PGW(Po)3(POW)

Glanusk Park and Penmyarth  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Llangattock  

319263  

219659  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Demolished house; remnants of extensive parterre garden; water garden; pleasure grounds; walled kitchen garden; grotto; designed parkland  

1825 on; c. mid nineteenth century  

Glanusk is located in the upper Usk Valley, west of Crickhowell. It is registered for its important and picturesque park that survives in its entirety, although the house has gone. The remains of a High Victorian garden by Markham Nesfield laid out between 1842-74 lie next to the house site. The park includes Penmyarth and its deerpark which lie above the north bank of the Usk. There is important group value with Grade II Listed Penmyarth house (LB 20643) and its outbuildings, Grade II Listed Penmyarth Park Chapel (LB 20645), and a range of Grade II and Grade II* Listed buildings associated with the former Glanusk House and its park and gardens, together with the home farm (Park Farm). Glanusk Park house was built for the ironmaster Sir Joseph Bailey on land he bought in 1825. Its earlier history is unclear but it seems that he bought an existing estate. In 1831 he purchased the small neighbouring estate of Penmyarth and incorporated its lands into the estate as a deer park. The park surrounds the site of the old house on all sides, almost entirely enclosed by a nineteenth-century stone wall. It slopes down to the south side of the river from the south park wall, the open pasture dotted with many mature deciduous trees. Glanusk The main drive from the north crosses the park to the site of the old house. It enters at the Grade II Listed North Lodge (LB 20646) and crosses the Usk over Grade II* Listed Glanusk Bridge ornamented with the Tower Lodge (LBs 20666 & 20689). North of the bridge a branch leads up to Penmyarth; below it stands the estate chapel which serves as an eyecatcher from the east and south-east. South of the bridge the drive branches west to the Grade II Listed estate offices (LB 19521) and the Grade II Listed Park Farm beyond (LB 20684), and continues south beneath a lime avenue to the Grade II* Listed stable court (LB 20715). From an archway here the drive runs south-east past the house site to leave the park at Grade II Listed South Lodge (LB 20686). Near the arch, a disused branch runs south to leave the site at Grade II Listed West Lodge (LB 20685). An eastern drive branches to the south-east from near Tower Lodge, to run past the gardens before looping round to the north-west and on to the old house site. The ground above the Usk on the south has been landscaped to create a picturesque approach to the house. Terraces and earth banks hide Park Farm and its adjunct buildings from the drive. A raised terrace to the east of the north drive, with a conifer plantation, hides the walled kitchen garden. Further earth banking hides the estate buildings to the south-west from the drive on its approach to the stables. Glanusk and neighbouring Gliffaes, to the west (PGW(Po(4)), shared a drive, Green Drive, which opened onto the Llangynidr/Bwlch road, resulting in Gliffaes being drawn into Glanusk during the late nineteenth century. The park remained intact until the Second World War although the east kennels and slaughterhouse were abandoned in the early twentieth century. The remains of formal gardens at Glanusk lie within a Grade II Listed boundary wall, within which is a terrace wall (LB 19530-1). They lie to the north and north-west of the house site, a rectangular level terrace of about 1/4 acre on a north-west/south-east alignment about 100m in length. From the old north front three wide grass terraces descend via flights of steps to a second large rectangular grassy terrace, the site of Nesfield’s parterre designed between 1842 and 1874. Only a large circular fountain basin at its centre, on the axis of the steps, survives. The parterre is enclosed, along its northern edge, by a raised terrace walk about bounded by a ballustraded wall and inner line of yews, with seat recess. The wall separates garden from parkland below it. From its north-west end the wall continues as a low ha-ha around the garden boundary to the north and north-west. The stone wall continues up the east boundary of the gardens in a series of grass terraces to the former east front of the house. A terrace walk which ran along the north front of the house continues north-west to the new house about 60m north-west of the old house site. The historical development of the gardens prior to the involvement of Joseph Bailey and Markham Nesfield is unclear. To the west front of the new house, a large formal garden has been laid out on a level area of lawn, around