PGW(Po)14(POW)

Lymore Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Montgomery  

323369  

296012  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Deer and landscape park; walled garden.  

c. 1675; 1786-1828.  

Lymore Park is a large area of parkland to the east of Montgomery. It is registered as a well- preserved and attractive deer and landscape park dating to at least the late seventeenth century, with magnificent ancient oaks and sweet chestnuts. The park also contains a rare decoy pond dating to the late eighteenth-early nineteenth century. The seventeenth-century house has been demolished but there is group value with the contemporary Grade II Listed Lymore Farmhouse (LB 7972) and the former farm bakehouse (LB 7973). The original house (‘Lymore Lodge’) lay in a deerpark, possibly with medieval origins, before it passed into the Powis estate during the eighteenth century. The main episodes of building and landscaping were during the later seventeenth century and in the period 1786-1828. The first documentary evidence for the park dates from 1785. The park is also used for sporting purposes and has been for a long time. In character Lymore is a medium-sized landscape park, bounded on the east by the low bank of Scheduled Offa’s Dyke (SAM MG038), which runs north-north-west/south-south-east in a straight line, on the west by the B4385, and elsewhere by field boundaries. The park lies on gently rolling ground with higher ground to the west, laid out with isolated trees and woods of varying ages, and with a string of ponds along its western side. The size of some of the oaks and sweet chestnuts in the park suggests they were planted when the house was built, when the park was essentially a deer park. There are no formal entrances to the park. The main approach is from the north, along a winding road and drive off the B4386 which starts just east of Montgomery. The drive enters the park, turns south skirting the west side of the park, passing a large pond, the Lower Pool, before swinging eastwards towards the former house a with short branch to the farm buildings. The drive continues through an area of former ponds to the north-west corner of the former garden, the main drive continuing eastwards through the park, first along the north side of the former garden and then past a cricket ground to the north. It continues straight to the park boundary, across the Dyke and on to Whitley farm. The eastern side of the park is open grassland, sub-divided by fences, and with several discrete, mixed, woods, the largest of which are Dudston Covert, in the north-east corner, and Boardyhall Wood, south of the drive, an irregular duck-pond with a central island. A further wood, New Plantation, lies beyond the park to the south. To the west of the woodland is open grassland, dotted to the north of the drive with fine, mature, isolated parkland trees, mostly oak. To the north are three further, smaller deciduous woods. South of the cricket ground is an ancient clump of huge sweet chestnut and oak trees. From here there is a fine view of Montgomery to the west. Of the string of ponds (to the north and south of the drive) three survive: two to the south of the house site and one to the north. The southernmost is the decoy pond, situated in mixed woodland and plantation. It is a classic decoy pond - circular in shape with five well-preserved curving inlets extending outwards from its banks. The pond is dammed on its north-east with a bypass channel into the Upper Pool below. To the east of the latter are the remains of an orchard. The northernmost surviving pond, Lower Pool, is roughly circular, fringed with alder and willow, and dammed along its north end. The two other ponds survive as sunken overgrown areas. The former garden lies to the east of the present cottages and first appears in a survey of 1786. It is a large, rectangular enclosure, long axis east-west, mostly bounded by partly-tumbled red brick walls up to 2.5m high, with the site of Lymore House at its west end. The interior is heavily overgrown and planted with oaks. No internal features are visible but a little ornamental planting of box and yew survives. Near the west end of the south wall is a small derelict building built into the garden wall. The internal lay-out of cross-paths has been lost. The north, south and east sides of the enclosure were bounded by smaller ‘paddocks’. South of the enclosure is a grass area of former garden or orchard use. Along the north side were three small enclosures one of which was a nursery; at the far west end early maps show a building, now Lymore Gardens. Adjoining the east end of the garden were three small enclosures, now planted. Setting - Lymore Park is located in rolling countryside to the east of Montgomery Significant views - The circuitous drive is designed to give good views of the park as it is approached. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 162-5 (ref: PGW (Po)14(POW)). Ordnance Survey 25-inch maps: sheets Montgomery XXXVII (editions of 1884 & 1901). Additional notes: D.K.Leighton