PGW(Gm)53(NEP)

Rheola  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Neath Port Talbot  

Glynneath  

284022  

204358  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small picturesque park; informal grounds; walled kitchen garden  

c. 1812-13; 1828-29  

The registered area at Rheola represents the survival of an early nineteenth century designed landscape which provided the picturesque setting to the country house. It has historical associations with John Nash (1752-1835) who designed the house and some of the picturesque estate buildings, and with Nash’s collaborator, George Repton (1786-1858) who visited Rheola in 1814. Rheola is recorded in paintings by Thomas Hornor (1785-1844) and is situated in the Vale of Neath, which attracted many eighteenth and early nineteenth century artists. The park and garden has group value with the grade II* listed Rheola house, grade II listed stables and coach house and grade II listed ice house, as well as the other estate buildings and structures. Rheola (LB: 11771) is a substantial, two-storey house in a simple Regency style, situated on the north side of the Vale of Neath, 2 km to the north-east of Resolven. The house lies on levelled ground at the southern end of the narrow tributary valley of the Rheola Brook. The estate was bought by John Edwards (1738-1818/19), a successful engineer from Neath, from Capel Hanbury Leigh, of Pontypool Park (Torfaen) in c. 1800. Edwards was the architect John Nash’s uncle. His son, also John Edwards (1772-1833) asked Nash to enlarge the small farmhouse that already existed on the site, maintaining its ‘cottage-like appearance’. This new house was built in 1812-18 and Hornor’s illustrations and estate map of Rheola, of 1814 and 1815, show a simple setting. Nash’s collaborator, George Repton (son of the landscape designer Humphry Repton), visited Rheola in 1814 and produced drawings for two farmhouses and a steward’s house (now Brynawel). The ‘Farm house for Mr Edwards - in Wales’ (c.1814) was small and ‘cottage-like’ but bears only a passing resemblance to Rheola, which is much larger, making it likely that it was intended for elsewhere on the estate and never built. However, Rheola was built as a romantic, overgrown cottage, rather than a mansion, in a natural setting. Hornor described it as ‘an attractive feature in a landscape whose prevailing character is repose and seclusion’. At first it was approached not by a drive but by a gated path, the stables (LB: 87634) kennels and laundry being at a distance to the south-east. These buildings all appear on the 1877 Ordnance Survey map and it is assumed that they are contemporary with the building of Rheola in the early nineteenth century. At the time of building the main road down the Vale of Neath ran much closer to the house, along the lawn to its south. The park was created by the removal of the public road c.300m to the south, to run next to the Neath canal. This was done in 1828-29 by John Edwards, after he inherited the property in 1820. As a close associate of John Nash he was probably influenced by him in his landscaping ideas. A two-storey lodge (NPRN: 302292) stands at the entrance where the drive enters the park off the A465. The lodge, which was not built in 1815, was in existence by 1877 (Ordnance Survey map) and was probably created soon after the road was moved. It is thought that it might have been converted from an existing farmhouse or cottage, possibly the one in George Repton’s Pavilion Notebook, designed by Nash as a ‘Farm house for Mr Edwards’, to which it has considerable similarities. There is very little parkland at Rheola. This is partly due to the approach to landscaping of Nash and the Edwards family, which was to maintain the simple, rural, picturesque setting, and partly to the occupation of a large part of the former park to the south of the house by a wartime aluminium works, now demolished. The park to the east of the house consists mainly of a gently sloping lawn leading down to a large pond, Rheola Pond, created c. 1840. To the north of the park the whole area is backed by the wooded flank of the Vale. The lower part of the wood is deciduous and includes rhododendrons; above are commercial conifer plantations. An ice house (LB: 87633) is built into the sloping ground to the northwest of Rheola pond. Nash also designed picturesque buildings in the landscape to be viewed from the house and garden. These served to enhance the picturesque qualities of the landscape and setting of the house. In the wood on the east flank of the Rheola Brook valley, to the north-east of the house, is a small ruined building, the so-called Bachelor’s Hall, of which the stubs of the walls and one gable end remain. The Bachelor’s Hall was originally reached by an ‘alpine’ bridge across the stream, as depicted in a watercolour by Thomas Hornor of 1817, which shows a rustic, picturesque cottage standing in a clearing in the wood. It is thought to have been built for visitors, but was latterly used by the gardeners. The attribution of this building to Nash is through its close resemblance to a drawing, in George Repton’s manner, of a building at Nanteos, Ceredigion. George Repton visited Rheola from Nanteos in 1814. Nash also designed the steward’s house, now Brynawel (NPRN: 401874). A drawing of this appears in George Repton’s Pavilion Notebook, dated ‘Novr. 1818’, that is, shortly before John Edwards senior died. This stands on an elevated spot to the north of Rheola Pond and would originally have been a picturesque object viewed from the house. To the south of Brynawel a chapel overlooking the lake was built in the mid C19 for Nash Edwards Vaughan by the architect John Norton (1823-1904). The chapel has since been demolished but would have occupied part of the view across the park and pond from the house. To the east of the house is a narrow strip of ground between house and stream, with a large cedar tree at its south end. A stony drive runs past the east front up the valley into an area of informal lawn planted with mixed trees and shrubs and backed by hanging woods. The trees and shrubs, some of which have grown to enormous size, include pines, cypresses, monkey puzzles, rhododendrons and azaleas. At the head of the grounds is a particularly large rhododendron. The track winds westwards up the steep slope, past two large wellingtonias planted on mounds, oaks and a monkey puzzle and then doubles back at a higher level to descend the slope gradually, eventually arriving back at the south end of the grounds near the forecourt. The track is backed by mixed woodland, including some conifers. The area of woodland flanking the west side of the gardens was originally a large, square, tree nursery, now completely overgrown. There are the remains of iron fencing around the area. The 1877 Ordnance Survey map shows that by this time the lawn behind the house had been dotted with ornamental trees, both deciduous and coniferous, and shrubs, and more paths had been introduced. The large, mature conifers and rhododendrons in this area today had probably been planted by this time. At the upper end of the grounds the stream is more natural than below, but it is still in a deep channel, parts of which are revetted with stone and concrete. There was originally a track along the stream; it is still visible but mostly grassed over. Early OS maps show footpaths winding through the woodland either side of and crossing the brook. At the head of the grounds, next to the stream, is a concrete-lined, rectangular water tank, with the remains of stone and brick walling around it. At the south end is a flight of steps down into the water. To the south of the tank are the remains of a small room, with higher walls. The tank appears originally to have been for water supply that was later converted into a plunge pool. The kitchen garden lies to the south-west of the house, on ground sloping to the south. To its east is a steep wooded bank down to the drive and to its south is a track, formerly the public road, leading to the Keeper’s cottage. The kitchen garden is shown in its present form on Hornor’s estate map of 1815, indicating that it was probably built at the same time as the house, in 1812-13. Setting: Rheola is situated in the picturesque Vale of Neath. Source: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan pp129-131 (PGW(Gm)53(NEP))