PGW(Po)33(POW)

Gregynog  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Tregynon  

308109  

297036  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal woodland garden, incorporating various historic overlays. Fine wooded park including part of the ancient Great Wood of Tregynon.  

c. 1500 on; House rebuilt c. 1830 and c. 1880; Landscaping/garden making: William Emes c. 1774; Late Victorian formal garden, including parterre c. 1888; H.A. Tipping c. 1930; Dame Sylvia Crowe 1972;  

Gregynog is registered at grade I as one of the most important parks and gardens in Powys dating from at least 1500. The fine wooded park includes part of the ancient Great Wood of Tregynon. The formal and informal gardens incorporate several historic overlays. The important eighteenth-century landscape designer William Emes (1729/30-1803) produced proposals in 1774, some of which were carried out. In 1920, Gregynog became the home of the artistic patrons Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. Henry Avray Tipping (1855-1933) worked on the gardens in 1930-33 and Dame Sylvia Crowe (1901-1997) in 1972. The registered park and garden has group value with Gregynog Hall and its associated park and estate buildings and structures. Gregynog lies about 3 miles to the north of Newtown on a site with ancient origins. The park is of linear plan and lies mostly to the north-east and south-west of the house. In the north-east the park covers about 14.5 hectares and in the south-west about 16.6 hectares. Open parkland is set between large areas of plantation and wood which define the boundaries, spanning another 83 hectares between them. To the north of the house is Great Wood and Upper Plantation, between which the ground falls away to the south-east into a small dry valley towards the house and garden. In the south-west the open park runs along a wide shallow valley, the Wern, set between two long wooded ridges. The main drive approaches the house (LB: 17256) from the north-east, near the village of Tregynon at Mill Lodge (LB: 18154). This merges with the 'Galloping Drive' from the east off the Tregynon/Newtown road, approaching through a short length of oak avenue to the garden boundary at Middle Lodge (LB: 18153). A service track breaks off the drive to the south-east of the house; a second one cuts back to the north-east, to a lane at Skew bridge, on the north park boundary. From the south-west a drive enters the site to the south of Bwlch-y-Ffridd Lodge (LB: 18187). In the park the plantations are either commercial soft woods (Upper and Lower plantation, the woods either side of the Wern, and the Warren), ancient woodland or mixed woodland, which dates mainly from 1850 on. The most important area of ancient woodland is Great Wood which lies to the north of the house. To the west of the wood is Wood Cottage (LB: 87651), a working longhouse farm with adjacent areas of relict orchard. Blackhouse Wood is partly in the garden, where it is ornamental and known as the Panorama. The early history of the park is unclear. The area was heavily wooded before its gradual clearance for agriculture. The first significant changes and 'improvements' to the park occurred under Arthur Blayney in the late eighteenth century; in 1774 Blayney commissioned the landscape designer William Emes to suggest alterations to the park and garden. It is unclear how much, if any, of Emes's alterations were adopted but by the late 1770s Blayney was apparently encouraging 'informal' planting in the park. Formal gardens lie mainly to the south-east and west of the house with areas of wild and water garden lying further to the east along the main drive. From the park boundary at the rear of the house the ground falls steeply into a small valley which separates the garden, and park, from 'Great Wood'. The house and gardens are surrounded by, and include, large areas of ornamental woodland with formal walks. In total the garden area extends to about 16.6 hectares. The earliest record of an ornamental garden at Gregynog occurs on a watercolour of about 1775. Developments took place periodically during the nineteenth century. After the Davies sisters arrived in 1920 further developments took place, partly influenced by Henry Avray Tipping, then again after 1972 when the University of Wales commissioned Dame Sylvia Crowe to report on the gardens. The gardens begin in the park, west of the intersection of the main Tregynon and Galloping drives. The main drive enters the gardens on the north-east at Middle Lodge, passing through a narrow strip of woodland lined with rhododendron and laurel, towards the house. To the south of the drive, east of Middle Lodge, is the isolated Water Garden (created by the Davies sisters in the 1920s), which is composed of a large circular pool with island, surrounded by a walk. In a shallow valley stone-lined channels, pools and cascades, which are dry, run along different levels connected by stone steps. The pond is fed by a stream that enters through a stone-lined channel on the south-west, crossed by a small stone slab bridge. The house is set on an extensive level lawn and gravel terrace. About 15m to the south-east of the house the land falls into the Glen; a shallow, smooth lawned valley, of varying width, which is the predominant design feature of the garden. A gravel path from the front of the house leads to a single arch ornamental bridge faced in unreinforced concrete, which spans the Glen (LB: 18151 – constructed c.1880). Either side of the path are ornamental fountains (LB: 18140; 18141). On the north face of the Glen, to the east of the bridge, there is an extraordinary topiary feature - a crenellated golden yew hedge - about 40m in length. Beyond the lawn, south-east of the house, is the Panorama, ornamental, woodland accessed via a path across the bridge. Nearly all the ornamental trees, introductions from the Far East and north-west America, were planted in the Panorama after 1894, when Lord Joicey purchased the estate. A formal path, known as 'the Ladies Walk' runs along the north of the Panorama above the Glen, and also probably dates from Joicey’s tenure, as does the ornate golden yew hedge in the Glen. At the foot of the Glen there is a long, linear rock garden (dating to the time of the Davies sisters in the 1920s), opposite which, is a substantial area of ornamental shrub planting. South-west of the house the lawn extends to a high wooded mound ascended concrete steps known as 'Jacob's Ladder' (constructed c.1880). In the western part of Garden House Wood, to the north of the kitchen garden, another wild water garden was laid out in the 1920s, called the Dingle. H.A Tipping worked with the head gardener to create the Dingle, but very little of it now survives. The walled kitchen garden lies on a south-east facing slope nearly 1km to the south-west of the house along the service drive. It is subtriangular on plan and one acre in extent. Its walls are of stone-capped red brick and rise to between 2m, on the south and 4m on the north. The narrow north-west wall, formerly heated, was the site of an extensive glasshouse of which only the footings remain. On the north side of this wall are two bothies. To the south there is a formal slip garden which continues the line of the west and east walls outwards to the park boundary. On the west of the garden is a relict orchard. About 30m along the service track towards the house is a pair of brick, semi-detached, early twentieth-century cottages, set within a small area of garden. These are the 'Garden Cottages', built by the Davies sisters to house their lady gardeners in the 1920s. The earliest reference to a kitchen garden was in 1774 though the present garden arrangement was in place by 1842. By 1884 internal cruciform paths ran around and across the garden. A central circular feature, probably a dipping pool, was also recorded. In 1913 a heated vinery and a peach house were also recorded, as well as highly productive frames and plant houses as indicated by the sale of 1920. Significant View: Along the path and across the bridge which spans the Glen, from and towards the house front. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 104-10 (ref: PGW (Po)33POW)). Ordnance Survey second-edition six-inch maps: sheets Montgomeryshire XXXVI NW & XXIX SW (1903).