PGW(Gt)40(MON)

Piercefield and the Wyndcliff  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

St. Arvans  

352768  

195944  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park, walk with viewpoints laid out along edge of sublime and picturesque landscape of the Wye valley.  

1752-72; 1798; 1828  

Registered at grade I as an early and outstanding example of a 'sublime' landscape, which became one of the most famous sublime/Picturesque walks of the second half of the eighteenth century and an essential part of the 'Wye Tour'. The designed landscape incorporates the landscape park and a Picturesque walk with seats and viewpoints laid out along the edge of the Wye Valley. The registered area shares important group value with the ruins of Piercefield house and associated structures around the house and features throughout the designed landscape. The present park is largely the creation of Valentine Morris the younger who, from about 1752, transformed the entire estate and greatly enlarged it. The parkland lies along the west bank of the River Wye immediately to the north of Chepstow, and stretches as far as the village of St. Arvans. It is a roughly triangular area of about 120 hectares. The house, now a roofless shell (LB: 2013; 24754; 24755; NPRN 20654) stands in the middle of the park, near the cliff on the edge of the Wye valley. The park is gently rolling except for the eastern edge, where the densely wooded ground drops precipitously, with cliffs in places rising to several hundred feet above the River Wye. The river loops in two enormous bends along the eastern boundary and this naturally dramatic scenery, on both sides of the river, led to the fame of Piercefield in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The western side of the park was largely open grassland, known as the 'Upper Lawn' (the northern end) and the 'Lower Lawn' (the southern end, in front of the house) with scattered trees and clumps, some of which survive. At the southern end is a small deciduous wood, Park Grove, and along the western boundary a narrow strip of large mature deciduous trees, some of which may date to about 1794 when the boundary wall was built. The eastern side of the park, along the Wye valley, is largely wooded with semi-natural woodland, mostly beech, yew, small-leaved lime, large-leaved lime, and in places several species of whitebeam. The famous walk, about three miles long, was made between the south end of the 'Lower Lawn' and the carriage road to Tintern, north-east of St Arvans. It is narrow and winding and is in places rock-cut into the cliff face. In one place (the Giant's Cave – scheduled MM282) the walk passes through a tunnel in the rock. A statue of a giant once stood above one of the entrances. Entirely enclosed in woodland, features along the way, some of which retain structural remains. Viewpoints were made to give dramatic views out over the valley, down to the river, over the Bristol Channel, and down to the Lancaut Peninsula on the other side of the river. From the south, the designed features are: The Alcove (a seat and railings - looking out upon spectacular views of the gorge, Chepstow castle and town) (scheduled MM285); The Platform (a stone viewing platform and railings) (MM284); The Grotto (a stone alcove whose inner lining of spars and other minerals has mostly gone) (MM283); The Double View (A natural bluff over the river, with views both up and down river and southwards across the park); Halfway Seat (the seat has gone, but the levelled platform on a bluff over the river on which it stood remains); The Druid's Temple (formerly a circle of upright stones), The Giant's Cave (tunnel through the rock) (MM282); a seat near two beeches; Lovers' Leap (the path takes an outward curve over a natural bluff with a sheer drop below and spectacular views downstream. No built structures remain but it was originally fenced with iron railings); and The Temple (demolished in about 1800). Contemporary visitors also mention a Chinese Seat, but it has disappeared and its exact whereabouts are unknown. A further path (now part of the Wye Valley Walk) runs down into the Wye valley bottom from the Giant's Cave and up again to the Temple. It led to a Cold Bath - a building in a clearing in the wood (MM281). A further path, now gone, led down to Martridge Meadow beside the Wye near the Cold Bath, then along the river southwards and up rock-cut steps to the house, already overgrown and dangerous by 1785. The climax of the visit by tourists to Piercefield was the further walk northwards to the top of the much higher Wyndcliff. The 365 Steps is a winding path, partly cut into the rock, from the foot of the Wyndcliff to the top, near a built feature called the Eagle's Nest from which there were spectacular views southwards over the lower Wye valley, the Bristol Channel and beyond. The walled kitchen garden (LB: 24760) is situated to the north-west of the house. Described in the 1793 Sale Particulars, the garden was built in the second half of the eighteenth century. It is rectangular in shape, aligned north-west/south-east, is nearly 2 hectares in extent, and is bounded on the west by a stone wall and on all other sides by a brick wall on a stone foundation. Beyond the north wall is an underground ice-house. North facing and double cone shaped, it is 3.6m across at its greatest diameter; 1.4m remains above the ground. There is no trace of a mound or passage and the double brick skin has partly collapsed. Significant Views: From the house front across the park south-eastwards to the Wye valley, Gloucestershire, Bristol Channel and beyond. From the features, viewpoints and seats along the Wye valley walk. Panoramic views from the Eagle's Nest stretching as far as the Bristol Channel. Sources: Sylvia P. Beaman and Susan Roaf, The Ice Houses of Britain, p.533. Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, 120-22 (ref: PGW(Gt)40.