PGW(Gt)3(NPT)

Pencoed Castle  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Newport  

Langstone  

340674  

189218  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Earthwork remains of Tudor garden terrace; walled garden enclosures of various dates, probably including Tudor; dovecote.  

Sixteenth century  

Registered as the earthwork remains of a Tudor garden terrace, walled garden enclosures of various dates and dovecote of c. 1600 associated with the Tudor manor house at Pencoed Castle. Pencoed has historical associations with the prominent Morgan family who resided there until the end of the seventeenth-century. The registered area has group value with Pencoed Castle (scheduled monument: MM274; LB: 2904), the castle gatehouse (LB: 17076), dovecote (LB: 3091), barn (LB: 3090), farmhouse (LB: 3089) and scheduled moated site to the southwest (MM201). The remains of the gardens lie to the east and south of the castle. The oldest part is a turf covered raised terrace walk along the south side of the castle, retained by a low revetment wall. The terrace can be dated stylistically to the sixteenth-century. A raised path leads from the terrace to a door in the courtyard wall. This path is shown on the tithe plan and on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1901). At its western end, the terrace continues past the end of the courtyard into the garden of the adjacent bungalow, where it is grassed over and less well preserved. At its eastern end it is crossed by the later garden wall, here much ruined, and peters out. The terrace lies along the north side of a large dry-stone walled enclosure, now pasture. This garden area is shown on the 1751 plan by Meredith Jones, divided into six square sections, each surrounded by paths, with orchards to the east and west. A late eighteenth-century plan shows the garden area reduced, with the western half of the garden taken up by orchard. The terrace is shown on the 1881 Ordnance Survey map at which time the rest of the garden was orchard. The large walled enclosure to the south of the castle is roughly level, but there are faint traces of shallow terracing within it. To the east of the castle there is a garden area surrounded by a low wall, with four rectangular compartments and a central east-west path, divided by low walls. In the northeast corner is a small ruined dovecot, and in the southeast corner is a small building, presumed to have been an outside lavatory. The 1881 OS map shows this garden area in use. A substantial, square plan, stone dovecote stands in pasture to the northeast of the house. It is dated stylistically to the sixteenth-century and is more or less complete, but roofless. Inside, the evenly spaced nesting boxes cover all walls, some with a stone ledge beneath. A pond is situated to the southeast of the dovecote and both are shown on the eighteenth-century plan of the estate, where the area is recorded as ‘The Green’. This area is shown as planted with trees and includes the dovecote, a fan-shaped pool and a small hedged enclosure. The area of the hedged enclosure is recorded on the tithe map as a garden, and the whole of the northwest corner is shown as garden on the six-inch 1st edition Ordnance Survey (1886). The eighteenth-century estate plans show an ornamental forecourt to the west of the gatehouse, but the only signs of this now are two semi-circular depressions in the field. Setting: Pencoed Castle stands within its once extensive park, now largely mixed agricultural land. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, p.117 (ref: PGW(Gt)3).