PGW(Po)6(POW)

Buckland House  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Talybont-on-Usk  

312949  

221924  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Extensive country estate. Wild garden; parkland; formal gardens.  

c. 1775, c. 1836-40, c. 1895 on.  

Buckland House, located on an ancient site, is situated to the east of Talybont-on-Usk, on the west side of Buckland Hill overlooking the Usk valley. It is registered for the survival of the structure of a grand Edwardian formal garden in a fine position in the valley. The garden and grounds contain some good specimen trees and shrubs, and a Grade II* Listed tennis pavilion designed by the noted architect H.Avray Tipping. There is also important group value with Grade II Listed Buckland House (LB 21186) along with a number of outbuildings, as well as several Grade II Listed park and garden features, and buildings associated with the Home Farm (Buckland Farm). The park lies mostly to the north and west of Buckland House, on ground falling away to the Usk. It curves down from the north-west, following a bend in the river. It is bounded on the east by the forestry plantations of Buckland Hill. The park covers about 200 acres though it was once more extensive. It is now managed as permanent pasture. Within the park, hedge and dry-stone wall boundaries survive as does some open parkland planting of oak, chestnut and ornamental conifers, particularly in the field to the west of the old tennis courts. The drive approaches the house from the north to its north front. The south drive ran on from the house, through farmland, to exit about 1 km to the south on the Llangynidr road. Traces of the former main drive from the lodge (demolished 1972) at Llansantffread are still visible as a track crossing the park from the northwest. The drive follows the route of the river along its eastern bank providing a highly scenic approach to the house. It then turns east through woodland planted with an ornamental understorey of laurel, rhododendron and box to follow a stream enhanced with drystone walls, pools and a small cascade. In the park to the north of the house is a fishpond. It dates to at least 1840 when it is shown on the tithe map with a similar outline to the current pond. By the early twentieth-century (Ordnance Survey 1905) the walk had been created around the pond and a boathouse constructed at its southern end. Behind the coach house, cut into the rising slope, is a well-preserved ice-house (LB 21198) and, to its south, a possible fernery. No formal record of the fernery has been found but the microclimate of Buckland is such that some rare, exotic ferns have survived. The native woodland was gradually replaced by conifers from the mid nineteenth-century. Major Gwynne Holford, nineteenth-century owner and a veteran of Waterloo, planted blocks of conifers on the western hillside imitating ranks of British infantry and cavalry; this survived in form until about 1940. A strip of former parkland to the east of the river (southwest of the house) is now mixed woodland preventing views in this direction from the gardens. The 1887 OS map shows a winding path down to the river to a ferry boat landing stage. In 1910 an iron footway suspension bridge was installed (by David Rowell & Co of London) across the river to replace the old landing stage and boat house. The gardens lie to the west and south of the house. There have been formal gardens on the present site since at least 1840 and the garden structure is unchanged, only augmented through later planting. It has been suggested that the gardens may overlay an earlier garden dating to c.1600. The main planting appears to have been undertaken from about 1800 by the Gwynne Holfords, who had family connections with Westonbirt Park, Gloucestershire. It is believed that many of the ornamental conifers, some of which were planted in a ‘Conifer Walk’ south-west of the maze, originated from the Westonbirt estate. It is also assumed that the family were responsible for establishing the rhododendrons within the garden. In the 1935 Sale Catalogue the gardens were said to include an Italian garden, a rose garden, an American garden, a blue garden, the maze, and a rhododendron bank. Photographs in the 1935 Sale Catalogue also record highly ornamented gardens with many statues, urns and wide, stone edged gravelled paths. To the west of the house, the ground descends in two broad grass terraces. The once clipped topiary cones on the west front of the house, have grown into large yew squares. Major Gwynne Holford continued his celebration of the British victory at Waterloo within the garden. On the south front of the house he planted four topiary trees within a yew enclosure, representing a battle formation and about 10m to the south he planted four Irish yews in a block around a statue of the Duke of Wellington, representing the battle command. The planted features, apart from the hedge, survive but the statue has been lost. The south front of the house looks out on to the terraced formal gardens. From the south-east corner of the house a wide, raised grass terrace runs south for approximately 100m. This terrace is bordered on its eastern side by banks of mature rhododendrons which have colonised the lower woodland of Buckland Hill and on the west it descends to a lower lawn. From this terrace an ornamental, Italianate flight of stone stairs (LB 21189) ascends the hillside leading to walks in the lower woodland. Traces of these walks survive in stone steps and dry-stone retaining walls. Two separate, ornamental flights of stone steps connect the terrace with a wide, curving lawn about 2m below. This lawn is known as the 'Archery Lawn' which in the early twentieth-century was used as a croquet lawn. The presence of a raised earth bank at its northern end suggests that it could have been the site of an archery butt. Below the lawn on the west there is a terrace of three square, interconnecting garden enclosures. All of the enclosures are partly surrounded by Irish or golden yew hedges, in variable condition, which appear to retain evidence of earlier topiary work. The central enclosure is the rose garden. It has a sunken centre, suggesting a possible pool but no other evidence was found to support this. The two flanking enclosures contain mature ornamental conifers and specimen trees. These may be the Blue and Italian gardens referenced in the 1935 Sales Catalogue. West and south-west of these gardens a network of overgrown paths leads through a small arboretum. To the southwest of the rose garden is the yew maze (outgrown) said to be a small version of the maze at Hampton Court. South of the maze may have been the site of H. Avray Tipping’s lily/iris garden, which consists of rectangular stone-edged beds and a stone seat. To the south, beyond the lily garden, ornamental stone steps lead down from what is known as the American garden towards the river. The southern area of the garden is characterised by trees and shrubs planted in rough grass. It appears that this area could have been a 'wild garden'. Circulatory paths run through the area connecting to the remains of a classical, curved seat set in a yew arbour and to the remains of a collapsed building, possibly a summer house, at the southern-most point. The early nineteenth-century walled garden (LB: 21180) is situated to the north of the historic farm complex at Buckland Farm. It is rectangular and enclosed by high stone and brick walls. The north side has a range of bothies against its outer side. The interior is now grass. To the southeast of the walled garden and farm is the former head gardener’s cottage with former estate laundry adjacent (LB: 21200). Setting - The park and gardens provide the setting for Buckland House which lies on the lower west slopes of Buckland Hill, in a scenic situation above the Usk Valley. Significant views – From west front of the house and the surrounding gardens there are splendid views across the Usk Valley to the Black Mountains beyond it. Views from the west terrace towards the fish pond, and between the west terrace and park to the west of the fishpond. View from the south front of the house across the gardens. Views from the Lily Garden and American Garden to the River Usk. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 36-9 (ref: PGW (Po)6(POW)). Ordnance Survey, six-inch map sheet, Brecknockshire XXXIV.SE (1887) Ordnance Survey, six-inch map sheet, Brecknockshire XXXIV.SE (1905)