PGW(Po)2(POW)

Llangattock Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Llangattock  

321376  

217365  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small ornamental pleasure ground around house, walled kitchen garden, parkland with circuit drives, lodges and home farm.  

House c. 1838, parkland possibly earlier.  

Llangattock Park House, built in 1838, lies above the village of Llangattock, facing north-east on the southern edge of a small park. Its parkland and grounds are registered as the remains of a small nineteenth-century park and garden associated with the house by eminent architect T.H.Wyatt, built for the Duke of Beaufort as a summer and hunting residence. The park lies to the north and the east of the house (LB:20727). It once covered an area of about 382 acres (154.7ha) but due to the residential expansion of Llangattock village, and other encroachments, much of the west side of the park has been re-developed. Its early history is unclear but it may have had origins as a medieval deer park. A park of some kind had been created by 1538 when the area comprised part of the older Park of Cillellan. Historically the park was surrounded by a stone wall which partly survives. To the north and east the park is bounded by farmland, on the west by housing developments and a recreation ground, and on the south it is now bounded by the Brecon and Abergavenny canal (nprn 85124) the construction of which in the late eighteenth century bisected the southern section of the park. Within the park there were two large areas of plantation, well established by the 1840s. By 1887 an enclosed tree nursery had been established in the north-east park, possibly to cultivate the mixed woodlands in the south of the park, near to the house. The park was noted for its beech woods which included the Ladies' Avenue, once lined with ornamentals. The park is criss-crossed with circuit drives which all date from at least 1887. Many survive but most have deteriorated. The central west/east drive is now the main entrance to Park Farm from the village, and its continuation east to the farm itself. New trees have been planted along this section. The main northern drive, The Ladies’ Avenue, which exited the site by Park Farm Lodge, is now a footpath. The house is approached from the north-west from an entrance and lodge at the south end of the village (nprn 409564). Parkland trees survive around the park though its once notable beech plantations have gone, gradually depleted during the early twentieth century. The areas north of Park Farm and south of the canal still retain fine examples of parkland oaks which have been supplemented by areas of replanting. A few limes have also survived along the drive to the house. There are some beeches to the west of the northern drive in woodland around the former Ladies Avenue, the north end of which survives. Shelter belts in the vicinity of the house contain ornamental introductions such as redwood and noble fir. A few oaks survive in the area of the playing field and pasture inside the historic west boundary of the park, alongside the village road. The gardens lie to the north and east of the house. The drive from the village passes through an area of simple wooded pleasure grounds now much altered by development. At the north front the drive opens out onto a turning circle around a central raised bed, and beyond it is an area of ornamental woodland pleasure ground, bordered on the north by a stone wall/iron fence boundary. The drive continues into the parkland beyond. An area of lawn and rough grass east of the house extends to about 1 acre (0.4 ha), sloping north-east, bounded by trees and shrubs including some specimens. There is no trace of a ha-ha. In front of the house is the site of a fountain, and to its east a small ornamental sundial. The northern boundary of the site is defined by a length of nineteenth-century iron fencing running in a curve around the top of the garden to connect with stone wall on the western side. Below this is a mixture of lawn with various ornamental trees and the service areas of the garden. To the west of this area, north of the drive, a group of Noble Fir grow on the lawn. There is also an area of simple wooded pleasure grounds, much altered by development, located along the drive from the village, in the south-west. The wood, containing new houses, runs along the south boundary of the site, on the north side of the canal. In the south-west of this woodland there is a derelict ice-house. The early history of the pleasure grounds, before 1835, is unclear. The tithe survey of 1840 recorded a house and pleasure garden, approximately in the present position. In addition, the northern area of the garden generally constitutes an area of ornamental woodland pleasure ground located beyond the turning circle The walled kitchen garden lies about 100m to the west of the house and originally covered about 1.5 acres. At its south-west end is Tan-y-Fron Lodge, formerly the head gardener's accommodation. The early history of the kitchen garden is unknown but the style of Tan-y-Fron and of the walls suggest a date in the 1830s. It has been suggested that up to 16 gardeners worked in the kitchen garden alone in the late 1800s. Three still maintained it in 1956 when it was sold. It has been gradually encroached upon by development. Setting - Llangattock park and grounds are located in the Usk valley between the Black Mountains to the north and Mynydd Llangatwg to the south. In recent decades there has been considerable urban encroachment on the park’s west side, including within the walled kitchen garden, due to the expansion of Llangattock, and an industrial estate has been carved out of the east side. Significant views - The garden location affords views south to the rising ground of Mynydd Llangatwg. From Park Farm, its location on higher ground allows views north across the park to the Usk valley and the Black Mountains beyond. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 147-150 (ref: PGW (Po)2(POW)).