PGW(Po)31(POW)

Glansevern Hall  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Berriew  

319650  

299869  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Simple landscaped park with lake, avenue and parkland planting. Formal garden with walks and new planting. Remodeled walled kitchen garden.  

c.1800.  

Registered as a good example of an early nineteenth century landscape park and garden forming the grounds to Glansevern Hall. The park incorporates a lake and parkland planting, including an avenue. The gardens include a nineteenth-century garden grotto. The site is in a picturesque setting on the banks of the River Severn. Glansevern has historical associations with an important Welsh family, the Owens. The registered area has group value with the hall and associated outbuildings and structures of contemporary date. The house at Glansevern Hall (LB: 7681; NPRN 29240) is surrounded by parkland of approximately 100 acres (40.5ha). Its history before 1800 is unclear but it is thought that the Owen family created a park contemporary with their new house on land they already owned. Map evidence shows that the park was extended during the second half of the nineteenth century. The park runs from the main road (A473) east towards the river Rhiw, south-east towards the river Severn and south towards Lower Garthmyl farm. The park is gentle in appearance with little sign of earth moving. The Hall is set back, hidden from view from the A483 by a high stone park wall and a long drive from Refail which runs beneath an avenue of mature sweet chestnut for about 0.5km before reaching the house. There was also a service drive from the north near the river Rhiw. The house itself lies on a level terrace facing south-east over gently-sloping parkland falling away to water meadows surrounding the undulating river Severn to the east. The park still contains some parkland planting, most notably the avenue and shelter belts in the northern area, although some of the western plantations were probably removed when the A483 was widened in the 1970s. It was at this time the lodge and entrance gates were demolished. The northern shelter belts, of mixed woodland, survive inside the park wall to the west. Relict shelter belts also survive along the north-east boundary and these have been recently replanted, predominantly with broadleaves. A few mature isolated trees including oak and lime also grow in the northern parkland. The park was once noted for its abundant trees before felling in the earlier twentieth century. These have since been redressed with specimen trees, notably oak and lime, in the northern, western and eastern parkland. Some early park planting also survives in the degraded south and east park. On the flat land, toward the river Severn, a short line of mature limes and a group of Scots pine have been recorded. Both of these plantings appear to date from the mid to late nineteenth century. It is believed that the park was split up following the final departure of the Owen family in 1950. The pleasure grounds and gardens at Glansevern Hall together cover about 12 acres (4.9ha.) around the house and are believed to be contemporary with it. The pleasure grounds lie around a linear lake of an additional 3 acres (1.2ha.) to the south of the house, separated from the park beyond by nineteenth-century park rails on the north and modern stock fencing on the south-west. A walk runs around the lake between new and mature tree and shrub plantings. At the western end of the lake, on the north side, there is a small oriental water garden laid out in a series of quartz and stone lined paths. Although the lake is an early to mid-nineteenth century feature, the oriental water garden is thought to date to between 1900 -1930. The gardens lie to the east and north-east of the house. On the south front of the house, once the site of a turning circle, is a rectangular gravelled area bounded by a recent period brick and stone balustrade and connecting to a rectangular lawn (also fairly recent); at its south-east end there is a free-standing screen wall and iron gate, serving as a claire-voie. A second large lawn lies to the east of the house and is dominated on its eastern part by two large curving herbaceous borders backed by a tree-planted lawn. The lawn is flanked on the west by a raised gravel path alongside the house. Steps lead from this raised terrace to a straight path which proceeds to reach a fountain basin. The lawn is enclosed on the north by the south wall of the kitchen garden. A Victorian greenhouse/conservatory projects from the wall into the garden by about 6m. The path east of the fountain leads to a large rock garden and grotto at the eastern garden boundary. The layout of the east garden can be traced on the early 25 inch Ordnance Survey map editions, which show the path layout, conservatory, fountain, grotto and walled garden. The grotto is regarded as a fine example of its type, its date is unclear. In style and scale the grotto would appear to date from the early nineteenth century, the rock gardens and pool possibly being slightly later. They are recorded on a tithe of 1844 and Ordnance Survey maps of 1888 and 1901. Sale particulars of 1928 mention 'an alpine rock garden, containing a summer house'. The grotto is kidney-shaped, made of rough stone and quartz blocks, and measures 20m x 8m, and about 6m high. Two 'segments' of rock garden fit into the curve of the grotto creating an overall oval feature. Two sets of narrow steps ascend its west face, and stone blocks on the 'roof' provide seats with a view over either the garden or the orchard and park to the east. Narrow, steep-sided rock paths lead between the rock gardens to enter a cut stone passage which runs through the grotto. The passage is about 15m long and twists and turns under the rocks re-emerging in a cut stone recess on the north-west, its surface once ornamented with tufa or quartz. A small reproduction stone nymph in a stone basin has been sited on the south-east of the grotto. Both the surface of the grotto and rock garden have been planted up. To the south-west of the grotto and rock garden the ground dips into a shallow valley which concludes in a small, deep stone-lined pool. The kitchen garden at Glansevern lies to the north of the house and at the northern extent of the gardens and pleasure grounds. It covers approximately one acre (about 0.5ha) and is enclosed by walls, still intact, of red brick with stone coping which stand up to 3.5m high. Pentagonal on plan the garden lies on a west-east alignment, its western wall being shared with the stable court (NPRN: 43455). A wide cart entrance, set with a simple timber gate, connects the garden with the stable court on the west. Internal wooden doors connect to a northern walled area, the formal garden to the south, the carriage house/stable on the west and the grotto area to the east. To the north of the kitchen garden there is a second walled enclosure of about 1/4 acre (about 0.1 hectare). Both are believed to be contemporary with the house. Significant Views: Views from the house and gardens across the park towards the River Severn and the surrounding landscape of the Severn Valley. Source: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 82-6 (ref: PGW (Po)31(POW)).