PGW(Po)36(POW)

Llanerchydol Hall  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Welshpool  

320814  

307600  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Mansion, ancillary buildings and grounds. Well planted parkland. Later additions to the garden include a Japanese garden c. 1920.  

c. 1776, c. 1820-61, c. 1920.  

Llanerchydol Hall lies in an outstandingly picturesque situation to the west of Welshpool. It is registered for its well-preserved park and gardens, on which the architect Thomas Penson advised, associated with a fine and largely intact early nineteenth-century picturesque Gothic house. There is group value with the Grade II* Listed Hall (LB 7736), and Grade II Listed First Lodge with entrance gates (LBs 7738-9) and Second Lodge (LB 16763). The park was laid out when the house was rebuilt, in about 1820, on land that was previously enclosed farmland. The house and gardens lie at the west end of the park which is elsewhere bounded by field enclosures, woodland and public roads. A housing estate has been built against the south boundary. The house is approached from the east, from an entrance on the edge of Welshpool. The original entrance has been reset to the north by road realignment leaving the First Lodge and gates displaced to the south. The terraced drive passes through the narrower park, which is well planted with oak and beech, before entering the larger park area at the Second Lodge on ground opening out on the north and south. It then curves north-west to approach the house through the garden to the forecourt on the east front. The drive originally passed through an elm avenue, now gone. The park appears to have been designed to frame the house from the drive. Throughout the western park planted trees include beech, Scots pine, cedar and copper beech, dating from the early-mid 1800s. The park briefly extended north-east, from the point of the second lodge, to Fron-Llwyd farm before reverting to its original shape. Two ponds in the southern park were probably natural pools, common throughout the neighbourhood. Plantations occur along the southern boundary and date from the 1820s. West of the house, in woodland, lies a pair of ice-houses thought to date from 1800 or earlier. The gardens or grounds at Llanerchydol lie to the south and south-east of the house and cover about three acres. The layout dates from at least 1884, when it was recorded by the Ordnance Survey, except for the Japanese garden (1920s). Garden history prior to the alteration of the house in about 1820 is unclear. The drive approaches the house through a formal gateway in the south-east garden boundary which is defined by a nineteenth-century iron fence on the east and a stone boundary wall on the west. The drive runs through shrubbery and an arboretum on the west and the woodland above the Japanese garden on the east. It then emerges into the open area, approaching the house with lawns on either side. To the east of the house is a sunken formal garden with a peripheral path, part-enclosed by a tall yew hedge. Below, on the north-east, a path descends by steps on to the site of a grass tennis court with the possible remains of a garden building or pavilion. To the south-east a path leads to an area of lawn sloping south-east towards a shrubbery and an extensive Japanese garden set below the drive in a deep gully. This is laid out in concrete and stone-lined pools and channels divided by paths and Asiatic planting. Water enters from the south via a pipe from an oval pool south of the house, and descends down small cascades through the pool system in the garden. West of the drive the large area of lawn slopes down from the walk along the south front and merges into an area of overgrown ornamental shrubbery with serpentine paths, in turn merging into a small arboretum containing exotic conifers, just inside the southern boundary of the garden. On the west side of the lawn, enclosed by the west garden wall and the shrubbery, is the (above mentioned) pool surrounded by a narrow path and some simple planting. The kitchen garden, dating from after 1810, lies to the east of the house. It is rectangular, long axis north-east by south-west, covers about 1 acre and is surrounded by brick walls about 4m high. Parallel doors enter the area on the centre north and south walls and upper north-west and north-east sides. Other doorways are bricked up. The line of a central west-east path is still evident and the northern part of a north-south path has been reinstated. A few standard fruit trees survive in the eastern part of the garden. On the south-face of the north wall, are the remains of an old glasshouse; brick footings and heating pipes survive as does some internal glazing. Immediately to the north-west is a small rectangular frame yard and to south of the garden is a small area of relict orchard with a small area of shelter belt to the west. Setting - Llanerchydol Hall is situated in an outstandingly picturesque situation in rolling countryside, the park and gardens providing a setting for the house. Significant views - The approach to the house from the north-east allows splendid views to be had of the house in its parkland setting. Outward facing views of the surrounding countryside from the gardens. The location of the house on rising ground gives views out across the park and garden to the countryside beyond, from its north-east and south-east sides. Source: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 140-5 (ref: PGW (Po)55(POW)).