PGW(C)15(WRE)

Brynkinalt  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Wrexham  

Chirk  

330118  

337781  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Large picturesque landscape park; formal and informal pleasure gardens.  

Early nineteenth century.  

Registered for its historic interest as a large, picturesque landscape park, laid out in the nineteenth-century and providing the setting to the house and its gardens. The grounds also incorporate an unusual tunnel to the kitchen garden. Brynkinalt has historical associations with the Trevor family who have lived on this site since the year 942. The earliest building on the site today dates back to 1612, being the central portion of the present house. The registered park and garden has important group value with the house and its associated estate outbuildings and ornamental parkland structures. Brynkinalt Park is located on the eastern edge of Chirk village, occupying rising, rolling, ground on the north side of the Ceiriog valley which here forms the English border. The Hall (LB: 599) lies on high ground towards the east end of the park. The park is bounded on the south and east by the Ceiriog River and Coed Glanyrafon, on the west by Chirk Wood, and on the north by public roads running east from the village. The A5 Chirk bypass, flanked by planted woodland, now bisects the park near its west end. Part of Chirk Wood obscures the road from the house. The present main entrance drive is from the village, approaching the house from the west. The entrance is flanked by simple stone gate piers (LB: 20207) with Chirk Lodge (LB: 20206) on the north side. The drive crosses a crenellated stone bridge over a side valley, then divides to approach both north and south sides of the house. From the park entrance, a separate, more picturesque winding drive, now a farm track, runs down into the valley through Chirk Wood and on to the house. The original main entrance drive, from the England side of the park, led from the St Martin's road (B5070) northwards across a plateau (Rhyn Park) to the Coed Glanyrafon, across the ‘Lady's Bridge’ (LB: 20230, built in 1820) over the river, then on to the south front of the house. Much of this drive has now gone but a gothick entrance lodge (Bryngwilla Lodge) survives. To the north and west of the house the park levels out. In the open parkland planting consists mainly of scattered deciduous trees, in particular oaks from the eighteenth-century and earlier. Part of Chirk Wood has been dated recently to c.1730. To the north of the house are the remains of a sycamore avenue and a line of horse chestnuts. Just to the west of the house is an eighteenth-century clump of limes. Nineteenth-century planting is largely confined to Chirk and Glanyrafon woods, and is mainly conifers, including redwoods underplanted with rhododendrons, laurels and box. The early history of the park is unclear but the present layout dates from the early nineteenth-century when Lady Charlotte Dungannon was improving the house and grounds in 1808. The park was embellished with picturesque winding drives, gothick entrances, a gothick folly, a fine gothick bridge over the river, the Lady’s Bridge, and next to it a rustic picturesque cottage. Gothick shelters (LB: 20232) next to one of the drives afforded rest for the ladies on their perambulations. The gardens at Brynkinalt lie in two distinct areas, to the west and to the north-east of the house. Adjoining the west wing is a small garden enclosed by a low modern brick wall that was originally laid out in the early nineteenth-century by Lady Charlotte Dungannon for subtropical bedding. The garden is laid out with formal raised flowerbeds in paving. Part of the enclosed area is now occupied by a swimming pool. To the west is a gently sloping lawn. At the upper end of the lawn is a circular pool with a central ornamental stone basin raised on a decorative pedestal, surrounded by formal flowerbeds. North of the house and forecourt, on ground sloping steeply towards the park, is a linear north-south garden, informally landscaped and planted, its west side dominated by a rockwork bank. A central sunken area, once occupied by a formal rose garden, is now openly planted with specimen trees and shrubs. The north-east part of this garden has much evergreen planting as a background, interspersed with rhododendrons and azaleas, the whole being broken up by winding paths and walks. A system of streams and pools with surrounding rockwork is the focus for the east end of the pleasure ground. This garden was laid out in the late nineteenth-century. A walled kitchen garden is situated to the north of the house, on the north side of the minor road to Pont-y-blew. The approach from the house is by a footpath, now partly gone, and via a tunnel beneath the road. The tunnel entrance is of rough stone giving the impression of a grotto, though the roof is vaulted with brick. The walled kitchen garden, as was often the case in the nineteenth-century, also formed part of the pleasure garden, referred to in the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener article of 1879 as the 'principal flower garden' (in this case of cut flowers). The garden comprises two walled gardens, the inner in the middle of the outer garden. A range of glasshouses in the north-west corner of the outer garden have now gone aside from some foundations. The south part of the outer garden formed the 'principal flower garden'. In the south-east corner is a brick-built gardener's house and fruit store. The inner garden entrance lies opposite the tunnel, through a pair of double wooden doors. It is still partly used for the production of vegetables, and the walls and paths retain old fruit trees. At the north end are the remains of two box-edged circular beds. The outside of the north wall supports a range of bothies, tool sheds, and a furnace room. The south-facing side has two glasshouses, including a vinery still with vines, and a cucumber house. Significant Views: Views from and towards the house across the parkland and surrounding countryside. Views across the parkland from the drives and arbour. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 32-5 (ref: PGW(C)15). Ordnance Survey, six-inch map Denbighshire XL (1879)