a central axis formed by a central path from the house to the gates in the east wall of the old frame yard. There are rose borders with pergolas alongside the path and extensive plantings of ornamental trees on the lawn. A door in the north-east end of the frame yard leads into the site of a fernery which abutted the wall. There were water features which included tufa rock formations with water spout and two small pools, and beyond it a water garden - a series of concrete pools and small cascades which descend the slope to the north-east and planted with ornamental trees. Running water flows into a garden pool in an area also with ornamental plantings. To the north-west of the formal garden tree-planted lawns were laid out and the area became known as 'The Ladies' Garden'. The Grade II Listed walled kitchen garden with adjoining frameyard (LBs 19532-3) lies about 150m north-west of the site of the old house and is contemporary with the old house. It is rectangular, long axis north-east by south-west, covers approximately 1.5 acres, slopes downhill towards the river and is surrounded by walls 3m high. Bricked up gateways are to be found in the north, west and east walls; the southern gateway survives. The interior is now grassed over but an internal path layout is visible as parch marks. No glasshouses, frames or related garden features survive though evidence of fruit training survives on the south wall. The frame yard, on the south-east, is a smaller, rectangular enclosure, enclosed on the south-east by a 3m high wall which is abutted by a line of single-storey bothies one of which is now the gardener’s house. At the centre point a gateway connects the frame yard with the new formal garden to the east. The interior is an area of lawn and rough garden and also the site of the brick footings of abandoned frames. There were extensive glasshouses which have now gone, all organised outside the walls, together with a sundial and fountain. Two modern greenhouses stand within the frame yard. Penmyarth In the park south of Penmyarth a golf course was laid out by 1910, following the removal of deer south into the main park, but was abandoned in the 1960s. The park extended east towards Gliffaes, an area of mixed woodland and ornamental trees. Lengths of deer fencing survive around this area including a gate. The garden lies to the east and south of the house and is laid out as mainly open, sweeping areas of lawn planted with trees and shrubs. To the south-east the house looks out onto a wide circular lawn which is surrounded on the south and east by a stone ha-ha and on the north-east by a yew hedge separating the lawn from the forecourt. A paved terrace with columned veranda separates the front of the house from the lawn. A garden extension of shrub and wild ornamental planting is being developed in parkland along the east boundary of the garden beyond the ha-ha. To the south and west of the circular lawn is a second, rectangular, lawn area raised above the east lawn and accessed from the house by a flight of steps. This lawn is partially enclosed by a high wall. At the north end is the garden store/potting shed with a Grade II Listed ornamental dovecote, a former barn (LB 20644). Along the south side of the wall is a swimming pool on a raised, revetted, terrace 1.5m high, accessed by two flights of steps. The lawn below is ornamented by five circular rose beds arranged in a square with one central bed. This area of the garden is bounded on the south-east by a low retaining wall with a central rose arch at the top of steps. These lead down a grass slope to an early twentieth-century, oriental-style rock and concrete water garden of three pools linked by serpentine rills set in grass and amongst mature ornamental plantings, and with rockwork containing rough steps and seating areas on the western side. To the west of the lawns is a third, large, garden area consisting of a lawn with ornamental tree and shrub plantings laid-out as an informal wild garden with mown paths and some modern sculptures. Just west of the garden wall gateway lies a brick and stone ornee ornamental cottage. To the north is a tennis court, a small orchard and a modern, ninteenth-century style greenhouse; to the west is an area of planted woodland and Penmyarth (estate) Cottages. The north boundary here is the park wall. Setting - Glanusk Park occupies an important and picturesque location in the upper Usk valley against a backdrop of the Black Mountains to the north and Mynydd Llangatwg to the south. Significant views - From the south side of Penmyarth are fine views across the main park to the south and south-east. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 88-95 (ref: PGW (Po)3(POW)). Additional notes: D.K.Leighton