PGW(Gt)45(MON)

High Glanau  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Trellech United  

349764  

207380  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Arts-and-Crafts and wild garden.  

1922-1929  

Registered as a well-preserved example of an Arts and Crafts garden designed by Henry Avray Tipping (1855-1933) and in a magnificent situation on a high plateau to the west of the Wye Valley. The registered garden has important group value with the grade II* listed house and associated garden buildings and structures of a contemporary date. High Glanau is located about 2km north of Trellech. It was the last home of H. Avray Tipping, architectural historian and garden designer, who lived there from 1922 onwards. The house (LB: 2813) was designed in an Arts-and-Crafts vernacular style, and is surrounded by a landscape laid out by Tipping as a complex of woodland and open gardens, between 1922 and 1929. Before 1922 Tipping had acquired an estate of 2000 acres in the High Glanau area, and chose the spot for his new home carefully, to give maximum scope for wild woodland gardening, for the views, and for the wide range of habitats it offered. In 1922/23, the architect Eric Francis (1887-1976) with whom he had collaborated on his other Gwent houses, designed High Glanau in an Arts and Crafts/Vernacular style. The gardens lie mainly to the north, west and south of the house on high ground sloping to the west. Around the house a little formality was allowed, in the form of terraces, but this was quickly dissolved into a naturalistic, wild garden beyond, consisting of winding walks through woodland and along a stream in the valley bottom. Although this area, to the north and west of the house, was heavily planted, and in places levelled and cleared, all was contrived to seem as natural as possible. The garden thus falls into three distinct areas: the formal terraces around the house (LB: 2814); the woodland garden to the north of the house, and the lower woodland garden in the steep-sided valley to the west. The main entrance is off the B4293, to the north of the house, the drive winding through woodland to a small forecourt on its east side. To the south of the house is a small paved terrace built out over the slope, below which is a long rectangular terrace of lawn flanked by flower beds and bounded by a wall (east) and hedge (west), grass areas flanking each side. At the far south end is a pergola on stone piers (LB: 2817) set against the boundary wall of the kitchen garden beyond. On the west two stone-revetted terraces with flanking borders linked by central stone steps run the length of the house. The steps continue down the steep grass slope below the terraces to a paved area centrally set with an octagonal pool and fountain. To the north-west is an oblong lily pool located above the lower 'wild' garden on the west. This is an area of semi-natural deciduous woodland in a small, steep-sided, north-south stream valley. On its east side a number of winding paths were made and still remain. The stream was dammed in places. A still-functioning hydraulic ram was installed by Tipping to lift water to a reservoir in the wood to the east of the house. The water is used for the pools in the garden. To the north of the house a west-sloping area of semi-natural deciduous woodland was converted into a naturalistic wild garden and glades with winding paths bordered by plantings of semi-shade loving plants. Paths connect to the drive and the area of the octagonal pool. To the south of the octagonal pool is a smaller similar area. The kitchen garden lies to the south of the ornamental garden, divided from it by a high, east-west, stone wall. The garden area is roughly rectangular in shape and descends the east-west slope in two terraces, between which is a scarp. Near the west end of the wall a single-storey stone bothy straddles the wall, its north side protruding into the garden the other side (the grass slope below, and flanking, the long terrace). Next to this is a free-standing wooden-framed greenhouse on a stone and brick base. It has been restored and all fittings (pipes, staging, ventilation etc.) are original and in working order (LB: 25755). Significant Views: Spectacular views west from the house and garden terraces. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 48-50 (ref: PGW (Gt)45).