PGW(C)54(DEN)

Bodrhyddan  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Denbighshire  

Rhuddlan  

304421  

378782  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; formal garden of parterre and topiary; informal garden.  

c. late sixteenth - early seventeenth century; late seventeenth century; eighteenth century; 1874-75.  

Bodrhyddan is located on the coastal lowlands of north Wales, between Dyserth and Rhuddlan. It is the seat of the Conwy family who have occupied the site since the fifteenth century. It is registered for the survival, near intact, of its fine Victorian formal garden and for its association with the noted architect W.E. Nesfield (1835-1888). There is important group value with a range of Listed structures including the Grade I Listed Hall (LB 1361), the Grade II* Listed gate piers at the original entrance (LB 1395), and several Grade II Listed parkland and garden features as well as buildings associated with the Home Farm. The park is also the site of the Grade II* Listed St Mary’s Well. The house is set in parkland which lies to the north, east and west of the house, bounded on the south side by the A5151 road. The original drive from the road, through ornamental gate piers (c.1696), to the south front was replaced in 1874-5 by a new drive west from Rhuddlan. Now disused this was replaced in 1928 by the present tree-lined drive from an entrance west of the original one. A further drive, from the north off what is now the A547, to the rear of the house, has North Lodge at the entrance. The park evolved, with the house, from the early eighteenth century. The eastern part, the Old Park, rises gently to the east, extending north to a former road to Dyserth. It was laid out with three avenues of trees converging on the garden south of the house. Now gone, a few ancient trees near the garden are perhaps remnants of this phase. Changes from the later eighteenth century saw the removal of the Dyserth road and field boundaries, the building of a ha-ha along the eastern edge of the garden, and the planting of two clumps, the western one containing a pond. This area is now pasture dotted with isolated deciduous trees. East of the house the park is fenced pasture with some isolated trees in the southern part, some ancient, some ornamental. The walled kitchen garden is situated next to the road in the south-east corner of the park and nearby is a well-preserved ice-house with ice cart shed (LB 1395). The New Park, west of the house, is more or less flat, and was incorporated into the park in the 1870s, when Nesfield altered the house and the new drive from Rhuddlan created. This area was is bounded by a perimeter belt of coniferous and deciduous trees. The rest is pasture, with some isolated oaks and a clump of deciduous trees. The gardens, to the south and west of the house, developed over four centuries and features from all periods remain. To the west is The Pleasaunce, an informal woodland garden of rough grass, trees and ponds, while to the south is a formal Victorian garden of topiary and parterre. St Mary's Well, an octagonal stone wellhouse, is the earliest garden feature and lies in The Pleasaunce ('The Grove' on maps), to the west of the house, and is possibly a more ancient sacred spring. Little remains of the original layout aside from St Mary’s Well, boundaries and the general wooded character of the area. Early maps show a curving wall retaining a mound at the end of a north-south pond. This survives with a modern summerhouse on top and forms a focal point at the end of the pond. Later alterations include a Japanese 'Walk of Life', made in the 1860s, a cobbled path from the Well to a sundial to a bell. The sundial survives (LB 14997) and the path is still visible. Trees are well-spaced ornamentals. Recent features include four informal ponds, the raising of the mound, tree and shrub planting. An area of bamboo the north of the house (the site of a formal pond), has been cleared. To the south of the house is the main Victorian garden, which also retains the general configuration and boundaries from the later seventeenth-century layout. Estate maps of 1730 and 1756 show the axial (south) approach to the house, leading to a turning circle and cross path in front of the house. The approach is now incorporated into the garden as a grass walk flanked by rows of trees, mainly yews. The entire east boundary of the garden is formed by a ha-ha, probably dating from the second half of the eighteenth, or the beginning of the nineteenth, century. It is well preserved and is crossed by two small bridges, the southern one with commemorative iron gates fitted following the visit of Princess Margaret in 1981. To the south-east and south-west of the house the garden is laid out to lawns with a gravel cross path, and planted, in the 1830s, with flanking yew topiary. In 1874-75 the drive and turning circle in front of the house were replaced by a formal rectangular parterre designed by Nesfield. It is set in gravel, with scrolling box-edged narrow beds (filled with bedding plants), in the centre a circular, stone-edged pool with central fountain (LB 14996) the whole flanked either side by the lawns. North of the fountain, also on the central axis, are two ornamental vases (LBs 14994-5), and at the south end are stone steps flanked by yew bushes. In the north-west corner of this area, against the house, are the footings and backing wall of a Victorian conservatory of 1875 (nprn 35671), destroyed in 1990. At the western end of the area is a row of four ancient oaks, likely those shown here on the 1756 map, and to their west further large oaks. The kitchen garden, in the south-east corner of the park, lies on ground sloping to the south, and originated in the eighteenth century. It is surrounded by brick walls on a stone base, up to 3m high, except on the south side where it is stone. A lower stone wall parallel with it provided a narrow, partitioned, strip beside the road, the west end used as an orchard, the east end supporting farm buildings. The main garden is divided by a north-south stone cross wall. Parallel with the north wall is a range of derelict, free-standing greenhouses built against a brick wall. The interior layout of paths has gone, and the whole is grassed over with a few remaining fruit trees. Setting - Bodrhyddan lies in a rural setting between the towns of Rhuddlan and Dyserth. The park is flanked on the north and south sides by road upgrade developments. The far west area has been re-landscaped as a golf course though the former drive across it is still visible from the air. Significant views – The ha-ha built along the eastern edge of the garden affords fine views from the house and garden out over the eastern parkland. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 18-21 (ref: PGW(C) 54). Additional notes: D.K. Leighton