PGW(C)47(FLT)

Leeswood Hall  

I  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Flintshire  

Leeswood and Pontblyddyn  

325371  

361459  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Transitional formal/informal landscape garden  

c. 1728-32; early nineteenth century  

Leeswood is located about 13km to the north-west of Wrexham. It is registered at grade I for the historic interest and rarity of its early eighteenth-century transitional landscape, designed by Stephen Switzer (1682-1745) who was responsible for the main layout. Some alterations were made in the early nineteenth century, by the Revd. Hope Eyton, but thereafter little has changed. It is also important for its group value with listed Leeswood Hall (Grade II*), the White Gates (Grade I), an ice house, dovecot, former stables, and the walled garden, cottage and vinehouse (all Grade II). The grounds were initially laid out for George Wynne, to compliment his grand new house, in the late 1720s and early 1730s. Switzer's style was what he called 'rural and extensive gardening': large-scale layouts of open ground and woodland, held together by strong formal axes of avenues and vistas, but within which informality was allowed. Ha-has enabled vistas to end with views out into the countryside beyond. This kind of transitional landscape was laid out at Leeswood, largely in the irregular-shaped area of woodland to the north and east of the house. The house is approached from the south-west, off Leeswood Lane. A now disused entrance off the Mold-Wrexham road, to the north, is flanked by twin lodges (LB 573), the former drive crossing the river over a stone bridge (LB 552). The Leeswood pleasure grounds lie mainly to the north-west, north, and north-east of the house. The registered area forms an irregular rectangle bounded by public roads on the north, belts of trees and woodland on the south and west, and by farmland on the east. The main elements fall into several areas. Extensive lawns lie to the north-west and south-east of the house (LB 567). The wide, smooth grass slope along the axis to the north-west, extends from a gravel forecourt bounded by a ha-ha and terminates at the White Gates (LB 285), a wrought ironwork gatescreen by Robert Bakewell, though never used as an entrance. The lawn is bounded by belts of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees. To the north-east is a well-preserved ice-house (LB 571) beyond which is a lake overlooked by a small semi-circular turf amphitheatre of uncertain function. Immediately south-east of the house is a lawn with a disused fountain base in the centre, and beyond the drive a grass field with a few old trees, possibly remnants of a lime avenue. Next to the outbuildings is a roughly rectangular pond, a former reservoir. To the north and east of the house is an area of mostly semi-natural deciduous woodland with some ornamental Victorian or Edwardian tree planting near the house. Within it the original paths and vistas of Switzer have become overgrown. An open grass area contains a tennis court, and beyond it a small pool, then the 'bowling green', or American garden, an overgrown raised platform supporting an early eighteenth-century sundial. To its north is a series of three ponds stepped down the slope. Near the western edge of the woodland is a large circular mound called The Mount, a mound 6m-7m high, possibly a medieval motte re-used as a seating area (nprns 23058 & 300651). The walled kitchen garden lies to the north-east of the house, on the southern edge of the woodland area. It is rectangular, long axis north-west by south-east, and has a central south-west by north-east dividing wall with a gap at the north-east end. Its brick walls mostly stand to about 4m, except the north-east wall at 5m. The garden is much reduced from the original, larger garden contemporary with the house. In the late nineteenth century there was a layout of perimeter and single cross paths, with a garden building in the middle of the north-east side, a central glass house in the north-west section, and several glasshouses outside the west corner of the garden. All this has now gone. The northern half is laid out to lawn, with perimeter borders. The southern half is also laid out to lawn with a perimeter of ornamental parterres and some trees. To the south-west of the lane to Leeswood village is an area of former park beyond the Switzer layout. This is now a pasture field with a belt of planting along its western side. In it, to the south of the house, is a ruinous, square, classical dovecote, contemporary with the house, dating to the late 1720s (LB 720). Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 96-9 (ref: PGW(C)57(WRE)). Google Maps satellite imagery (accessed 28.07.2021)