PGW(Gm)44(GLA)

Pwll-yr-wrach  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Vale of Glamorgan  

Colwinston  

295306  

175356  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Informal and walled garden  

About 1770  

Pwll-y-wrach is registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved garden layout dating to the late eighteenth century. The garden includes a pair of attractive garden pavilions contemporary with the late eighteenth century house. Pwll-y-wrach (Witch’s Pool) is a medium sized Georgian mansion (LB: 81333) dating from about 1770, and situated in gently rolling countryside to the east of Colwinston village. The gardens lie mainly to the south and west of the house on ground sloping gently down to the south. They fall into two main areas: the informal garden to the south and the walled garden to the west. The entrance to the grounds is on the west flanked by a pair of square, stone gate piers. The drive enters the garden on its south side onto a terrace forecourt bounded by a low, stone wall and parapet and with a central flight of steps down to a smoothly sloping lawn. The lawn is bounded by a curving ha-ha giving an uninterrupted view south from the house and garden to the field beyond, framed by mature, deciduous trees planted on either side of the lawn. To the south of the ha-ha a lawn slopes gently up to the drive, and beyond a further lawn rises gently to an oak paling fence on the garden boundary. Beyond the garden is a gently rising field, deliberately splayed, with a few isolated oaks and the view framed by belts of trees along the east and west sides. A pair of small stone single-storey pavilions with slate roofs flank the house on the east and west, the former within a small lawned area enclosed by walls and hedges (LB: 81331; 81334). The pavilions are in line with the south front and face south. A larger walled enclosure, with the former stable block, lies on the east. The drive to the stables is flanked by lawns planted with ornamental trees and shrubs. Beyond, to the east, is mixed woodland dominated by sycamore and horse chestnut. The walled garden, a former kitchen garden now mostly ornamental, lies west of the house and is entered along a path from the east. It is a large rectangular area aligned north-east by south-west, bounded on all but the east side by rubble stone walls. A central east-west path is flanked by herbaceous borders, as is a path alongside the north wall. In the centre of the south-east quadrant, set in lawn, is a roughly circular, stone-lined pool; it may utilise a spring, and the name of the house - Pwll-y-wrach or Witch’s Pool – may in some way derive from it. The pool is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1885). The house and garden were once set in parkland. To the east of the house it was planted with scattered trees and through it passed a partially tree-lined second drive. This drive is now disused and reduced to a farm track and the rudimentary park is farmland. Significant View: Views from the house and gardens facing south across the ha-ha and to fields beyond. Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 274-7 (ref: PGW(Gm)44(GLA)). Ordnance Survey six-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XLV (1877) Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XLV.1 (1899)