PGW(Po)20(POW)

Llandrindod Wells Public Parks  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Llandrindod Wells  

305996  

260715  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Victorian public park/spa with additional public areas throughout the town including arboretum and boating lake.  

c.1860 onwards.  

Registered as an extensive system of Victorian public parks and open spaces surviving in its entirety, including Rock Park, one of the first public parks created in Wales. The public parks are significant for their historical association with the development of Llandrindod Wells as a flourishing spa town during the nineteenth century. Rock Park Rock Park is the principal public space of Llandrindod Wells and contains a famous chalybeate spring. The park is situated on the south-west side of the town and covers approximately 12 acres. The main entrance to the park is opposite the Gwalia building (LB: 9055) on the north-eastern end of Norton Terrace. The Park is characterised by an open central area around three main spa buildings; the Pump Room, Treatment Centre and the Pavilion (LB: 9058). It has two styles of planting; a Victorian arboretum to the north and native woodland on the south. A network of paths connect these different areas. A natural water feature, the Arlais Brook, flows along a deep narrow channel through the park. Its banks are overhung with trees and shrubs. In the south-west of the park there is a Bowling Club with three greens. Near to this a path runs south-west to a natural rock formation and viewpoint over the river, the Lover's Leap. The site of the former (demolished) Rock Park Hotel (now a housing development - Rock House Court) was located part way down the valley slope, overlooking Rock Park to the south and east. Its gardens merged into the park below. A farmhouse, Dolysgallog, originally stood on the site of the hotel situated on the edge of Llandrindod Common (see below). Following the establishment of the common wells as curatives in the late 1700s, Dolysgallog became a boarding house in the 1820s to accommodate the growing numbers of visitors. In a visit to Llandrindod in 1867 by the Woolhope Club there was only a bare common and three hotels (the Llanerch, Pump House and Rock House). However, there was a plan for the proposed new town and lines were cut in the turf. Part of the common must have been enclosed as Rock Park soon afterwards. Dolysgallog was converted into a hotel to benefit from this development and between 1895 and 1908 the hotel improved in tandem with the rising fortunes of the park. By 1908 the hotel had been bought by the local landowners, the Gibson-Watts of Doldowlod, and was virtually rebuilt as an elegant spa hotel. Norton Terrace runs along the north boundary of Rock Park and was designed both to overlook the park and to be seen from it. By 1871 part (nos 1,3, 4 and 5) of the terrace had been built. It consists of a row of fine town houses and private spas with the Gwalia Hotel, built in the early twentieth century, on the northern corner. Park Terrace, which forms the north-eastern boundary of the park, is more modest in scale and design than Norton Terrace. The houses are substantial, Victorian, three storeyed terraced houses of brick and stone, with ornate bay windows and tiled porches. The river Ithon creates the western boundary of the park and curves away to the south at the Lover's Leap. It is a picturesque river, wide and slow moving with small areas of faster water. Both banks are hung with native trees and from Lover's Leap views of the conifers within the Park add to the feeling of seclusion. Opposite Lover's Leap there is a fertile, flat water meadow. The town really began to develop from about 1868 following the Swydd Enclosure (1845) and the arrival of the Central Wales Railway from Knighton in 1865. Five principal hotels were built to accommodate the March to November visitors; the Gwalia, the Metropole, Ye Wells, the Pump House and the Rock Park. Cures were originally taken in the hotels, or from small street operations, the actual Rock Park Spa Centre not being built until the early 1900s. The mineral springs at Llandrindod included lithia, saline, radium, sulphur, magnesium and chalybeate. The most famous chalybeate spring was ornamented by a marble fountain and drinking basin in 1879. The surrounds of the spring were constructed in the 1870s and the marble drinking fountain itself was a gift from the Gibson Watts, the leading local family who by then owned the site. An inscription reads, 'This fountain and the Free Chalybeate Spring was given for the use of the public by the Lord of the Manor, J. W. Gibson Watt Esq. 1879'. In about 1900 in the south-west of the park a small formal green was developed, enclosed on one side by an arcade of shops. Originally a 9-hole golf course was laid out here, which continued to function until the Second World War. Bowling greens were established in c. 1912, beginning the town's long association with the sport. The park and spa were bought by Mr George Baillie, managing director of Llandrindod Springs Ltd., in c. 1910-11 and continued to be well used. In 1926 they were sold to the Urban District Council and the spa continued in use under the control of the National Health Service from the 1950s until it closed in 1972. It is unclear whether there was a particular individual responsible for the layout of Rock Park or whether it gradually evolved. It is known that the path system and the coniferous planting were established during the late 1860s. The Ordnance Survey map of 1888 provides a clear record of the development of the early park, the form of which remains today. The map records the spa building, except the pavilion, which was added in about 1908, and the arcade. The arboretum covers the north-east area of the park. It is mainly coniferous, containing some good examples of wellingtonia, Austrian pine, Japanese red cedar and Douglas fir. There are also some unusual maples. The planting dates from the 1870s on and were mostly the work of Mr Thomas Heighway, tenant of the Rock Park Spa from the Gibson-Watt family. A painting of the park, dating to c. 1890, by P.A. Ffyffe Villiers, who lived in Norton Terrace, shows small, immature trees, giving the park the appearance of a Japanese formal garden. No