PGW(Dy)31(PEM)

Cresselly  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Pembrokeshire  

Jeffreyston  

205972  

206868  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Landscape park; pleasure gardens; walled kitchen garden.  

Some features, such as the walled garden, were extant about 1840. Substantial remodelling of the park and garden was undertaken in about 1869 and again between 1875 & 1907.  

Registered as an example of a nineteenth century landscape park with some fine entrances and a large and well-preserved example of a kitchen garden. The registered area has group value with Cresselly House (LB: 15933) built c.1770 with subsequent alterations, and associated estate outbuildings. The house and gardens at Cresselly are situated near the summit of the west-facing slopes of a small hill, at some 70m AOD, in rolling Pembrokeshire countryside. The undulating slope to the west of the house is occupied by parkland which slopes gently away from the house to the north-east. Woodland areas around and in the centre of the park remain. The area of park is much the same as in the tithe survey (when it was recorded as ‘lawn’) and first edition Ordnance Survey, which is the two parcels to the west of the house, about 23 acres. A parcel of land east of the house, shown as park in 1869, is now farmland. The areas of woodland at the margins of the park appear to have changed little in extent between the tithe survey and today. The Ordnance Survey map of 1875 shows no grand sweeps of drive or lodged entrances. A modest drive or path is shown giving access from the site of the present North Lodge through to the walled gardens, from here small paths link to the house. Access to the front of the house was from a recessed entrance (LB: 15916) just above the stable courtyard (LB: 15917; 15918). However, by 1907 there had been several changes: just beyond the smithy, is a recessed entrance and the start of a former drive which would appear to have been constructed post 1875 and prior to 1906 (2nd edition OS). Some four metres from the road, on the line of the south drive, stands an ornate pair of gate piers (LB: 15928). From this imposing entrance, the drive curved westwards across a 9-acre field to the site of the West Lodge (LB: 15926. However, the drive was obviously constructed some time before the lodge, as the only lodge shown on the 1907 survey is the North Lodge (LB: 15921; 15922). The West Lodge is very much more modest than the North Lodge, but is stone built in a similar style. From the lodge the drive crossed the lane that leads towards Cresswell and entered the park through a further imposing double gateway (LB: 15927) which is recessed from the lane. From this entrance the drive curves eastward towards the house. To the south-west of the house, the drive splays with one fork curved north in front of the house and terrace and eventually linking with the north drive. The other fork links the drive with the service area. There is a little ornamental planting within the park. In the Belts, a linear area of native deciduous woodland, are two fishponds, now largely overgrown. The Belts still links to the perimeter woodland belt at Cresselly Wood, as it did in the nineteenth century. The boundary between the road, to the east, and the estate, is marked by a substantial rubble wall which continues, in part, around the park. The garden was established and developed during the mid-late nineteenth century, and occupies the terrace which surrounds the house, though mostly to the west. The garden is mostly lawn surrounded by plantings of hardy plants and shrubs. The terrace appears to have been re-modelled several times since the tithe survey. Photographs from 1871 show the terrace with formal circular and semi-circular beds planted with annuals, revealed as parchmarks during summer aerial reconnaissance in 2004. To the south of this terrace, at the end of the last century, was what appears to be a small circular tiered sunken garden, similar to one at Lawrenny. By the turn of the century a fountain is shown in this area, close to the circular garden. This feature has now gone but a slight circular sunken depression remains within the grass at the same location. The stone eastern boundary wall, which separates the garden area from the road, is of variable height, but mostly just over 1m, with an irregular capping giving a castellated (cocks and hens) effect. Around the house and between the house and the North Lodge are mature examples of Rhus typhina (Staghorn sumach), Lawson's cypress, Scots pine and rhododendrons including R.'Boddaertianum'. To the north of the house are the walled kitchen gardens; these are the elements of most historical interest remaining in the gardens at Cresselly. They are two conjoining gardens, long axes east by west, which cover nearly 1.5 acres. In about 1840 the garden is shown on the tithe map as a single sub-rectangular area but by 1875 it became two separate gardens and this division remains. Perimeter and cross paths shown in the 1860s are no longer visible. The enclosing walls stand mostly to just over 3m and the internal west and south-facing walls are lined in brick. The entrance from one garden to the other is through an arched doorway in the centre of the wall. Either side of it on the south are two brick walls at right angles to the central wall, possibly buttresses as well as support for ornamental climbers. Within the south garden are old fruit trees and the base of a cold frame or glasshouse. Glasshouses also existed along the inside north garden north wall; one smaller range of glass remains although traces of more extensive foundations are still visible. They were possibly designed by William Hoare who worked at nearby Slebech and Lawrenny where he was a tenant. He was responsible for the original peach house at Cresselly which was likely located along the north wall. An arched entrance formerly linked the gardens with the boiler and service buildings which were situated in a range outside (to the north) of this wall. In the western section of the north garden is an iron hand pump on a crumbling stone and brick base, the site of a well. Significant View: Views west across the park from the terrace. Sources: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 202-5 (ref: PGW(Dy)31(PEM)). Ordnance Survey six-inch maps: sheet Pembrokeshire XXXIV.SE (editions of 1863-4 & 1906); second-edition 25-inch map: sheet Pembrokeshire XXXIV.12 (1906). Additional notes: D.K.Leighton