GWERNYFED PARK

Ref No PGW (Po) 10 (POW)

OS Map 161

Grid Ref SO 176374

Former County Powys

Unitary Authority Powys

District Brecknock

Community Council Three Cocks

Designations Listed Building: House Grade II*, Stable Block Grade II*, Lodge Gates and screen wall Grade II, Park wall (west side) Grade II, Railed screen to west of house Grade II, kitchen garden walls and gates Grade II, Glasshouse Grade II, Gardener's cottage Grade II. In park (for interest only) Scheduled Ancient Monument: Gwernyfed Park Camp (17/2517/BR159(POW)).

Site Evaluation Grade II

Primary reasons for grading Remnant of pre nineteenth-century deer park with traces of avenues; formal terraced gardens by W.E. Nesfield including an integral kitchen garden with grand ornamental gateways and intact south-facing greenhouse.

Type of Site Victorian House with formal terrace gardens; walled kitchen garden; parkland including deer park.

Main Phases of Construction Victorian House and garden c. 1870-80

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SITE DESCRIPTION

Gwernyfed Park is set on a low level terrace on land which gently slopes from the north-east, facing north and west with views towards Llyswen and Talgarth, with the Brecon Beacons beyond. The construction of this house in the late nineteenth- century saw the removal of the Williams/Woods family from Old Gwernyfed, (PGW (Po)10 (POW)) which became a tenanted farm. Both sites are directly connected, the new house being built within the deer park of Old Gwernyfed. However, with the construction of Gwernyfed Park the focus of the park shifted away from the old house.

Gwernyfed Park was built for Col. Thomas Wood between 1877-80 by W. E. Nesfield following the destruction by fire of Wood's previous home Littleton, Middlesex, The house is believed to have been built on site of an earlier hunting lodge which was already in the ownership of Col. Wood. The house is built of local grey sandstone in a Jacobean style, which is emphasised by tall, red brick East Anglian chimney stacks and a high pitched tile roof. Of three storeys, with three three-sided bays on the north and west front, the style is severe and the house imposing. The south front is similar in style to another of Nesfield's Welsh commissions, Plas Dinam, Montgomeryshire which was built at about the same time. Dormers, set between the bays, like the bays' gables are ornamented with stone pinnacles. Originally, the house was laid out in an L shape, the attached stables (see below) created the north-western range and bounded a small inner forecourt on the west of the house. Although the house has been converted for institutional use, little external remodelling has taken place. However, little of the late nineteenth-century interior survives, the principal rooms now being for teaching or administration. The interior was also fire damaged in 1991. The forecourt has also been altered with the erection of a modern sports hall/class rooms to the south and a new open expanse of car park to the west.

The stables and service court were built in c. 1877-80. Contemporary with the house, the stable range forms the north-eastern side of the courtyard. Similarly styled to the house in grey sandstone with a high pitched tiled roof, the stables have a central arch with bell tower above and appear reminiscent of the house at Old Gwernyfed. The arch leads into a service court behind, where a small, square flagged yard is surrounded on the west and north by partly timbered service buildings which are now converted into classrooms and stores. On the eastern side of the yard are the carriage houses, later garages. The main stable access lies in the north-east corner. The exterior corner of the north wall is curved to enable easier carriage/car access.

The school buildings date to c. 1950 onwards. To the west of the house there is a series of school buildings erected on the site of the northern formal gardens and shrubbery. A modern school hall/gymnasium dating from about 1985 has been erected immediately to the south of the house enclosing the west forecourt (see above). It is of modern brick, with a low roofline and large windows, facing north and west. Similar school buildings have been erected to the south-east of three hard tennis courts, all on the site of the north-west gardens. A new addition to these buildings lies across the line of a wall which separated the north-west garden from an orchard to

2 the south. To the east of this building there is a series of low, older, institutional buildings. All of the new buildings are in the contemporary 'school' design typical of the 1980s; a form of modern, Surrey vernacular.

