PGW(Po)58(POW)

Garthmyl Hall  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Berriew  

319050  

298964  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal gardens including trees and lake set in a small park.  

c. 1600s; c. 1762; c. 1859-82.  

Garthmyl Hall is registered for its historic interest as a good example of well-preserved grounds developed in the mid-nineteenth century to provide the setting to the Victorian country house. The grounds have group value with the listed hall (LB: 7686) stables (LB: 16372) and associated estate buildings. The small park, which covers about 15 acres (6.1 ha), surrounds the house on ground which slopes to the south. It is enclosed to the north by the west end of Garthmyl Wood, and on the south by a mixed hedge on the north side of the A483 road. In the western park is a pond surrounded by willow and alder. There are a few isolated examples of parkland planting, including oak, horse chestnut and beech. Between 1914 and 1950 the mature mixed woodland was gradually felled and replanted. A few trees dating from the late nineteenth century survive The gardens of Garthmyl Hall lie to the west and north of the house. The earliest evidence for garden is an illustration of 1798. But by 1886, and probably by 1883, the gardens had taken on their present form. The pleasure grounds were densely planted by this time and the fishpond, or lake, was developed from an earlier farm pond. It was given a stone lining, with a plug, and a small island. The gardens cover about 2 acres (0.8 ha) (excluding the kitchen garden) and mainly comprise two large areas of lawn with peripheral plantings of trees and shrubs. The western boundary of the garden is defined by a mature shelter belt of mature specimen trees which include cedars (possibly dating from the late eighteenth century), a redwood and a copper beech; these dominate the garden. The main walk is a path from the forecourt at the south-west corner of the house proceeding north, past the site of a conservatory, through the west and north gardens towards the walled kitchen garden. Beyond the conservatory site the main walk continues down a flight of steps, through the centre of the north garden and around a wide, raised, circular fountain basin. On the west there is a large level lawn dominated by a fine mature cedar of Lebanon. To the east of the house there is an additional area of about an acre (about 0.5 ha) of relict pleasure grounds which contains a small lake. Densely planted by the 1880s, the area around the lake has been redeveloped as a modern private garden for a new house, 'Lakewood'. The walled kitchen garden lies about 50m to the north of the house on a south-east facing slope. The earliest presence of the garden is on the tithe map of 1840 and since then it has undergone considerable changes. It is trapezoidal on plan and covers an area of about two thirds of an acre (about 0.3 ha). It is surrounded by red brick, partly stone capped, walls which stand up to 4m high with rounded corners and buttressed externally on the east side. Originally there were porched entrances on the west, south and east walls. The site of a vinery is still visible in the whitewashed south face of the north wall. A line of derelict bothies and potting sheds ran along the external face of the north wall. One of these appears to have housed a boiler, as heating vents in the north wall survive. More recently, the interior of the walled garden has been redesigned. Setting: Situated in a slightly elevated position on a gentle slope above the A483 in the rural landscape of the Severn Valley. Significant Views: Views from the gardens across the park and surrounding rural landscape of pasture fields and hedgerows. Sources: Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 72-6 (ref: PGW (Po)58(POW)). Ordnance Survey second-edition 25-inch map: sheet Montgomeryshire XXX.14 (1902).