PGW(C)25(FLT)

Soughton Hall  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Flintshire  

Northop  

324696  

367536  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; formal garden.  

Eighteenth and nineteenth century.  

Soughton Hall is located on the immediate south side of the village of Northop. It is registered for its well-preserved early eighteenth-century parkland planting and for the contemporary lime avenue that flanks the drive approaching the house. There is important group value with the Grade II* Listed early eighteenth-century house (LB 547), coach house range and stable block (LBs 549-50), and garden walls with turrets (LB 548), together with the Grade II Listed game larder and garden well head (LBs 551 & 25684). The park is a medium-sized landscape park on gently undulating ground. It is roughly rectangular on plan, bounded on the north by the B5126, on the west by the A5149, on the east by an old track and a local golf course, and on the south by a minor road. Most of the park dates from the eighteenth century, as is much of the planting, though earlier planting is evident. Dense planting on the west side of the park shielded the property from the A5119. The park surrounds entirely Lower Soughton Hall to the north (PGW(C)18(FLT). The house is approached by two drives, from north and south, formerly public roads, and each has a lodge. The most impressive tree plantings are the limes. The main drive, to the south front, is flanked by an avenue planted c.1732. A second lime avenue, on a former main approach to the house from the west, is partly replanted. The walled forecourt has stone gate piers, iron gates, red brick walls, and corner turrets. It encloses a central turning area with grass in each corner. There are narrow plant beds under the walls and plum puddings of yew planted in the grass. The coach house and stable block, south-west of the house, are surrounded by an earth bank faced with stone and planted with a screen of trees. The main garden is west of the house, on raised ground overlooking the forecourt, with a steep bank on the houseward side. It is reached from the forecourt by a door in the wall. It is simply laid out as a quartered square, each quarter under grass and surrounded by yews, with a brick sided pool at centre. There is a perimeter path around the outside. On the east side is a small formal garden built on the site of an old glasshouse. A tennis court is sited to the west of the formal garden. The walled kitchen garden is sited to the west of the hall. It is a five-sided garden of irregular shape, with well-preserved walls. The south-facing wall is stepped with overhanging coping slabs of terracotta. The entrance is on a short eastern wall with a potting shed on one side and the remains of a glasshouse on the other. Setting - Soughton Hall is located in gently rolling countryside. The northern part of the historic park abuts the village of Northop but this area has now been converted into a golf course. Significant views - From the north front of the house there are views across the park. From the south front of the house the view is down the impressive lime avenue along which there are approaching views towards the house. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 168-70 (ref: PGW(C)18). Infoterra (Google Maps) imagery (accessed 01.09.2021).