PGW(Gm)13(CAE)

The Van  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Caerphilly  

Van  

316612  

186849  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Walled and terraced garden  

About 1583  

The Van is registered for the remains of a Tudor walled and terraced garden attached to a substantial mansion of the period. The mansion is situated on a ridge to the east of Caerphilly on a north and north-west facing slope overlooking the town. Van House (LB: 13601) was built mainly in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and was at that time one of the largest houses of the period in the county. In 1529 Edward Lewis bought the property, on which a house already existed, described by John Leland soon afterwards as 'a fair place'. It was his son, Thomas Lewis, who built the present house, which incorporated parts of the earlier sixteenth-century house, walled court and gatehouse between 1583 and 1594. In 1583 Thomas Lewis obtained a lease of Caerphilly Castle, which allowed him to plunder it for stonework. Much dressed stone at The Van is from the castle. In the early seventeenth century Thomas's son Edward extended the east wing and added the west and north ranges on the north-west side of the court and the arcaded building next to the storeyed porch. By this time the Lewis family was very prosperous, and in 1616 Edward bought St Fagan's Castle and moved there. Thereafter The Van was only a subsidiary Lewis house. The Lewis estates were inherited by the 4th Earl of Plymouth in 1736. The property remained part of the Plymouth estates until 1991. The gatehouse (LB: 21063) is situated in the centre of the west wall of the entrance court. It is a two-storey building of coursed rubble with a battered base and dressed stone quoins. On the first floor is a fireplace with the initials T and L (Thomas Lewis) in each spandrel. A circular dovecote (LB: 21064) probably sixteenth century, built of coursed stone rubble stands to the north of the house. The dovecote partially collapsed in 1947 in severe weather but has been restored using a photograph of c.1910. There are three main components to the gardens and grounds. First there is the entrance court to the west of the main block of the house; secondly there is the walled and terraced garden to the east of the house; and thirdly there is a walled area on the slope below the house and court, to their west, which was formerly part of the ornamental grounds. The entrance court was built by Thomas Lewis in the late sixteenth century, at the same time as the house was largely rebuilt. A large rectangular area is enclosed by a coursed rubble stone wall and by the gatehouse and an early seventeenth-century range and ruined bakehouse on the west side. The terraced garden is a rectangular area enclosed by the east wing of the house on the south side, by walls on the east and north sides, and by a wall and scarp on the west side. It lies on ground rising to the east and is divided into a narrow upper terrace and a broader lower one. The walls are of coursed rubble stone. The terraced garden is also thought on grounds of style and walling to be contemporary with the house rebuilding in the late sixteenth century. To the north-west of the house and garden is a vaulted sunken well chamber. Narrow stone steps lead down a stone-lined path to a circular pool, with a side chamber to the left. The third main area of the grounds is a large, roughly square field to the west of the former entrance drive, on ground sloping to the west. This is surrounded by a partly ruinous dry-stone wall. At its western end is a belt of trees, including pines. The 1873/75 Ordnance Survey map shows this area as well wooded, with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees. Setting: The Van mansion is situated on a ridge to the east of Caerphilly on a north and north-west facing slope overlooking the town. Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Glamorgan, 39-40 (ref: PGW (Gm)13(CAE)).