PGW(Dy)33(PEM)

Kilgetty  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Pembrokeshire  

Kilgetty/Begelly  

213387  

208213  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal enclosed garden on a landscaped terrace. Park and paddock to the south & west.  

All features extant in 1743 although some may be earlier. The site was abandoned in the mid-eighteenth century.  

Kilgetty mansion was located on high ground just to the north of the village of Stepaside. It is registered for the survival of the structure of a pleasure garden and enclosed park extant in the mid-eighteenth century and probably dating to the second half of the seventeenth century when the mansion was built. To the east of the garden are the impressive ruins of a classical summerhouse of some sophistication with later belvedere tower. There is archival evidence that the gardens were once ornamented with parterres, water features and statues. The mansion was abandoned in the mid eighteenth century and later demolished and the present farmhouse built on part of the site. A plan of 1743 shows the mansion and its outbuildings. One small building by the entrance where a track from the north-west enters the house boundary is now ruinous but may have been a lodge. Early surveys showed a deer park and an area called The Paddock enclosed by a stone wall extending over the undulating south-west facing ground to the south-west of the mansion and walled garden. To the west and south runs a small stream running through Pleasant Valley which eventually enters the sea at Wiseman’s Bridge. The wall survives to a maximum height of 3m although tumbled in places. But otherwise much of its former character in respect of parkland trees and circular plantings has gone though a clump and a small pond lie just outside the walled garden. The garden is linear, long axis roughly north-west by south-east, and measures some 250m long by 100m wide enclosing 6 acres. It is separated from the deer park by a substantial stone wall. The 1743 plan shows the walled pleasure garden as an elaborate and geometric pleasure garden divided into several units. It shows a linear path from the gate towards the small lake and belvedere at the far east end of the garden, some 241m away. The length of the garden was partitioned by a wall with further walls defining rectangular areas north and south of it. The garden is shown divided into rooms defined by clipped hedges, with parterres, statues, walkways, mature trees and water features. In the first area nearest the house was a small pond and fountain. It is not clear how much of this was actually extant in 1743 and how much intended though some features are confirmed in later accounts. The internal network of paths has now disappeared along with the water features. Two terraces, which remain as grass-covered earthworks, extend to some 198m, nearly the length of the garden area and are both about 2m wide, with a rise of about 0.5 m between each terrace. Several sections of internal compartment wall remain. To the east, associated with the belvedere, is a retaining wall braced by three substantial buttresses that supports the garden terrace at this corner where the natural ground level slopes away. At the south-eastern end of the garden are the ruins of the belvedere, or summer house, described as a feature appropriate to a Palladian landscape. It was possibly built in two phases, the main structure in the eighteenth century, the tower in the nineteenth century. In addition to the walled garden to the east of the house, the 1743 map shows an area behind the house which is referred to as the West Garden. Today this area is partly occupied by a barn and the boundary walls survive as earthworks. No other features were visible. Setting - The farmhouse, formal gardens and parkland once rolling ground about 1km to the north of the village of Stepaside. A cutting to improve the Pembroke Dock trunk road (A 477) east of the garden has severed part of the park and reduced the total acreage. Land use changes over the last two centuries have also led to the attrition of park and garden features. Significant views - From the tower within the belvedere there would have been commanding views to the south and south-west across the park and the countryside beyond and to the coast. Source: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 228-32 (ref: PGW(Dy)33(PEM)).