PGW(Po)13(POW)

Penoyre  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Yscir  

301867  

230726  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Remnants of High Victorian formal garden; terracing; orangery; bastion/ha-ha; remant eighteenth-century parkland.  

c. 1750-1850.  

Penoyre is registered for the ornamental grounds associated with grade II* listed Penoyre House built for Colonel Lloyd Vaughan Watkins in 1846-8 to designs by Anthony Salvin (LB: 7483). The registered area includes remnants of a high Victorian formal garden and remnant eighteenth and nineteenth century parkland. Set below the brow of a hill the sheltered house faces south looking out over the park, towards the panorama of the Brecon Beacons. The outstanding situation of the house, and the views from it, were celebrated by Theophilus Jones in A History of the County of Brecknock who described them as 'extremely picturesque' and 'sublime'. The park at Penoyre, now the Cradoc Golf Club, extends from the house boundary to the Cradoc road about 1km to the south, west to the Battle/Cradoc road and about 1km north, behind the house. The main approach drive to the house runs up the eastern boundary of the park/golf course. There are some areas of woodland south-east of the house but any surviving park planting has been lost in new golf course plantings. It appears that an area of parkland was attached to the earlier house of about 1799, which belonged to Col. Watkins' father. According to map evidence the form of the north park of Penoyre dates from at least 1809 when it was recorded on an early Ordnance Survey map. By 1868 the park at Penoyre lay to the north, north-east, west, south and far south of the house. A demesne map and account of 1824 records plantings in what became the Upper East and East Parks. These noted additions, together with the 'Stable Field, now Park' to the east of the stable block, seem to suggest that they were incorporated into the park post-1832, under the tenure of Col. Watkins. The main drive still runs from the Cradoc road and creates the eastern boundary of the site. It ascends the hill for about 200m before splitting into two, one branch continuing to the north-west to the house, the other to what was the Home Farm, Pentwyn, to the north-east. The west drive, to Battle, has been removed as has the second southern carriage drive in the south park. The southern approach drive which connected with the main drive at Middle Lodge survives as a farm track. It joins the Brecon/Cradoc road at Parc Lodge. A substantial lake for fishing was created in the far south park. The actual date of this feature is unclear but it is recorded on a demesne map of 1824 and in an engraving of the mid nineteenth century. Two smaller pools in an area of wild garden were created to the south-east of the house but are now absorbed into the golf course. In the south park there are still signs of nineteenth-century planting, with some mature trees in variable condition including Scots pine, larch and oak. As the golf club plantings mature the park is increasingly losing its parklike character as open spaces are planted up. The east drive approaches the east front of the house through a series of three sets of gate piers. The first are detached, the second and third connected by a low stone retaining wall topped with an earth bank planted with laurel. The third gate piers also support the main entrance gates, of black iron, which survive between them (LB: 84272). The surviving gardens date from the time of Col. Watkins, from about 1848 onwards, when a series of steep, Italianate grass terraces were laid out to the east and west, below a balustraded terrace which surrounded the house. Those on the west descended to what was by 1868 an Italian Garden; a series of parterre beds around a circular fountain and basin, which survives today, covering the area of both the present fountain garden and the tennis court. The parterre garden was destroyed by the construction of a swimming pool within it in the 1960s. This was later filled in and is the present tennis court. The eastern terraces were described in 1868 as a series of 'broad walks' and in form seem very similar today. A walk ran along the northern edge of the south terrace from the steps in the south-east corner of the forecourt to an area of wild garden, around two small ponds, near the main drive. From photographs this walk appears to have been bordered on the south by another stone balustrade. The 1868 sales particulars recorded pleasure grounds, 'well laid out and ornamentally timbered', to the west and south-west of the gardens, divided from the park by a ha-ha. It would seem that all that survives of the ha-ha is the length of wall and circular bastion to the south-west of the present garden and earthworks on the golf course. This bastion would have had extensive views over the southern countryside, but the views have been lost due to recent planting. The former pleasure grounds have also been incorporated into the golf course. The conservatory was a main feature of the garden, contemporary with the rebuilding of 1846-48, and survived intact until 1899 when the glass dome was removed. Underneath the dome there was a circular pool. Along the south face of the north wall photographs dating from about 1920 record tufa rockwork with at least one drip pool half hidden among lush undergrowth. None of the rockwork survives, the conservatory has been converted to institutional use. An estate map dating from about 1900 and the 1888 Ordnance Survey maps recorded an extensive double kitchen garden with glass ranges to the north of the house. All of this was removed between 1960 and 1970 when the golf course was extended. Setting: Situated in a rural location above the village of Cradoc and to the east of the village of Battle. Significant Views: Set below the brow of a hill the sheltered house faces south looking out over the park, towards the panorama of the Brecon Beacons. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, pp 191-193 (ref: PGW (Po)13(POW)).