PGW(Gm)56(SWA)

Singleton Park and Sketty Hall  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Swansea  

Sketty  

262928  

192239  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Urban public park, including formal and informal gardens; walled kitchen gardens; model farm  

1784; 1823-40 (Singleton Park); c. 1790; 1822-31; 1832; 1898-1902 (Sketty Hall)  

Singleton Park, incorporating the grounds of Sketty Hall, is an urban public park of outstanding historic interest located to the south-west of Swansea. Its history is one of private ownership, particularly by the wealthy Vivian family of industrialists, and is intimately bound up with that of the city of Swansea. The park is registered both for its historical associations and for the exceptional quality of the landscaping of Singleton Park which is contemporary with the building of Singleton Abbey and its garden. It contains many unusual trees and shrubs, some of extreme rarity. In addition to the Abbey (listed grade II, LB:11757) and Sketty Hall (listed grade II, LB:11765), the park is important for its group value with numerous listed structures which include several picturesque lodges, Swiss Cottage, Veranda House, the farmhouse to Singleton Model Farm, part of the estate wall, and St Paul’s Church and Churchyard (all grade II). Notable architects were P.F.Robinson who designed not only the Abbey but also its formal garden together with other features of the landscape, and Henry Woodyer who also contributed. The estate was built up by John Henry Vivian during the nineteenth century through the purchase of an earlier house, Marino, which became partly incorporated into Singleton Abbey, and a number of farms used to create surrounding parkland. Sketty Hall and its grounds, a short distance to the north-west, came into the hands of Richard Glyn Vivian in the late-nineteenth century, and was amalgamated with Singleton Park in 1936 to form a public park. Together the parkland grounds formed a square of some 230 acres (93 ha.) bounded by public roads, but extensive developments during the twentieth century, in particular the University of Swansea Campus, Singleton Hospital and Bishop Gore School, have greatly reduced its extent. As a result, the park now forms several separate, or semi-detached, areas. Singleton Abbey (LB:11757) is located at the east end of the university campus. Its formal terraced garden, designed by P.F.Robinson, is mainly to the south of the house, replacing the simple informal lay-out of Marino, and was designed as an integral unit with house and forecourt. The garden is laid out in descending walled terraces decorated with medievalist ornamentation (LB:11758-9). The east, semi-circular, forecourt has a gothic pillar at centre (LB:11759) and mixed trees and shrubs behind. South of the house, extending from the forecourt, is a wide terrace with narrow plant beds next to the house, a sundial at its centre. Wide steps descend to the lower, gravelled, terrace with octagonal projections at each end. Below is lawn planted with specimen trees. On the west side of the house the upper terrace supports two fountains and plant beds on the outer side. Steps descend to campus buildings. On the north side of the house is a garden and shrubbery with a network of paths that is now part of the park. It comprises several elements: a shrubbery of mixed trees and shrubs with many rare and exotic species; a large mounded rockery; a bog garden laid out with water channels; the ‘Archery Lawn’; and, nearer the house, a rectangular formal garden with circular pools and ornamental plantings. There are several formal park entrances with lodges: the north entrance, towards the eastern end of the north boundary, with North Lodge on its west side (LB:11750), opening on to the main north-south walk; a second lodge, further to the west on the north boundary, is now detached from the park; the west entrance with a drive, or walk, to the model farm (farmhouse LB:11762) and beyond and, nearby, a lodge designed by P.F.Robinson (LB:11764); the south-west entrance and lodge at Ty Harry, in the south-west corner of the park, also by Robinson (LB:11763); and in the south-east corner is a grand archway entrance with Brynmill Lodge, designed by Henry Woodyer (LB:11746). The main area of the park lies to the north and east of the house and comprises open, rolling grassland planted with trees. The central core is open, with isolated ornamental trees and a few clumps, mostly deciduous. Around the fringes are more extensive belts of woodland, particularly along the east side where there was an arboretum. This side of the park is bounded by a well-preserved boundary wall (LB:11747). The main ornamental building is the Swiss Cottage (LB:11753), designed by Robinson, which lies close to the main north-south walk, to the south-east of the kitchen/botanic garden. Below it is a circular