PGW(Gm)11(CAE)

Cefn Mably  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Cardiff  

Rudry  

321870  

184106  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced garden; informal pleasure grounds; landscape park; walled garden  

Late sixteenth century; 1709-35; nineteenth century  

Registered for the survival of much of the park, woodland grounds and terraced garden of the major Glamorgan house at Cefn Mably, with features dating from the early eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. The steep slopes and mature oaks of the southern half of the park form a beautiful setting for the house and are visible from a wide area to the south. Cefn Mably House (LB:13570) now converted to private apartments, is located to the north of Cardiff. It lies within a medium-sized park situated mainly on rolling ground to the south and west of the house. The park has probably evolved over a long period but evidence for its early history is scant. A painting of the 'old Tudor mansion', formerly in the house and sketched in 1910, shows a drive approaching the south front of the house from the east, with a straight drive to the front door, a forecourt along the length of the house, and linking parallel drives forming two squares in front of the house. The house is framed by large deciduous trees to the east and west. The painting may be the same one that was copied into an album in about 1837 by Angharad Llwyd of Tyn Rhyl, Rhyl, which purports to show the house in 1630. Some formal tree planting appears to have taken place in the park, probably in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. This may have been the work of Sir Charles Kemeys, who substantially altered the house at the beginning of the eighteenth century. An estate map of 1767 by William Jones shows the park walled, with some formal clumps (depicted as conifers), a row of conifers running east-west to the south-west of the house, and the park to the west dotted with trees. At some stage during the later eighteenth or nineteenth centuries the park was informally planted with deciduous clumps and specimen trees, and probably the present drives were made. By the time of the first edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey maps of 1875-82 the park was fully developed and the general configuration of open ground and woodland was established. The configuration remains largely the same but there are fewer clumps and individual trees in the park. The main entrance lies on the east boundary at Cefn Mably Lodge, just west of the Cefn-llwyd bridge over the river Rhymney. The drive winds its way to the north side of the house, intermittently flanked by horse chestnuts and oaks. A secondary gravel drive leads from the Maes-y-bryn road on the south-west boundary, eventually joining the main drive north of the house. This entrance is modern with no lodge and the drive is flanked by ash, beech, and horse chestnut trees. South of the house the ground drops steeply from the terraced gardens down towards the Rhymney valley flood plain. To the south-west, a small wood, Coed Cae-bach, and a ribbon of woodland below it run east-west down a slight valley, to the south of which the ground rises again to a narrow ridge. Planting is largely of deciduous trees, the most prominent being a row of oak clumps along the top of the ridge visible from the house and from a wide area beyond the park to the south. Near the western edge of the field below the house is a copse of large ancient sweet chestnuts, possibly part of an early formal layout of the park. The field to the west, beyond the Gilbert's Well has some large beeches at its north end and a single mature evergreen oak at its north-west end. Coed Cae-bach and the woodland below it are of mixed deciduous trees. The terraced gardens (LB: 13571) adjoin the south-east front of the house, on ground sloping away to the south and east, the main entrance drive winding through the grounds from the east. The gardens comprise the following: a large, square, revetted grass terrace with a low parapet immediately in front of the house, extending from the west end to just east of the front door, and with a small square turret in the south-east corner; to the east, below steps, a smaller square level area and, at the same level, a narrower terrace extending southwards to the south boundary of the garden, with a gazebo in the south-east corner at the end of a central path; the third and lowest terrace lies at the east end of the gardens, to the east of the middle terrace, reached by a wide flight of steps in the north-west corner. The latter terrace, known as the Winter Garden in 1910, is a quadrangular level area of grass bounded on the west and north by high revetment walls. The south side is the boundary revetment wall of the garden with a low parapet. In the middle of the north side is a small pavilion. The second main area of the gardens and grounds is the wooded grounds to the east of the house. A large area, sloping to the east, is laid out informally with specimen coniferous and deciduous trees and an under-planting of evergreen shrubs. Mature trees include cedars, pines and wellingtonia. The third area is the wooded grounds to the west and south-west of the house. Close to the house, development has impinged on the gardens removing much of the historic grounds. Beyond this area, to the north and west, are wooded grounds through which run the west drive, and in the middle of which is situated the kitchen garden. Much of this area has been redeveloped though many large specimen trees survive with evergreen shrub under-plantings, particularly between the house and the kitchen garden. Most former paths have gone. A dovecote that formerly stood near the east end of the woodland has gone (NPRN: 37492). The walled kitchen garden (LB: 21445) is situated in the woodland grounds to the west of the house, just north of the west drive. It probably dates from the early eighteenth century. It is square and enclosed within rubble stone walls 2.2m - 3.5m high. There were entrances in the east wall and in the east end of the north wall. There were brick bothies and a ruined gardener's cottage outside the north-east corner, all of which have now gone as have the remains of glasshouses which once lay along the north wall, together with an outside boiler house. The map depiction of 1875 shows the garden interior with perimeter and cross paths but without glasshouses. The interior has now been built over and the walled kitchen garden is now a walled housing estate. Significant Views: Views southeast and southwest across the park from the house and gardens. Views towards the park and house from a wide area beyond the park to the south. Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 24-8 (ref: PGW(Gm)11(CAE)). Ordnance Survey Second Edition 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XXXVII.12 (1875).