PGW(Gm)67(CDF)

Coryton House  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Cardiff  

Whitchurch  

314082  

181155  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal & informal town garden  

1900-1940  

The grounds at Coryton House are registered for the survival of most of the formal and informal gardens of an important town house, and for historical associations with shipowners, the Cory family (John Cory & Sons Ltd). The house was built in 1900 and was home to James Herbert Cory. The garden was laid out in two phases. The first, contemporary with the building of the house (pre-1915) was a small, informal garden around the house. The drive, which had a lodge on its north side, was lined with conifers. To the south and east were fields and a small orchard. To the north was a walled kitchen garden with glasshouses at its north end. This arrangement is shown on the 1922 Ordnance Survey map. Between 1915 and 1940 the garden was expanded to its present extent. The 1940s OS map shows much of the current layout and also the lodge, orchard, kitchen garden and glasshouses. The house is situated on the highest part of the grounds, with the entrance front on the east side. The formal garden consists of two terraces on the south and west sides of the house, each backed by a verandah; and a large lawn beyond, on the south side. The upper, balustraded, terrace, on the south front, is of grass with an Irish yew at each end, and at each corner is a small open-sided brick pavilion. The terraces are linked on each side by tree and hedge-lined flights of steps. On the west side of the house the upper terrace, has four Irish yews set along its outer edge. The lower terrace also has Irish yews along its outer edge. Flights of steps lead down on each side to the lawn, a large rectangular level area, extending to the south and south-west of the house and terraces. On the west side it is flanked by conifers, including a tall pine tree, on the edge of the informal woodland area below; on the south it is flanked by yews and mixed trees and shrubs, including pine, monkey puzzle, aucuba, holly, laurel and mahonia. Its east side is lined by an overgrown yew hedge on a steep bank beyond which are modern buildings. Flights of steps lead down to the informal gardens which lie on the slopes and in the valley floor below the terraces and lawn. Most of the ornamental layout lies to the south of the lawn, planted with light woodland of mixed evergreen and coniferous trees and shrubs including wellingtonia, box and cryptomeria, weeping willow and extensive bamboo. It features winding gravel paths, pools and cascades. To the west of the house the informal area is more or less unornamented aside from a little planting on the upper slope, including conifers and holly, below which the woodland is mostly of scrubby deciduous trees, with some aucuba at the south end. To the south-west is an area of conifers, particularly pines. Many of the trees in the grounds of Coryton House are covered by a Tree Preservation Order. Direction of Significant Views: South and south west from the garden terraces across the lawn and formal garden to the informal garden beyond. Sources: Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, additional and revised entries part 1, 8-10 (ref: PGW(Gm)67(CDF). Ordnance Survey 25-inch map: sheet Glamorgan XLIII.1 (edition of 1940).