garden divided by paths into six areas, planted with fruit trees and with two small glasshouses and a shed. Where the two main paths crossed was a small circular feature, a dipping pool, which perhaps developed into the small pond on the present top lawn. The new kitchen garden, likely built in the early 1880s, on the north side of the old north wall. Walls are of the same blue-grey granite as the house. They were later raised, now up to 5.5m high. The kitchen garden is now occupied by the plant sales area. A range of buildings against the inside of the south wall may at least in part remain from the last century. Additional note: Storm Arwen (2021) caused extensive damage at Bodnant and caused the loss of many mature trees. Significant Views: Magnificent views westwards from the house and garden over the valley and beyond to Snowdonia. Numerous internal and external views can be obtained from all over the garden. There is a viewpoint from the small circular garden just above the break of slope at the top of the Dell, known as the ‘Rosemary Garden’. Another viewpoint close to the mausoleum, to the north, consists of a circular area surrounding a seat encircling an oak tree, with a low informal stone wall around it. Sources: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 54-58 (ref: PGW(Gd)5(CON)). Ordnance Survey six-inch maps: sheet Denbighshire VI.NW (editions of 1875, 1890 & 1913). Additional notes: D.K.Leighton