planting plan is known to exist but in 1912 the arboretum attracted the attention of Sir David Morris, Assistant Director of Kew, who compiled 'A list of the more interesting trees growing in the area of Rock Park' which was published in the Radnorshire Transactions of 1948. On the southern side of the park, particularly towards Lover's Leap, the woodland is dominated by native trees and includes some fine examples of mature oaks. Temple Gardens The Temple Gardens lie about 200m north-east of Rock Park on a triangular island enclosed by South Crescent and Linden's Walk. The gardens are mainly tree planted lawns. On the east the ground falls in three successive terraces, the most eastern of these is planted with shrub. Traditionally it was believed that on this area of the original common there was a stone circle, known as the' Druid's temple'. In 1867 a stone circle was created from stones taken from the turnpike road across the common. It was used by water carriers to hitch their donkeys between visiting the wells and the hotels. This feature is clearly recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1888. In 1890 it was accentuated by the town council, which created a tighter, more ornamental circle for the benefit of visitors. In the early 1900s the area was further subdivided into separate gardens for the surrounding hotels and houses which had been established. The eastern area of the gardens contained a tennis court and a croquet lawn, taking advantage of the earlier split-level. The octagonal bandstand which stands in the southern area of the gardens dates from about 1990. Montpelier Park The area of the Recreation Ground was known until at least 1896 as Montpellier Park on account of Montpellier House and Montpellier Park Road to the south. It lies to the east of Rock Park, separated from it by the railway line. The area covers about 6 acres and is divided into two main areas. The larger northern area is recreation based, with tennis courts, and an indoor bowling green surrounding a large pavilion. The smaller southern area is more ornamental and is a continuation of Rock Park. It lies along the upper reaches of the Arlais brook and is connected to the main park by an underpass underneath the railway. It is unclear when this area of ground became public property but was certainly within public ownership by 1909. The main use of the northern area appears to have been bowling and the pavilion. The Pavilion was built in 1912 as an entertainment centre, taking over from previously tented occasions within Rock Park. Memorial Gardens The area known as Memorial Gardens, extending to c. 1 acre, has been incorporated into the other public spaces of the town since 1918. It lies opposite the eastern end of Temple Gardens, immediately north of the Metropole Hotel. The garden is enclosed on its northern side by an ornate Victorian town house. About 30m to the east is the Radnorshire Museum, built in 1911. Connecting the house and the museum there is an extraordinary tufa rock face which rises to about 2m high and extends for about 6m. The town house, originally called Brynarlais (LB: 87569) was built in 1872 by Dr William Bowen Davis one of the first general practitioners to take up permanent residence in the town. Dr Bowen Davis laid out a garden and built a conservatory, the back wall of which was covered with the ornate tufa rockwork which still survives. This rockwork contained various dripping pools and the conservatory housed exotic plant, fern and bird life. Dr Bowen Davis was a respected amateur botanist and plantsman and it is believed that the conservatory was built to his own design. The rock is known to have been bought from Derbyshire. The conservatory also functioned as an aviary. It was dismantled in the 1960s. An extensive, area of modern brick paving connects all of the buildings and features above. The garden is mostly laid to lawn with some ornamental tree planting. A war memorial (LB: 9063) from which the area is named, commemorating both wars is sited on the centre front of the western boundary. The Lake and Common The Lake and its associated park lie to the east of the town below a hill on which a golf course, which dates from about 1900, is located. The common lies to the west of the lake, separated from it by a belt of native woodland, crossed by public footpaths. A straight formal road, Princes Avenue, cuts across the north of the park linking it to the town. On the north-west the park is enclosed by Western Promenade, a curving road which dates from the early twentieth century. Villas, on the west of this road, face out over the park and lake. The lake is roughly triangular in appearance and covers about four acres and incorporates a large bird island. The lake is surrounded by a public road (Princes Avenue) on the north, east and south sides and a long, straight walk along its west. The lake was constructed between 1872 and 1873 on the site of a bog on the last part of the old common. It was made by the Pump House Hotel which lay to the north. This hotel has since been demolished and new Powys County Council offices erected on its site. Only the actual Pump House survives within its grounds, dating to c. 1868. The lake is relatively shallow and was constructed as a boating lake and a regatta was held each summer. Lake Cottage was the original boat house. The ground originally sloped down from it to the lake, the road, which cuts into the rock, being made later. A second boat house was built on the site of the present one in about 1920 and was replaced by a new building in a similar style in the early 1990s. Below Lake Cottage, a seating alcove, thought to date from at least 1900, has been cut into the bank and provides views across the lake. On the west the park is enclosed by a narrow belt of woodland. To the west of this the land slopes down to the west, to Temple Street, as rough, semi-improved grassland, all that remains of the original Llandrindod Common, which dates from at least 1700. Setting: Situated in the Victorian spa town of Llandrindod Wells with its associated buildings and villa residences. Significant View: Views over the river Ithon and surrounding rural landscape from the Lover’s Leap at Rock Park. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, pp 135-139 (ref: PGW (Po)20(POW)).