PGW(Gd)36(GWY)

Peniarth  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Gwynedd  

Llanegryn  

261123  

305536  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Possibly eighteenth-century or earlier park with wooded riverside pleasure grounds, walled kitchen garden with glasshouses, rockery and viewing mount, views beyond garden.  

Date of original layout uncertain but perhaps later seventeenth century; eighteenth century and later.  

Registered for its historic interest as an eighteenth-century landscape park, with possible earlier origins, with fine pleasure grounds around the house and down to the river. The grounds are largely woodland, with many mature trees, ornamented with walks, a summerhouse and boathouse. An unusual feature is an artificial terraced viewing mount, which may be seventeenth-century in date. There are magnificent views across the park to Cader Idris. The registered park and garden has group value with the house, the Clock House and other buildings and structures of a similar date at Peniarth. The house (LB: 4731) and landscape park at Peniarth occupy a low-lying site on the north side of the Afon Dysynni to the north-east of Tywyn. The early history of the park and garden is unknown. By 1418 there was a house on the site grand enough to be called 'Plas', and the then owners are likely to have had a garden if not a park. The existing park was probably laid out from 1700 onwards. It once occupied a roughly triangular area mostly to the north of the house, the apex to the south being truncated by the river. It is likely that some of the area south of the river was also parkland, and there are still plantations in this area which are now agricultural. However, only four or five enclosures remain north of the river, the rest having been taken over and built on during the Second World War. Of the areas not affected by the camp, only one, to the north-east of the house, is of note. In 1901, the Ordnance Survey map shows it dotted with trees at the end nearest the house, the rest of the park north of the river being mostly bare of trees. It still retains some park-like character and is divided from the lawn in front of the house by a ha-ha, though most of the specimen trees have now gone. Some of the camp buildings have been adapted to agricultural use, and some completely cleared and the land returned to agriculture. The main drive from the south no longer gives access to the house over the river, but it appears to be still in use as a farm track. It leads from the lodge, north of Bryncrug, to the north-west, straight at first and then curving slowly towards the north. The main drive, flanked by grass verges and hedges, is the former service drive from the north-west, running in a straight line from the gate (LB: 23773) and lodge opposite, to the pleasure grounds entrance. The river is an important feature of the registered park and garden. The original approach from Bryncrug to the south, crossed the river south-west of the house, winding round through the woods to the north-east. Following this route and entering the house with a backdrop of rugged mountain scenery would have made the most of the natural and artificial beauties of the place. The river's edge has also clearly long been a focus of activity, with boat house, summer house and a waterside lawn. The main walk touches the river-bank at the point where these are found. The entrance to the pleasure grounds is approached via the main drive (the former service drive) which runs in a straight line from the gate on the north-west, before reaching the house. The pleasure grounds are separated from the outer parkland by a ha-ha which runs across the lawn and woodlands north-east of the house, its ditch carrying a stream fed by a leat. Aside from areas of lawn (mainly to the north-east and south-east of the house) the pleasure grounds are almost entirely wooded, perhaps originally intended to form protective shelter belts before eventually developing into a woodland garden. A wide variety of trees, some of great age, are represented most with an under-planting of rhododendron, yew, bamboo and laurel. There are mature beeches, limes, maples and specimen conifers including Douglas Fir. The south-east lawn also contains specimen trees. The main pleasure walks are in the woods to the south-east of the house and on the ridge behind, to the north-west, where long straight walks are connected to the drives by shorter ones. In the former area, a wide walk once formed a straight vista from the house to the river, but has now been very much encroached on by vegetation. It is crossed by a long, straight ride, known as 'the Black Ride', running from the summer house in the south-west to the ha-ha in the north-east; at these two points the walk turns back towards the house on east and west. East of the house the walk runs close to the edge of the woods, above the ha-ha, and the view of the mountains can be appreciated from it. This layout is shown on the first-edition Ordnance Survey map (1888). Ornamental features include areas of rockery including a converted quarry with Japanese-style planting, which probably dates to the twentieth-century. Close to the kitchen garden wall is an artificial terraced viewing mount which may date from early in the history of the park. The viewing mount gives a view back towards the house and the woods beyond. It is circular and stepped, and has been made out of a small natural spur, thus blending into the slope at the back. The mount may pre-date the kitchen garden, and if it does its position suggests that the area the garden now occupies was not wooded at the time the mount was built. The kitchen garden lies close to the house on its north-west side, adjoining a stable yard to the east but elsewhere surrounded by the pleasure grounds. The garden is thought to have been built between 1820 and 1850. It is an irregular shape with an extension on the north-east, and slopes gently upwards to the west. The garden is enclosed by stone walls, still mostly intact, with an original entrance in the east corner, and a new entrance in the south wall. There is a glasshouse range occupying almost half of the length of the north-east wall. Walls are around 2m high on the south and south-west, but on the north-west and north-east they rise to 4m high behind the glasshouse where they are brick-lined with slate coping. Although it is now disused the garden was still in full production until the Second World War. The Ordnance Survey second-edition map (1901) shows a layout with straight paths around the edges with cross paths dividing it into six unequal, differently-shaped, areas. The main glasshouse, of wood on a brick base, is still glazed. Heating pipes, ventilation controls, vine rods and wires are in situ. Significant Views: Magnificent views from the registered park and garden towards Cadair Idris. Source: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 236-42 (ref: PGW(Gd)36(GWY). Ordnance Survey, six-inch map, Merionethshire Sheet XLI.SW (1888)