PGW(Gd)56(CON)

Coed Coch  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Conwy  

Betws Yn Rhos  

288411  

374076  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; informal pleasure grounds.  

Eighteenth and nineteenth century  

Coed Coch is registered as a good example of an eighteenth and nineteenth century landscape park incorporating an artificial lake and informally planted pleasure grounds. The registered park and garden provides an attractive setting for the house and has important group value with it and its associated estate buildings. Coed Coch is located about 4km south of Colwyn Bay, on the south side of the B5381. The house (LB:172; NPRN: 27031) lies within a small landscape park on gently rolling land lying in the folds of the surrounding hills, rising gently towards the west where the house is situated on a small knoll. The River Dulas flows through the park and pleasure grounds. The park is a small eighteenth and nineteenth century landscaped park bounded on all sides by lanes. The park is separated from the pleasure grounds by a ha-ha. The house is approached by a drive which sweeps gently through the park from the north-east boundary through an entrance with wrought iron gates flanked by stone gate piers, erected in 1928 in memory of Lt. Edward Wynne of Coed Coch, d.1916 (LB:20090) and a small nineteenth century lodge (LB: 20089). The parkland planting is probably mid to late eighteenth-century in date and consists mostly of scattered isolated oaks with a few groups of beeches. Some nineteenth-century perimeter planting consists of Scots pine, sycamore, oak, larch, beech, hazel and field maple along the east boundary. Close to the south boundary of the park is an artificial lake, with a planted island and a plain brick boathouse on the north shore. To the north of the house, built into a bank near the former kitchen garden, is a turf-covered brick ice-house (NPRN: 405460). A ruinous hexagonal tower, once the kennelman's cottage, stands in a copse to the north of the ice-house, near the north boundary of the park; it may have been a converted folly tower, or have served a dual purpose. The pleasure garden falls into two distinct physical areas. The area immediately surrounding the house is separated from the park by a ha-ha. This area is informally planted with deciduous trees and has a circuit path. At the north end a path to the former walled kitchen garden passes in a tunnel under the farm road. Secondly, to the south-west of the house, is an area of informally planted garden following the River Dulas, with informal paths winding through it. It is planted with specimen conifers underplanted with yew, holly, laurel and rhododendron. Most of the planting and layout of both is nineteenth century except for some mature deciduous planting which dates from the eighteenth century. The area next to the house was laid out with formal rose beds that are no longer extant. The walled garden lies to the north of the gardens. It is small with well-preserved brick walls about 4m high. The garden interior was once divided into four by paths and an inner perimeter path, with entrances in the east and south walls. The garden was also surrounded by orchards and other planted areas. This arrangement is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (1880). Setting: The park at Coed Coch is a small landscape park lying to the south of the B5381, and bounded on all sides by lanes. The land is gently rolling lying in the folds of the surrounding hills. The ground rises gently towards the west where the house is situated on a small knoll. The River Dulas flows through the northern part of the park and pleasure grounds. Significant Views: from the house and gardens across the park and towards the lake and surrounding countryside. Source: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 80-1 (ref: PGW(Gd)56(CON)).