PGW(Dy)4(CAM)

Middleton Hall  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Carmarthenshire  

Llanarthney  

252584  

218060  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscaped park with double walled garden, cascades, bridges and remains of extensive water features.  

1785-1815; 1996-present.  

Registered for the survival of much of the structure of a late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century landscaped park in fine rolling countryside, above the southern bluff of the Towy Valley. The main feature of the park is a string of lakes. Some of the structures relate to the attempt by the park’s creator, Sir William Paxton, to develop it as a spa. The park includes an unusual double-walled kitchen garden and a well-preserved ice-house (LB: 21754). The core of the park, including the mansion site, stable block, pleasure garden site and walled kitchen garden, is now the National Botanic Garden of Wales. The house was destroyed by fire in 1931. The footprint of the mansion is traced in stone on a lawn. To the west is the only part of the house still standing, a section of the west wing, originally the servants’ block. The house stood in an elevated position above three small valleys. When the landscaping of the park was complete the lakes, walks and bridges could be seen from the house and conversely, from the park there would have been fine views of the mansion. From both there was also the distant prospect of Nelson’s (later Paxton’s) Tower (LB: 9384), designed by Cockerell in about 1808, on the prominent hill to the north of the park. In the early nineteenth century the artist and land surveyor Thomas Hornor (1785-1844) was commissioned by the estate owner William Paxton to create a series of paintings of the landscape. Notably, the discovery of nine paintings from the Hornor collection has informed the recent restoration of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century designed landscape created by William Paxton. The landscape has been restored through the Regency Restoration Project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The restoration has been informed by additional archival research and archaeological investigation. Archaeology has revealed previously unknown detail about the landscape, including Old Middleton Hall, its site and ornamental gardens; informed the repair of parkland structures including the fine and unusual series of water features - a necklace of five lakes, waterfalls and cascades, and bridges; and revealed the heating system of the Paxton era peach house in the walled garden. The registered park and garden has important group value with the surviving estate buildings and parkland structures of contemporary date, some of which are listed. Significant Views: Views overlooking the park and Lleyn Mawr. Long views from the house site and park towards Paxton’s Tower. The view from the former main approach from the north provides wide views across the estate, with Paxton’s Middleton Hall once forming the centrepiece of the view. Views within the park as depicted in the Hornor paintings are also important. Sources: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, (ref: PGW(Dy)4(CAM)). Information about the Regency Restoration Project from the National Botanic Garden of Wales