PGW(Gm)54(SWA)

Penllergare  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Swansea  

Penllergaer  

262557  

198298  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

A large-scale picturesque layout of formerly wooded park and grounds, including lakes and an artificial waterfall. Large walled kitchen garden which includes the ruins of a pioneering orchideous house.  

1833-82  

Registered for the partial survival of an important picturesque and romantic landscape of the mid nineteenth century, the creation of John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) a nationally important figure in horticulture. The site is unusual in that there are numerous contemporary photographs of it, taken by Llewelyn, who was also a pioneer of photography. Although much of his exotic planting has gone the structure of his landscaping remains, as do the ruins of his pioneering orchideous house in the walled kitchen garden. The registered area also includes Llewellyn’s equatorial observatory built in 1846 to house his telescope and from which one of the first photographs of the moon was taken. The orchideous house and the observatory are scheduled monuments (GM596; GM410) and share important group value with the registered park and garden. Penllergaer (or Penllergare) is situated in the Afon Llan valley to the north of Swansea. The most recent house (which had been rebuilt by John Dillwyn Llewelyn in 1835-36, using the architect Edward Haycock) was demolished in 1961 and council offices were subsequently built on the site with much of the immediately surrounding garden developed for vehicle parking. More recently, the council offices have been demolished and a housing development has been built on the site. The park was largely the creation of John Dillwyn Llewelyn from 1833 onwards. Before that date there is known to have been a park but there is no evidence as to its appearance. John Dillwyn Llewelyn transformed the landscape with great imagination landscaping c.3 km of the valley of the Afon Llan, where it runs from the Melin-llan to Cadle. The combination of the creation of lakes, waterfalls and profuse and exotic planting produced a romantic landscape. Mid nineteenth-century photographs by Llewelyn give a good idea of the landscape in its heyday. The house was situated at the northern end of the park, on the west side of the river, with a steep drop below it to the valley and lake below. The main entrance was from the south, at Cadle Mill, from which the picturesque Cadle Drive was built in 1833 and a lodge, Lower Lodge, was built at the entrance by Edward Haycock (1790-1870). The drive runs northwards along the west side of the valley past Middle Lodge and Upper Lodge, built in 1833/34 to accompany the new drive. Lower Lodge has been converted to a private house. Middle Lodge and Upper Lodge are now ruinous. The northern end of the drive was, and is, dramatic, with a cliff above and a precipitous drop below. The drive passes a quarry, embellished as a picturesque feature in the landscape and a photograph shows that it was gardened and had a waterfall in the north-west corner. At the top of the waterfall there was a log cabin, now gone, reached by paths from the walled garden. Below the house site the ground slopes steeply to the lake. The lake is dammed at its southern end with a substantial rockwork dam. On its west bank the path leads to a stone platform where the waterfalls which cascade over the dam can be viewed. There are three waterfalls, a central main one and two smaller side ones, separated from the main one by projections of stone slabs. The rockwork extends east and west on either side of the waterfalls. The whole was artificially built of large flat stones, laid horizontally, arranged to look like a natural rock outcrop or cliff. A number of paths run down and across the valley, one leading to the west side of the former lake which once occupied a large part of the southern end of the valley floor. The lakes and waterfalls were also constructed in the 1830s and finished in 1839. Both had boathouses. That for the upper lake was situated on the west shore on an inlet near the north end. That for the lower lake was on an inlet on the north side of the lake. Both have gone, only footings remaining. Llewelyn conducted experiments with ‘a small electric galvanic apparatus’ to propel boats. It worked well but was rather slow; the British Association for the Advancement of Science visited on 19 August 1848 to have a demonstration. An enormous amount of tree and shrub planting took place from 1833 onwards. The 1876 Ordnance Survey map shows the completed landscape, indicating clearly that it was almost completely wooded - the only open area was the field between the Middle and Upper lodges, which ran in a narrow tongue down to the north end of the lower lake. The gardens were also created by John Dillwyn Llewelyn at the time as he rebuilt the house in the mid-1830s. The 1876 Ordnance Survey map shows their completed layout. The areas around the house site have been lost to development. The equatorial observatory (LB: 26500; GM410) is situated to the west of the house site. It once stood in its own garden but now stands in the green space at the centre of a new housing development. The kitchen garden complex lies to the south of the house site. To its east there is a steep drop to the south drive; to the south are open fields and the ruins of the kennels building. There are several components to the gardens, the main one of which is a large, walled, trapezoidal garden bounded by high rubble stone walls and containing the remains of a glasshouse and the orchideous house. Perimeter and cross path lines can be made out by their edging kerb stones. In the centre is the overgrown stone surround of a former small pool. Just to the north-east of this are the very overgrown remains of the orchideous house. Smaller walled compartments outside the main walled garden have been interpreted as a melon ground (PRN04859), heather house (PRN04849), rock garden (PRN04850), pineapple house (PRN04853) and the ruined buildings of gardener’s accommodation (PRN4852;4855;4858). The kitchen garden complex was built by John Dillwyn Llewelyn and is probably contemporary with the house and grounds, dating to the 1830s. It was certainly in place by 1840, when it is shown on the tithe map. Although now ruinous it appears to have kept its original layout and most of the features shown on the 1876 Ordnance Survey map can be located, even if their remains are fragmentary. The most important feature of this area, the orchideous house, was built in two phases. First, an ordinary orchid house was built in the early 1830s (it was referred to in 1835). Then the house was turned into an epiphyte house for non-terrestrial orchids in 1843 by the addition of a hot water fall over rockwork. The house achieved the distinction of being described in the first issue (1846) of the Journal of the Horticultural Society. Sources: Cadw. 2013. Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: (ref: PGW(Gm)54(SWA)). Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust Historic Environment Record (PRN) Ordnance Survey First Edition six-inch map, sheet: XIV (1884)