The park at Gwernyfed Park surrounds the site to the north, south and east and covers approximately 300 acres, extending down from the crossroads to Little Lodge and Groes ffordd in the north, down the A 438 and a field boundary/drain one field to the east of Caeronen Farm to the southern edge of the principal plantation Garden Wood, and back to the A 438 along the park wall/deer fence. The land is in the ownership of Caeronen farm. The park/farm shares the same main drive as the school, approaching the farm from the west off the A 438 to the north of a lodge (see Garden). The drive proceeds as a metalled track to the north of the school, past a pair of semi-detached labourer's cottages, which date from about 1960, up towards the farm. A second drive also approaches the farm from the Groes ffordd lane to the north. The area to the north of the house was known as 'The Deer Park' until at least 1900 but deer fencing was also recorded along the park's southern boundary. The park's planting largely survives in the shelter belts and woodlands along its north and south boundaries and the many, fine isolated trees within it. A relict avenue survives along the lower eastern boundary. The main farm, Caeronen farm was originally the deer park Keeper's lodge. By 1850 a walled orchard had been laid out to the east of the red brick house, which by 1888 had been split into an orchard, tree nursery and open paddock, by 1905 the area was one large paddock surrounded by a thick, or double, wall and a shelter belt of trees. Today the paddock remains as a paddock and small standard orchard. It is enclosed by a high rubble stone wall which is surrounded by high Scots pine, planted at equal distances apart. To the south of the farm, dating from at least 1888, is a small pond, containing a small central island, which is now dried out. On the west the pond is retained by a rubble and concrete dam. The planting around the pond and on the island; oaks, sycamore and low evergreens suggests that it was used as either a shooting covert or a hatchery area earlier in this century.

Outside the park, the immediate landholdings of Gwernyfed Park extended west to the River Wye, south towards Talgarth and east into the foothills of the Black Mountains. Great Tyle-glas, Gwernyfed Farm, Old Gwernyfed, Little Lodge and Tregoyd Mill all lay within the estate. Late nineteenth century plantings of Scots pine, Noble fir, Stone pine and beech occur throughout the farm land in this area. Within the park field boundaries are defined by nineteenth-century iron railings or modern wire and wood stockfencing. Around the park fine examples of late nineteenth-century iron gates, kissing gates, iron park fencing and deer fencing have also survived, one gate is marked "Hill & Smith, Brierley Hill".

The park are has an ancient history developing from the iron-age onwards into a nineteenth-century park and finally into an early twentieth-century sports estate . Its position on high ground above the western bank of the Wye made it a good location for both defence and trade. Surviving earthworks, for example the Gaer fort in the northern park, testify to this and were probably contemporary with the gradual clearance of the ancient Hay Forest which survives, in a greatly reduced form, to the

3 south-east. Tregoyd Mill and the warren were probably medieval additions to the estate. Gwernyfed Park was built within the park of Old Gwernyfed and the history of the two houses is inextricably linked.

By the mid nineteenth century a hunting lodge had been built near the centre of the deer park. In 1850 the tithe map recorded orchards, a fish pond, pleasure grounds and a garden extending to 3.3.20 acres around it. The lodge passed into the hands of Col. Wood and in the late 1870s he decided to settle permanently in Wales and commissioned W. E. Nesfield to build a new house, Gwernyfed Park, on the site of the lodge. The park around the new house is clearly recorded on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map and split into three principal areas. The old deer park, in the north, retained a high percentage of trees growing in the open park land, some in clumps, with no rides or tracks marked. To the north-east of the house was the Keeper's Lodge, which had been marked on the 1850 tithe map. A large wall-enclosure lay to the east of the lodge split internally into an orchard, tree nursery and open paddock. To the south of the lodge a elongated pond, containing an island, had been created since 1850.

To the east of the house lay a second area of park with a similar pattern of tree cover to the deer park. It is within this area that two relict avenues - a central and an eastern one - are marked. Both converge on the line of a drive in Garden Wood that lead back to the old house and the central one continues to pass-by the Keepers Lodge on the west. Trees surviving in this area of the park today are beech no older than 150 years, which suggests that the avenues had been replanted at least once since the seventeenth century. (In Welsh Timber Trees , 1961, Hyde records a Walnut avenue, 1/4 mile long on the eastern boundary of the park which contained trees measured in 1931 with girths of over 10ft. The remains of this avenue where believed to have been felled in 1931 - which seems to contradict the beech planting).

