CYFARTHFA CASTLE Ref Number PGW (Gm)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CYFARTHFA CASTLE Ref number PGW (Gm) 1 (MER) OS Map 160 Grid ref SO 042 073 Former county Mid Glamorgan Unitary authority Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council Community council Merthyr Tydfil Designations Listed building: Cyfarthfa Castle Grade I Site evaluation Grade II* Primary reasons for grading The survival of much of the park and gardens of Cyfarthfa Castle, the most historically important iron-master’s home in Wales, built and developed immediately next to the ironworks by members of the Crawshay family. The park and gardens are of great interest not only as the landscape setting for the romantic mansion but also for their proximity to and usefulness to the ironworks. Type of site Victorian park, converted from private to public park, and formal gardens Main phases of construction 1825-70s Site description Cyfarthfa Castle is a large gothic Victorian mansion built as a mock castle by Robert Lugar for the ironmaster William Crawshay II in 1825. It is situated on a south-west facing slope above the river Taf at the north end of Merthyr Tydfil, with views across the valley to the site of the Cyfarthfa ironworks on the other side of the river. It was conceived in a romantic spirit, as is evident from Lugar's own description of the scene: 'The south-west embraces, on the foreground, the terrace, park and River Taff, beyond which the great ironworks become conspicuous; these at night offer a truly magnificent scene, resembling the fabled Pandemonium, upon which the eye may gaze with pleasure .... Beyond the works the mountains rise with majestic effect .... The style adopted at Cyfartha (sic) Castle is designed for the situation, standing alone in the midst of rising ground in a bold country. Thus placed, no other character of mansion would appear with equal effect'. William Crawshay II was the son of William Crawshay (died 1814) and was responsible for the huge expansion of the Cyfarthfa ironworks, of which he gained sole control in 1834. Cyfarthfa Castle, built close to his ironworks, is an expression of his ambition and drive and of his close identification with the works. His previous seat had been at Gwaelodygarth, which was presented to Mr Meyrick. The cost of building Cyfarthfa Castle was enormous (£30,000), and it originally had a park of 600 acres. The ironworks ran into problems in the late nineteenth century and was eventually closed. The Crawshays left Cyfarthfa Castle in 1889 and it was sold in 1909 for a mere £15,000 to the local corporation. The grounds were then converted into a public park, with a museum and art gallery in the house. The house is a large, picturesque, crenellated, stone mansion built on a terrace cut into the hillside. The main front faces south-west, with a central single-storey entrance porch, the door flanked by small twin turrets. The two-storey front is punctuated by higher towers - square at the north end, octagonal in the centre, and round at the south end. All are topped by false machicolations and battlements. The round tower is the tallest, with an even taller small staircase turret attached to it. There are further square towers in the middle and north corner of the south-east front, and on the north-west front next to that in the west corner. Windows are mullioned and transomed except on the round tower, where they are round-headed. The stable block and other outbuildings are built round a court immediately to the north-west of the house, on the same axis. They were built at the same time and in the same style as the house, with crenellated and machicolated towers, both square and round. The entrance to the court is on the south-west side, through a rounded arch under a square tower. The buildings are single-storey, with mullioned and transomed windows. Between the house and stable court is an open court screened on the main front by a curtain wall. Entrance is through a rounded archway between square and round towers. Both curtain wall and towers are decorated with plain arrow-slits. The park is situated on the slopes of a hill, with the house and most of the ornamental features in the western part on the south-west facing slope, overlooking the site of the ironworks. Outlying parts of the park on the north-east and south-east sides have been taken over by schools for buildings and playing fields, and the Bryn- cae-Owen pond on the north boundary has been filled in. The park was begun when the house was built in 1825. An early drawing of the house by Henry Gastineau in South Wales Illustrated in a Series of Views (1829- 30) shows a natural landscape around the house, with none of the formality that was to follow. However, by the time of the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (1873) the park had assumed its present layout. Early twentieth-century photographs of the ironworks and park show a well wooded, mature landscape park in a rural setting apart from the ironworks. The park is roughly oval in shape, elongated north-south, with the highest ground in the middle. It is bounded by the A470 on the west, and by minor town roads on the other sides. A stone wall with a crenellated top runs along the A470; the other sides have modern concrete fencing and iron railing. The main entrance is on the A470, to the south of the house. Lodges shown on the 1873 map as flanking the entrance have gone. The entrance has plain iron gates and flanking railings. Opposite the entrance a farm, Pandy Farm, has been ornamented with a clock tower with crenellated top. This is probably contemporary with the castle. A straight tarmac drive flanked by cypresses on the east side and cypresses and other conifers on the west side leads up to the terrace in front of the house, curving north-westwards immediately in front of it. A secondary drive, flanked on its north side by a crenellated stone wall, continues northwards to another entrance on the A470 with plain iron gates flanked by square stone piers. Below the house, along the west boundary, is a sinuous small lake. There are two small islands, one towards the north end, one towards the south. The edges are 2 revetted in stone. Originally the lake reached as far as the main drive, but this end has now been filled in and converted to a children's playground. A boat house shown on the 1873 map on the east shore has gone. Water from the lake was harnessed for industrial purposes; a leat took water from it to power machinery in the ironworks. The water crossed the river in a trough over the Pont y Cafnau bridge. Between the house and the lake is a smooth grass slope dotted with oak, beech and sycamore, both isolated and in small clumps. At the south end of the lake is a row of tall firs. To the south and south-east of the house the park is now largely unfenced grass, with a few isolated trees and school playing fields at the south end. Immediately below the garden two terraces have been carved out since the park became a public park in 1910. The upper terrace is a bowling green, with a clubhouse above it, and the lower terrace has hard tennis courts on it. Below are some mature conifers. To the east a tarmac track leads to a bandstand, another public park feature, although recently rebuilt. Behind the house, and to its east and north-west is a belt of woodland. To the east it has a canopy of tall conifers, including pines and Douglas firs, with underplanting of laurel and yew, and rhododendrons on the fringe of the garden east of the house. The east end of the wood is largely deciduous. Earthen paths run through the wood. An octagonal building shown on a path in the wood on the 1873 map has gone, and the part of the wood in which it lay is now an adventure playground. On the slope behind the house is a series of four narrow elliptical ponds, one above the other, with stone revetted dams on the north-west sides. They are shown on the 1873 map as reservoirs, and still hold water, although they are somewhat overgrown and neglected. To their north is a small irregular pond, also shown on the 1873 map as a reservoir, with an earthen dam along its south-west side. On the edge of the wood, above the series of ponds is an ice-house. It is built out over the slope, and only the lower half survives. It is circular, brick-lined, almost filled with stones, and has an entrance passage, only the base of which remains, on the north side. To the north-west of the house the wood is called Garden Wood and continues to the north corner of the park. It is mixed deciduous and coniferous, with a group of large pines towards the north end. Gravel and earthen paths run through the wood. A track leads eastwards from the house along the edge of the woodland to the upper part of the park. Above the woodland to the east of the house are five parallel rows of large mature pines running north-east from the wood to a tarmac drive. This crosses the park from the north to the south-east boundaries and is lined with birch and sycamore trees. Beyond, to the north-east, are school playing fields.