PGW(Gd)15(GWY)

Plas Bodegroes  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Gwynedd  

Llannor  

235415  

335318  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal garden with beech avenue; ha-ha; kitchen garden, lake and woodland.  

Probably late eighteenth century.  

Registered for the historic interest of the garden and remains of the park, probably contemporary with the late-eighteenth-century house at Plas Bodegroes. The main feature of the garden is the impressive 400m beech avenue, which leads away from the lawn to the south-west. The late eighteenth-century country house at Plas Bodegroes (LB: 4217) is situated on flat land just north-west of Pwllheli, near the coast, facing south-west. The park surrounds the house and garden and was probably laid out when the house was built (1780s). On maps of 1836, 1889 and 1901 the park was almost exactly the same. It filled most of the large triangle between Efailnewydd to the north-west, the road junction by Pensarn farm to the south-east and the river to the south. Many of the plantations, mostly in place by 1836, survive but most of the parkland trees portrayed on the early OS maps have gone. The fields which surround the house are remnants of the original park. The remaining parkland trees, although few, are of several varieties and various ages and include oak, beech, ash and horse chestnut, and at least one stand of conifers. There is a row of four large limes outside the north-west garden wall near farm buildings. North-west of the farm and kitchen garden, is a small lake and woodland (both shown on the first-edition Ordnance Survey 1888). The main drive approaches the house from an entrance and lodge to the north-east. The drive sweeps in a curve across the parkland, originally approaching the main south-west front of the house. A second drive, from an adjacent entrance on the north, services the farm. The lodge is located between the main drive and the farm drive. It is shown on the 1836 map and mentioned in the 1846 sale catalogue and is probably contemporary with the house, but has been modernised and altered. The garden is bounded by walls and consists of a wooded area backing the house to the north and east, lawns and shrubberies laid out in front, to the south and south-west, and a beech avenue, about 400m long, leading off to the south-west from the far side of the lawn. The garden is probably contemporary with the late-eighteenth-century house. It is largely informal and appears to have consisted originally of shrubberies and a large lawn; its basic layout seems to be much as it was in 1836. The wooded area is probably the remains of an original mixed plantation and shrubberies, though some of the planting has been renewed. In the east corner is the remains of a mound, possibly a viewing mound. There is a level lawn to the south-west of the house, over which the vista down the avenue is obtained. Several trees, of various size and age, are planted in the lawn, positioned so as not to interfere with the view to the avenue. A more recent, heart-shaped raised bed is situated in the middle of the lawn between the two walks leading to the avenue. The kitchen garden lies west-north-west of the main house, behind farm buildings, and was in existence by 1836. On plan the garden is roughly square, about 0.5 acres, enclosed by stone walls and on the south-east partly formed by farm building gables. A blocked door near the west corner would once have given access to the area of the park lake. The interior is now largely under grass. Perimeter and cross-paths are shown on the 1889 OS map, with wide borders around the edge and paths lined with fruit trees; none of this layout remains. A long building against the outside north-east wall, shown on an 1836 estate map, had been demolished by 1917. Along the east end of the north-east wall is a long glasshouse which first appears in 1917. It still contains heating pipes and the workings of the ventilation system. Sources: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 258-61 (ref: PGW(Gd)15(GWY)). Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map: sheet Caernarfonshire XL.7 (1901).