PGW(Po)55(POW)

Bodfach Hall  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Llanfyllin  

313798  

320131  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal Victorian garden including shrubberies and walks, tree planted lawns and south terraces.  

Present house rebuilt c. 1870, contemporary gardens, house opened as hotel 1946.  

Bodfach Hall is located a short distance to the north-west of Llanfyllin on the north side of the valley of Nant Fyllon. It is registered for its well-preserved Victorian garden at one of the principal Montgomeryshire houses. Much of the tree, shrub and topiary planting from the second half of the nineteenth century survives. There is also group value with Grade II Listed Bodfach Hall and its former coach house (LBs 8544-5) and with Grade II Listed West Lodge and East Lodge (LBs 8546-7). The house stands partly obscured within a wooded garden surrounded by parkland on an ancient site with a long history of occupation. The park was laid out when the house was rebuilt, from 1761, and included the planting of over 170,000 trees. The present garden layout followed a later rebuilding of 1876 though the earliest record for an ornamental garden here is from 1776 when it appears in a Moses Griffith watercolour included in Pennant's Tours of Wales. The park is bounded by public roads on the south and east, and elsewhere by woodland and farmland. The park is now given over to farming though trees, mostly deciduous, are scattered across it. Although partitioned, mostly with post-and-wire fencing, the landscape retains its open, parklike character. Woodland is concentrated north of the house, in Rookery Wood and Coed Llety-yr-eos to its north-east. The main drive enters the park from an entrance and lodge on the south-east before proceeding north and then west across the park to enter the garden from its east side. A second drive, from an entrance and lodge on the west, passes through woodland to approach out-buildings north of the house before joining the main drive. A much earlier, now abandoned, drive once approached the house from the north-east. The garden spans about four acres and lies to the west, south and east of the house. It is enclosed by Rookery Wood to the north and by parkland to the south and east, and faces south on a gentle downhill slope. It is laid out mainly as lawns planted with trees and shrubs, including many specimens. A dense belt of trees and shrubs surrounds the garden on the south and east. Along the east front of the house is a raised terrace with topiary, and opposite the forecourt a split-level lawn enclosed by mature shrubs runs back to the garden boundary. North of the entrance, on the edge of Rookery Wood, is a tree-planted dell with what appears to be an old rock garden. The east lawn extends south to the tree-grown boundary where specimen conifers include redwood and Douglas fir. Along the south front of the house is a verandah and below it two parallel terraces with topiary and shrubs linked by steps along an axis path to the south boundary. On the west side of the house is the site of a conservatory and below it, to the south-west, are paths through a wooded area linking it with the terraces. Beyond the trees is the site of a large garden pond fed by small stream running down the west boundary of the garden. A walled kitchen garden once stood just above Rookery Wood, on its north side, but has now been planted with trees. Setting - Bodfach is located in gently undulating countryside to the north-west of the village of Llanfyllin, the park and gardens providing the setting for the house. Significant views - From the verandah on the south front of the the house there are views across the valley and the countryside beyond, while similar views to the south-west could be had from the conservatory on the west side of the house. Source: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 6-9 (ref: PGW (Po)55(POW)).