pond, stone-edged and surrounded by deciduous trees. At the far north end of the park is St Paul’s Church (LB:11754), once private but now a parish church, built in 1850 by Henry Woodyer for the Vivian family in memory of Henry Hussey Vivian’s first wife (died 1848). Close to the park boundary wall are traces of two corn mills and their water control features that once formed part of a medieval milling complex which included tidal mills (NPRN:410018). The public park includes the former kitchen garden which lies towards its north-east corner. It is D-shaped, surrounded by high brick and stone walls, and is now occupied by Swansea Botanical Gardens and a plant nursery. The walled garden developed from gardens once attached to a precursor of Veranda House, a now disused Victorian house in gothic style on the east side (LB:11751); it was formerly the gardener’s house. Towards its south side is an area of lawn and flower beds with a decorated fountain, originally in Swansea Castle Gardens (LB:11752). Just north of the garden is a Gorsedd circle, first raised in 1926. The west side of the central park area is flanked by a belt of mixed trees and a low stony bank, formerly the boundary between the parks of Singleton Abbey and Sketty Hall. Beyond the boundary, north of the hospital, are areas of open grassland, shrubberies, and belts of trees which include ancient oaks. In a clump of trees are the remains of an ice-house (NPRN:405532). The public park also includes Singleton Farm (LB:11762), one of the original estate farms, turned into a model home farm by John Henry Vivian. Sketty Hall (LB11765) and its gardens lie at the north end of a large open lawn, mostly surrounded by trees and flanking woodland belts. Along the south side of the lawn, in the woodland, a small canalised stream has been ornamented into a water garden, now partly within the hospital grounds. Gardens lie to the north, west and south of the house, and were developed along with the house and park. To the north, the ground is level, with the entrance drive cut into the slope. Its once formal Italianate character has now gone and this area is made up of informal plantings of trees and shrubs interspersed with small lawns, drives and car parks accessed by flights of steps. West the house is a lawn planted with specimen trees. In an informal area of trees and grass is a small, circular kiosk, originally the ‘Temple of the Winds’, and at the far west end of the grounds is a pond. The garden to the south of the house is dominated by the Italian Garden which lies below a paved terrace with box parterre on its outer side. The garden is laid out as a level, formal rectangle with a gravel surface and curving, symmetrical, box-edged beds, divided into four quarters by axial paths, and flanked along the east and west sides by stone bases for cylindrical columns. In the centre is a raised square area with marble columns. To the west is an informal area of evergreen shrubs within which is a pond ornamented with rockwork and a small island, fed by an ornamented water channel. To the south of the garden is a circular path and another to a low marble column. The present gardens at Sketty Hall were developed in the period 1898-1910 by Richard Glyn Vivian. A disused walled kitchen garden, with eighteenth-century origins, lies to the north-east of the house. To the south of the hospital, the south-west corner of the park, is a tree-fringed boating lake with two islands (formerly three) planted with mixed trees. There are also tree-planted lawns, visitor facilities and a playground. The lawned area extends eastwards into the university campus. To the west of the campus main entrance (east of the boating lake) is the Botanic Garden, laid out on either side of the former south-west drive. The Botanic Garden was designed for the university by The Percy Thomas Partnership in 1959. It is located adjacent to the Wallace Building (LB:82443), also by Percy Thomas, an educational building purpose-designed for the teaching of natural sciences. To the north, integrated with campus buildings, is a formal lay-out comprising terraces, plant beds separated by paths, pergolas, and a reptiliary. South of the road the garden is informal and wooded and consists of a pinetum, a pool drained by a stream flowing south into marshy woodland, and an earthen bank planted with deciduous trees. Setting - Singleton Park and Sketty Park are located on the neck of the Gower peninsula, overlooking Swansea Bay and falling within the south-western suburbs of the City of Swansea. The parks are bounded by urban developments and significant areas within the parks have also been developed. Significant Views - From Singleton Abbey and from Swiss Cottage there are open views over sweeping lawns and beyond across Swansea Bay. Source: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 188-99 (ref: PGW(Gm)56(SWA)).