PGW(Gd)48(ANG)

Plas Newydd  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Isle of Anglesey  

Llanddaniel Fab  

251928  

369402  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscaped park, woodland, waterside features, terraced garden, extensive kitchen garden.  

1798-1810; early twentieth century.  

Plas Newydd occupies a site on the west shore of the Menai Strait, with views over the water to Vaynol Park (PGW(Gd)52(GWY)) and beyond to the mountains of Snowdonia. It is registered at grade I for its outstanding park, landscaped at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with input from Humphry Repton (Red Book extant), and for the extensive waterside site in a superb location with panoramic views. There is group value with Grade I Listed Plas Newydd (LB 5462) and its scattered outbuildings together with a range of structures related to the park and gardens. Additionally, there are two Scheduled Neolithic burial chambers within the park. One, west of the house, is a picturesque group of stones and was an eighteenth-century tourist attraction (AN005); the other, Bryn yr Hen Bobl, lies further south from the house (AN006). The estate lies within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The house site and its surrounding estate date from at least the fifteenth century. The park occupies a long, narrow strip of mostly woodland, along the western edge of the Menai Strait, the house located roughly centrally. The main approach, from the north, was realigned c.1804 from an entrance at the nearby old lodge (Grade II Listed Victoria Cottages, LBs 5467 & 19672) to a new line from an entrance further north at Grade II Listed Grand Lodge with gothick gate screen (LBs 5080-1); both approaches off the A4080. The northernmost part of the drive passes through woodland and open parkland and approaches the house from the north, though previously it looped round on the south-west to approach it from the south. A short western approach, from Grade II Listed West Lodge (LB 19738), is now used by the Conway Centre. The southernmost lodge (also called West Lodge), Grade II Listed with entrance walls and gate piers (LBs 19749 & 19756), guards the drive to Grade II Listed St Edwen’s Church (LB 19743). The original rear entrance on the south-west, from Grade II Listed Farm Lodge with its walls and gate piers (LBs 19748 & 19755), is still used by the Home Farm. The extent of woodland in relation to open parkland has fluctuated during the past 200 years. Open parkland north of the house has been shrinking with the expansion of woodland and partial reuse for playing fields. The area to the south has become absorbed into farmland. West of the house there is now a cricket pitch, tennis courts and a National Trust car park. The gardens have undergone changes and additions throughout the twentieth century. The garden with its walks mostly occupies a wide strip along the water's edge south of the house. A formal garden of linear terraces with flower beds and shrubberies, lies immediately north of the house. Elsewhere around the house are lawns. To the east, a lawn slopes down to the marine walk, unbroken by paths or planting. The lawn continues south of the house and is also clear of plantings aside from the southernmost part which is shrubbery. The larger areas of lawn to the west of the house blend into the parkland. There were once numerous trees there but these have now mostly gone. South of the south lawn is an ornamental planted area alongside the Straight, and along its southern margin an avenue planted c.1930 for shelter. South of Bryn yr Hen Bobl, is a camelia dell in a former quarry. A more recent addition is an arboretum south-west of the house which includes older trees planted by Repton. About 1km north of the house is the rhododendron garden, an area of woodland cleared except for choice conifers which were then underplanted with rare species. A rock garden lies at the far north end of the park where, earlier in the twentieth century, bridges, pathways and steps were built, with rock plants, tender shrubs and exotic trees planted, but it was later neglected and abandoned. Alongside the water's edge there are various features. Immediately below the east front of the house is a gravelled walk, the eighteenth-century Marine Walk, supported by a substantial Grade II Listed retaining wall (LB 5463) which forms an ornamental feature in the foreground of Plas Newydd. At the southern end is a Grade II Listed built-in boat house alongside the small harbour for the Estate (LB 19729), partly reused with the addition of a swimming pool on the north side. Lady Uxbridge's Walk north of the house extended south beneath the east front and is linked to other trails through woodland. The walled gardens lie south-west of the house, adjacent to the Grade II Listed Home Farm (LB 19730), and cover some 4.5 acres. The subdivided area is sub-retangular on plan, long axis north-east by south-west. The smaller, older, part on the south-west (possibly dating from the seventeenth century) was an orchard within Grade II Listed brick-lined stone walls 2.5m high (LB 19731). This is now under grass. Adjoining its south-east exterior wall is a Grade II Listed apple house (LB 19732). The new, north-east, garden was added in the early nineteenth century. It is bounded by 3m high brick walls. The interior was divided into eighths by paths. It is now let as a commercial nursery and little of this layout remains though traces of the glasshouses survive. Against the outside of the north-west wall is a range of mostly stone buildings, including potting sheds, boiler house, workshop and various stores. Grade II Listed Plas Llanedwen, a seventeenth-century house to the south-west, became the gardener's house (LB 19734). Setting - Plas Newydd occupies a lovely site on the west shore of the Menai Strait. This, together with its parkland and gardens, provides a setting for the house. Significant views – From the Marine Walk, above the west shore of the Menai Strait, there are fine views over the water to Vaynol Park and beyond to the mountains of Snowdonia. Source: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 34-42 (ref: PGW(Gd)48(ANG)).