PGW(Po)29(POW)

Cefn Bryntalch  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Llandyssil  

317669  

296291  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

House and formal garden in rural setting.  

c. 1870  

Registered for its largely intact formal garden contemporary with the Queen Anne revival house of c.1870 by architect G.F Bodley (1827-1907). Cefn Bryntalch has historical associations with the composer Peter Warlock (1894-1930) who lived here intermittently from 1903, and wrote much of his music here. The registered area has group value with the house and its associated group of service buildings of contemporary date, also by G.F Bodley. Cefn Bryntalch (LB: 7714; NPRN: 28942) lies to the north of a minor road linking the village of Green Lane with the B4385, on the northern edge of a steep slope overlooking the Severn valley to the north and west. The gardens, believed to be contemporary with the house, lie to the south, south-west and west of the house on terraced ground which slopes to the south-west. The original, formal, drive from an entrance and lodge (LB: 18524) on the road to the south, approached the house from the south-west to the forecourt on the north-east front. The drive ran along the northern boundary of a field containing various specimen trees planted on, or around, two earth tumps. This drive is now disused, replaced by the former service drive along the north-east end of the field. The garden is laid out in a series of formal enclosures connected by paths and steps. To the south front is a small, sunken rectangular lawn surrounded by raised straight paths which connect to rectangular raised platforms on the south-west and south-east corners of the lawn. South of the lawn the ground slopes away downhill to the tree-grown field and, to the west, towards the kitchen garden. Nineteenth-century iron park fencing separate the garden from the field to the south and east. West of the lawn, on the west side of the house, a set of brick steps and a path connect on the north to a large split-level rectangular lawn, enclosed by a wooded bank on the north which continues out into the farmland. On the west end of the bank is a medieval motte (scheduled monument MG014). Beyond the east end of the lawn is a steep slope (planted up with yew, laurel and other shrubs) down to a second level below, formerly a tennis court but now planted as a wind barrier. The lawns are connected by stone steps. There are formal walks around and between the terraced areas. The garden of Cefn Bryntalch is believed to be contemporary with the house. It was certainly in place by 1888 when it was recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. No actual plans of the garden are known to have survived but some information about the garden area occurs in Bodley's building specifications for the house, dated 1868, which note the proposed creation of different ground levels around the site of the house. It is believed that the house, outbuildings and lodge were all originally designed by G.F. Bodley (1827-1907) but that the work was passed on to Philip Webb (1831-1915) in the early 1870s on the event of Bodley becoming ill. The kitchen garden, also believed to be contemporary with the house, lies to the south-west of the house, on a sunken level terrace. It covers about 0.4 ha, is laid out on two separate levels, and is surrounded by laurel hedging and a mixed shelter belt. Source: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 40-2 (ref: PGW (Po)29(POW)). Ordnance Survey, First Edition map sheet Montgomeryshire XXXVII.NW (1885)