PGW(Gt)44(MON)

Dewstow House  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Rogiet  

346731  

188871  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal gardens, with a network of underground chambers and passages as the principal feature; rockwork areas with water channels, pools and paths above ground.  

About 1900-1919  

Dewstow House is located to the immediate north-west of Caldicot, on the north side of the M48 motorway. It is registered for having the most important, best-preserved and extensive Pulham garden in Wales, unusual in consisting partly of underground grottoes and tunnels. The gardens, both above and below ground, were designed and built by the famous firm of James Pulham & Co, mostly using their trademark 'Pulhamite' artificial stone. The underground layout is highly elaborate, with tunnels linking underground, top-lit chambers and also leading to former glasshouses. The chambers have pools, fountains and cascades and are thought to have been used for growing ferns in the numerous planting pockets. The largest glasshouse - the tropical house - has an unusual layout of winding paths, channels and pools, all in Pulhamite rockwork. There are extensive areas of rockwork above ground, complete with water channels, pools and cascades. The importance of the grottoes, underground gardens and their associated features is underscored by their Grade II* Listed status (LBs 23059-61), and there is group value with Grade II Listed Dewstow House (LB 23039). The gardens occupy about 7 acres, and lie mainly to the west and south of the house. In their present form they were mostly laid out by Henry Oakley, who lived here from 1893 to 1940; it is likely that they were made from 1900, completed by 1919. Above ground the gardens are mainly informal, with rockwork and water gardens and an area of lawn with specimen trees. There are some formal elements, such as Classical balustrading, a terrace, and a small rectangular sunken area in the southern part of the garden. The house was originally approached along a drive from an entrance and lodge on the road west of the house. The lodge, built in about 1915, was occupied by the head gardener. The straight, tree-lined drive passes over a balustraded bridge and runs to the south front of the house, where it widens to a turning circle. A modern winding drive runs south off the drive, to the west of the bridge, and is now the main drive. Originally a drive ran from the north by Dewstow Lodge (now a farmhouse) but is disused. Immediately west of the house is a formal grass terrace with ornamented stone walls on its north, west and east sides. Near the centre is a circular, stone-lined well, uncovered in 2002. In the south-east corner of the terrace is the formal entrance to the underground gardens. They comprise a network of grottoes, or sunken chambers, linked by tunnels and passageways, made from Pulhamite artificial rockwork, concrete, cement-coated brick and real stone, both above and below ground. Decorative features built into the arrangement include dripstone pillars, stalactites, and arched doorways, with niches and planting beds for growing ferns. Water runs in over cascades into pools which are sometimes tiered, with islands and stepping stones, over waterfalls, and along winding streams crossed by bridges. Careful control over water flow is achieved with standpipes and water-cocks. Some sunken features had been infilled but were uncovered during recent restoration work. A further sunken, unroofed chamber, was destroyed when a swimming pool was built. To the north of the house and underground gardens lay the greenhouses, in which many exotic plants were grown, but which became derelict in the later twentieth century and were converted to farm buildings. The largest, immediately north of the pool of the open rockwork area, was Oakley’s tropical house made by McDowall Steven & Co. Recent excavations revealed a complex, sunken layout of paths and water channels through Pulhamite rockwork. A central, brick-lined path runs through the area, and rockwork paths pass over water channels. Flights of steps lead through to the tunnel to the underground chambers. Against the north wall of the garden, to the west of the former tropical house, is a range of outhouses, former glasshouses later converted but possibly accessed by at least one tunnel. Against the outer north wall is a disused water tank and the boiler house, used for heating the glasshouses and possibly for supplying water for the gardens. To the south of the house is the second main area of the garden, a roughly triangular area sloping gently to the south comprising lawn, specimen trees including mature conifers, rockwork and pools. At the north-eastern end a small stream runs through a small rockwork pool and then underground into the third main area of underground gardens, which lies in the eastern half of this area. Constructed entirely of Pulhamite rockwork, it is approached from the north down steps to a path that winds through a complex system of passages and chambers lit by small ceiling grills. Features include pools; a narrow rill which widens into a pool in the central, cave-like chamber; a sunken bog garden; and a sunken rectangular garden revetted with drystone walling and with a central, cruciform pool edged with flagstones. To the west of the bog garden is a large area of sunken Pulhamite rockwork with a 3m high waterfall, falling into a sinuous narrow pool with two island stepping stones. The slopes flanking the pool are lined with rockwork and at the south end is a small, slightly arched rockwork bridge. At the south end of this area the water runs into a small ornamental lake with a small island in the centre with a single jet fountain. To the east of the lake is an area of rockwork with a series of sinuous, rills and pools. A flagstone path runs through it, passing over the rill on a single-slab bridge. Another path runs westwards to a flight of steps up a mound. The mound has a low drystone revetment wall around its foot and a small summerhouse, known as the pagoda, on top of it. This is a simple, roofless, hexagonal structure with an open front facing the lake. Below the pagoda, on the north side of the mound, is a wide flight of flagstone steps leading down to the lake. At the far south-east end of the garden is a series of naturalistic pools, lined with Pulhamite cement and edged with rockwork. The northernmost was used at some time as a swimming pool. A path along the west side of the pool leads to a small ornamented pumping house originally for pumping water back up to the top of the garden. To the south are three more pools, arranged one above another on ground sloping northwards, the south end of the area steeply embanked with massive rocks arranged to look like natural rock outcrops. Setting - The gardens lie to the north-west of the village of Caldicot from which it is separated by the M48 motorway. It lies in a largely rural area though much of the immediately surrounding land has been converted to a golf course. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 6-7 (ref: PGW (Gt)44(MON)). Cadw HAD database.