PGW(Gm)34(GLA)

Llanmihangel Place  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Vale of Glamorgan  

Llandow  

298035  

172001  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Walled and terraced formal garden and former orchard  

Mid-sixteenth-century; late seventeenth century  

The gardens at Llanmihangel Place are registered for their historic interest as an exceptionally rare survival, intact and largely unaltered, of a formal garden and orchard of the seventeenth century, probably with earlier sixteenth-century elements. They also have important group value with the small complex of manor house (Cadw LB: 13136) for which the gardens provide the setting, outbuildings (Cadw LB: 13436), medieval fortified church (Cadw LB: 13141) and former fishpond, set in the small valley of the Nant Llanmihangel. The history of the gardens is obscure but on stylistic grounds they probably date to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The earliest record of their existence is an estate map of about 1770 which shows the layout in detail. From this and a later map of about 1779 it is clear that the layout survives remarkably intact. Both maps show land to the east as the park, a roughly rectangular area of open ground, in which old field banks are marked but this has long since reverted to farmland. The main garden and former orchard occupy an enclosed rectangular area of about 8 acres (3.2ha) on the south-facing slope to the north and north-west of the house, enclosed by a rubble-built stone wall of varying height. The rectangular garden occupies the eastern third of the enclosure, possibly once bounded on the west by a stone wall now mostly gone. It is divided into three terraces of unequal size; the largest is situated furthest from the house and occupies most of the garden. Ascending to the north, the terraces feature yew-lined walks and are linked by flights of stone steps (Cadw LB: 16461). Approximately two thirds of the walled enclosure was occupied by the former orchard. As well as having a general slope to the south the ground slopes down to a small central north-south stream which emerges from near the north boundary. It is now lightly wooded with deciduous trees including large oak, sycamore and ash, with an area of old coppiced hazel towards the south end, the trees planted in rows. It is bounded on the north by a broad walk and a row of yews. A windbreak of large ancient sycamores lies in the north-west corner and down the west side. To the west of the house is a grass slope, with a modern gravel drive sweeping from an entrance in the south-west corner to the house. The main area of change is to the south of the house, where a small forecourt has been replaced by a terraced garden. Source: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 250-53 (ref: PGW(Gm)34(GLA)).