PGW(Gm)64(NEP)

Victoria Gardens  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Neath Port Talbot  

Neath  

275435  

197389  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Urban public park  

1897, 1898  

Registered as a small, well preserved Victorian urban public park, with most of its original layout and features, including a fine bandstand and inclined beds used to display carpet bedding designs. Victoria Gardens is located in the centre of Neath, occupying a rectangular block surrounded by urban streets. It was built on land originally purchased from the Gnoll Estate in 1856 as an open space for the growing town. It then became the Corporation Field before the park was laid out by a local builder, Thomas John Snow, in 1897. It was officially reopened on 30 June 1898 as Victoria Gardens. The 1913-14 Ordnance Survey map shows the park laid out with a central bandstand (LB 11822) a circular path around it, straight cross paths and curving perimeter paths, with a belt of mixed planting between them and the boundaries. Much of this layout has been retained, including tarmac paths, lawns, island beds (with some rare inclined beds facing outward towards the perimeter path), granite drinking fountain, and specimen trees, such as large sycamores and oaks. The park is surrounded by a low stone wall. There were originally entrances at all four corners, the main entrance on the south-west being the grandest. The park is divided into quadrants by the paths, partly flanked by Irish yews. The north-east quadrant is planted with specimen trees. The south-east quadrant lawn contains a gorsedd circle. Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)64(NEP). Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map of Glamorgan, sheet XVI.9 (1899).