PGW(C)73(WRE)

Erbistock Hall  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Wrexham  

Erbistock  

335137  

342443  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Park with formal elements; formal, part terraced, part walled garden.  

Early eighteenth century  

Registered for its historic interest as a partly terraced garden probably dating to the early eighteenth-century, with well-preserved, very fine yew hedging and topiary of some antiquity. The garden incorporates a well-preserved early eighteenth-century dovecote. The house and gardens are situated within a small park. The registered park and garden has group value with the early eighteenth-century mansion of Erbistock Hall (LB: 15170), timber-framed farm building (LB: 1577) and circular, brick dovecote, dated 1737 (LB: 1578). Erbistock has historical associations with the Wynn family having belonged to the Wynn family of Wynnstay. Erbistock Hall is a Georgian brick mansion situated on elevated ground above and to the the west of the river Dee, and lies on the east side of a small park mostly to the west of the house. The remnants of the park occupy a rectangular area between the Rosehill park boundary on the north (PGW(C)72(WRE)), the Erbistock road on the west, field boundaries on the south, and a band of woodland on the east beyond the house and garden. Most of it is now rolling pasture. The history of the park is obscure. The house was originally approached by a drive from the south which is thought to have been made at the same time as the house, in the early eighteenth century, with the present drive to the forecourt on its west side added later (present in 1879). The park is separated from the garden by a ha-ha. Between the present and former drives the ha-ha is built of brick, and has been partly rebuilt in modern times. To the south of the former drive the ha-ha curves eastwards and is built of stone. This appears to be the older section; the ha-ha may have been extended northwards when the present drive was built. Aside from this the only signs of landscaping are a few mature oaks along the north side of the drive, and horse chestnuts flanking the former drive. The gardens lie around the house from north-west to south to south-east. The drive enters the grounds in the north-west corner and runs between level lawns to the oval forecourt west of the house. This is flanked by a bank of rhododendrons on the west, and by a modern brick wall on the south through which an iron gate in an archway leads into the terraced garden. This lies mainly to the south and south-east of the house on ground falling away to the south. The garden, separated from the park by a ha-ha, is divided into several partly-terraced compartments by tall yew hedging and yew topiary, its principal features. Its formal structure probably dates from the building of the house in the early eighteenth-century. Immediately to the south of the house is an area mainly of lawn, demarcated on the east and south by tall yew hedging and yew domes, and on the west by the ha-ha. The north-east corner of the compartment, close to the house, is occupied by the dovecote on a raised platform. The slope is cut into four descending terraces of varying widths and heights, bounded by grass slopes. A stone flag path runs on the main central north-south axis of the garden, with flights of steps, and a cross path leads to the dovecote to the east. A rectangular compartment of rough grass and old fruit trees towards the bottom of the garden was a former orchard. This, the southernmost, parcel displays prominent cultivation ridges (aerial photographs); the south-east corner once contained a summer house. East of the terraces, an east-west path between tall yew hedges leads to areas of garden subdivided variously by yew and box hedges, partly bounded by high brick walls, formerly the kitchen garden, but now largely taken up with a hard tennis court flanked by narrow lawns. Beyond the north wall is an area of brick outbuildings, kennels, frames, and a glasshouse, with a small old orchard bounded by a box hedge on its west side. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 66-8 (ref: PGW(C)73). Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map: sheet Denbighshire XXXVI.13. (second edition 1899). Additional notes: David Leighton