PGW(Po)38(POW)

The Garth  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Guilsfield  

321597  

310965  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Relict site, ornamental park and garden, ruined house.  

c. 1717, c. 1809-11 (Loudon)  

Included in the register for its historic interest as a nineteenth century landscape park and the site of particularly ornate Gothic early nineteenth-century house and stables, a rare architectural commission by the garden designer and writer John Claudius Loudon. It contains remnants of the ornamental grounds including a terrace and two lakes, which survive as depressions to the east and north-east of the house terrace. Originally a tall brick house of unknown appearance, the Garth was built in about 1717 west of the village of Guilsfield by Richard Mytton of Pontysgaryd. His grandson, the Revd Richard Mytton, commissioned the garden designer and writer John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) to build a new house on the same site from 1809. Loudon created an extraordinary house and outbuildings which were heavily influenced by Strawberry Hill. The house bore similarities to Thomas Johnes's fantastic mansion at Hafod and Loudon's own Hope End in Herefordshire. The house was set on a circular terrace and faced east across the park. The park is roughly triangular in shape and covers about 200 acres. It is enclosed on its three sides by roads. The early history of the park is unknown. Although its position, bounded by ancient roads, implies some antiquity there is no record prior to the earliest known house on the site in 1717. All of the buildings and structures within the present park, with perhaps the exception of a walled kitchen garden, date from the early 1800s and the involvement of John Claudius Loudon who designed the house. The elaborate kennel building (also by Loudon, 1811) stands in the parkland to the northwest of the mansion site. The 1st edition Ordnance Survey map shows the kennels standing at the north end of the 'kennel pond' (pond now gone). The park was at least partly enclosed by iron railings which survive west of the house. The house was approached by a drive from the north-east. Small plantations established before 1840 were gradually depleted from the late nineteenth century, accelerating during the 1940s when the house was used by the army. Parkland trees including oaks, cedar, horse chestnut and lime survive, scattered about the park. There are also two ancient oaks in the western area which could be relics of pre-1800 land use. The walled garden (Cadw ref:87781) lies within the park to the south of the mansion site. It is thought to pre-date the J C Loudon phase of rebuilding at Garth, probably being built at the same time as the brick Georgian house that was constructed c.1717 when the Mytton family acquired the estate. The early nineteenth-century model farm (Cadw ref:15801; NPRN 406112) stands to the west of the mansion site. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys (ref: PGW(Po)38)