PGW(Gd)6(CON)

Gloddaeth (St. David's College)  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Conwy  

Llandudno  

280166  

380569  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal terraced gardens with canal; informal rockery with grotto; several areas of woodland walks, with possible maze, statue, viewpoints etc: parkland and fishponds.  

Late seventeenth century; early eighteenth century; nineteenth century.  

Gloddaeth is registered at grade I for its well-preserved terraced gardens and formal canal dating to the seventeenth century onwards; extensive eighteenth-century plantations and parkland, including the possible site of a large maze; and, the survival of an early eighteenth-century plantation laid out with formal rides radiating from a central statue, which is of exceptional interest. The registered park and garden shares important group value with grade I listed Gloddaeth Hall (LB: 3411) and the associated estate lodges, outbuildings and garden structures. Gloddaeth has important historical associations as the ancestral seat of the Mostyn family. Gloddaeth, now a school, is superbly sited on a shelf in a fairly steep south-east facing slope, on the outskirts of Llandudno. It has extensive views over the surrounding countryside and is protected from the north-west by the wooded hillside behind. Gloddaeth Park is laid out on south-facing ground around the hall, mostly to its north, south and west. The ground is steeply sloping with spectacular views across the countryside. The parkland area is mostly woodland, the two main areas being the steep craggy limestone to the north of the house, and the level plain in front of it. Their straight and zigzag walks are part of the designed landscape and remain largely intact. The woods, first planted in the early eighteenth century, are chiefly composed of beech, lime, yew, chestnut and oak, and some of the existing trees may be survivors of the original plantings. A notable feature of the wood below the house was a statue of Hercules now relocated to the front lawn (LB: 5775). The statue was formerly sited at the intersection of three straight walks in the wood to the south-east of the hall, but was moved to its present site in the 1990s. The steep slopes below the house are terraced to form gardens. At the bottom of the hill the ground flattens out sharply where a canal was constructed as part of the garden design. Beyond is a rectangular apron of parkland - almost a large ornamental lawn, the foreground of the view from the house - on level ground, with plantations surrounding it on the three sides away from the house. This area is separated from the plantations to the north-east and south-east, and the fields to the south-west, by a ha-ha, a simple ditch. Further parkland beyond to north-east and south-west must have been in part obscured from the house once the plantations were mature, but the area to the south and west provided the setting for the various drives at different periods. A new west drive, built between 1861 and 1889 as part of Lady Augusta Mostyn’s improvements at Gloddaeth, replaced both pre-existing drives, being built between them. On top of the hill behind the house is a large, roughly level area which may be the site of a maze, of uncertain date but likely nineteenth century. Earlier features may include the fishponds near the south corner of the terraced garden, and the probably seventeenth-century water tower (LB: 25333) just within the park, in the plantation behind the house. The garden terraces are cut into ground falling away steeply in front of the house and look out across a broad lawn bounded by woods on the south-east side of the Hall. There are three main parts: 1. The broad middle terrace is thought to have been established in the later seventeenth century, predating the woods. A doorway in its north-east wall (LB: 3416; NPRN 26515) bears the date 1680. A similar doorway in the south-west wall (LB: 3418) is thought to be early eighteenth century. The south-east retaining wall (LB: 3419; NPRN 26521) with parapet pierced by five brick gun emplacements with guns. The terrace is divided into two or three lesser terraces and these were lawned with gravelled paths. 2. The lower terraces are depicted in an engraving of 1792. They are bounded by walls on the south-west (LB: 3420; NPRN 26519) and north-east (LB: 3421; NPRN 26520). At various times these may have been kitchen gardens and ornamental garden areas. 3. The upper terrace was established in the later nineteenth century. Its retaining wall (LB: 3417; NPRN 26517) features both rough embattled and ashlar capping. At the foot of the terraces is a canal, an element in the garden’s design but also functioning as a stock proof barrier. It has apsidal ends and vertical sides and still holds water. There was once a small boathouse near the south-west end, and steps down to the water are still visible. The canal appears on maps from the 1840s onwards. Other notable garden features include the Rose Garden (likely to be late nineteenth or early twentieth century) beyond the north-east end of the main terrace, a Victorian rockery, complete with grotto and water feature, and a formal box parterre (at least nineteenth-century) in the small raised courtyard under the windows of the hall. Significant Views: From the south front and terraces overlooking the garden, park and countryside beyond. It is likely that near and distant views were intended in the layout of the walks and rides in the woodland. Sources: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 92-7 (ref: PGW(Gd)6(CON).