PGW(Gt)41(MON)

Llanover Park  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llanover  

331502  

208788  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; abandoned formal gardens and pleasure grounds; informal water and walled gardens; walled kitchen garden.  

1790s; 1830s  

Registered for the survival of a landscape park with planting mainly from the 1830s onwards and a water and walled gardens dating to the 1790s. The registered park and garden has group value with the various estate buildings of contemporary date. Llanover Park is situated in the Usk Valley, on gently rolling ground to the west of the river, about 6km to the south of Abergavenny. The park was an amalgamation, in 1826, of two adjacent estates, that of Tŷ Uchaf to the south-east and Llanover to the north-west. In about 1792 Benjamin Waddington (1749-1828) from Nottinghamshire bought the Ty Uchaf estate. He altered the house and laid out the gardens and grounds at Tŷ Uchaf (NPRN: 265940). He planted many trees and made two carriage drives, one from Rhyd-y-meirch and another from Pen-y-parc. The gardens of Ty Uchaf (LB: 1929) lie along the Rhyd-y-meirch stream, which runs through the park near the south-eastern boundary. They stretch in a narrow band from the park boundary at Rhyd-y-meirch to the walled kitchen garden, with the house in the middle. Waddington made the ponds and cascades and did much tree planting in both park and gardens. There appears to have been no landscaping of the Llanover estate prior to 1826. On Benjamin Waddington’s death, the estate passed to his daughter, Augusta (1802-1896) who married Benjamin Hall (1802-67) (Lord Llanover) of Hensol and Abercarn in 1823. Hall amalgamated the estates and carried out further tree planting. The main phases of tree planting in the park, after amalgamation, were the 1820s-30s, the 1880s, and the 1960s-70s. In the 1830s the park was enclosed by a stone wall along the west boundary and part of the south-east boundary, with three entrance gates and lodges. Porth-mawr (LB: 87175) in the north-west corner of the park, was the main entrance. Next, southwards, was Pen-y-parc (LB: 87168; 87212), and the third was Rhyd-y-meirch (LB: 87215). A further gate was made on the south-east boundary, just east of the kitchen garden, called Porth-y-gwenynen (LB: 87170). Carriage drives led from each to Llanover House. The former gardens and pleasure grounds of Llanover House (built in 1837 by Thomas Hopper, demolished 1936) are situated to the south, west and north-west of the ruined Llanover House (NPRN: 45084). The gardens were laid out in the 1830s by Benjamin Hall. Nineteenth-century maps portray the layout. The site of Llanover House, close to the estates’ common boundary, was chosen for its woodland location that could be adapted for gardens and grounds. This gave the gardens a canopy of mature trees, in particular oaks. Immediately around the house the gardens were formally laid out with wide gravel paths bordered with flowerbeds, with lawns and specimen trees. To the west of the house, at the crossing of the central axes, was a circular pool and fountain. To the north of it a wide straight walk cut through the woodland with further paths through the wood, in the middle of which was a large naturalistic pond with a path around it. A small island within it was reached by a rustic bridge, beside it a rustic summerhouse and, nearby, a boathouse. Along the western edge of the garden was a series of natural springs or wells, one of which was called the 'Nine Wells', heavily planted with ferns, bamboos etc. Little of the original layout is now visible. Paths near the house, the pool and fountain have gone. The long allee running north from the pool is still open but has lost its formality. The lake and island still exist but all built structures have gone. The kitchen garden (LB: 87213) is situated next to the south-east boundary of the park, to the south of the Porth-y-gwenynen entrance, and north-east of the Tŷ Uchaf gardens. It is a large rectangular garden, dating to c.1800, and is bounded by high brick walls standing to their full height. The garden is still in active use. The main central gravel (north-west/south-east) path survives, the cross-path still visible from the air. A central circular feature at the intersection also survives. Some new paths have been created. Along the north-west wall are ranged several glasshouses, which retain their glass and are still partially in use. Elsewhere, glasshouses in the interior in 1900, and others externally to the south-west, have now gone. Tŷ Ardd (LB:87169), just outside the north-west wall, presumably the gardener’s house, survives. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 76-8 (ref: PGW (Gt)41(MON)). Ordnance Survey second-edition six-inch map, sheet: Monmouthshire XII.SE (1899). Ordnance Survey second-edition 25-inch maps, sheets: Monmouthshire XII.16 (1899).Additional notes: D.K.Leighton