To the south of the house the parkland was more open in character with belts of woodland along the west and south and clumps of trees in the open park. This area of the park is bisected by Felindre Brook which ran on tot he east into Garden Wood, before continuing on to Velindre village. By 1888 cross-rides had been laid out in the western part of Garden Wood.

Between 1888 and the second Ordnance Survey map of 1903 the form of the park changed little. Many trees survived in the deer and east parks with the more open park to the south. The enclosure to the east of the Keeper's Lodge had, however, been altered, the nursery and orchard removed and a second wall erected - perhaps as a safe area for carving deer or raising game birds. A footbridge had also been erected connecting the island in the nearby pond to the bank. In the east park the line of the central avenue had been depleted. It now extended only about half way across the area from Garden Wood, with no trace remaining near the lodge. Planting also appears to have been depleted in the south park, the clumps being replaced by single trees, perhaps indicating a change of use from grazing to arable farming. Garden Wood, however, had been developed, becoming an ornamental pleasure ground with serpentine walks in addition to the cross-rides and a maze near the brook. A second

4 plantation had also been established by 1903 within an old field to the north of Garden Wood; Cae-romen Wood was similarly laid out with cruciform cross-rides.

The Williams family sold Gwernyfed Park at auction in 1938. The land sold off, which totalled 278 acres, included the house and gardens, a Salmon and Trout beat on the river Wye and an additional 3-4,000 acre shoot on the Radnorshire side of the river. The estate was sold as 'a sport estate', the Keeper's lodge described as the Bailiff's house, but in the event was divided up, the park remaining as farmland and the House and gardens becoming an institution. The family returned to Old Gwernyfed. It is believed that the deer had been lost from the park either during, or soon after, the Great War.

No trace of any of the features recorded in Garden Wood survive today. Since 1960's area of the wood has gradually been depleted, the majority being grubbed up for grazing. Cae-ronen wood has been virtually lost. The wood was felled between 1940-50, a few, possible relict trees surviving in field hedges. The park is now managed as part of a wider arable farm apart from an area in the south-west park where a council cricket pitch and a small housing estate has been laid out.

The main gardens, excluding the integral kitchen garden, lie to the south and west of the house and cover about 2 acres. A narrow, asphalt terrace, approximately 2m wide and about 25m long, runs along the southern front of the house. At its eastern end the terrace concludes in an overgrown, square-sided seat enclosure. In the centre and at east end of the terrace sets of three wide, dressed stone steps descend on to a level, square grass terrace of about 1/2 acre. In the centre of this terrace there is a raised, stone edged circular fountain basin approximately 4m wide, which is now used as a flower bed. Straight asphalt paths converge on this feature from the north, south, east and west. To the south of the fountain basin there is a semi-circular, cut bed planted up with roses. To the east, the terrace and the garden are bordered by a steep grass bank which is planted with alternate overgrown Irish and golden yew topiaries, backed by a yew hedge. To the west the garden is concluded in a long, straight walk running parallel with the south front of the house. Approximately 20m long, this walk is bordered on the south by a stone ha-ha. An asphalt path, 2m wide, runs along its length between a walk of ten mature Irish yews, planted 4m apart. At the eastern end of this walk a flight of four stone steps descends through the ha-ha into the park beyond. On the north of the walk is a narrow path, dividing the walk from the terrace above. This path runs from a point parallel with the eastern end of the terrace rose bed into the west where it is lost beneath a mature, overgrown and collapsing thuja.

A second, large rectangular enclosure lies to the west of the south terrace garden on a north-west alignment. It is bordered on the north by a mixed evergreen hedge of yew and holly on a distinct raised bank, fronted by an alternating line of Irish and golden yew. On the north this bank is retained by a rubble stone retaining wall, which separates it from a shrub-planted area of grass that extends north to the main drive. The form of this north-west garden has been severely disrupted by the erection of school buildings since about 1950. The north-west end of the area, before the walled kitchen garden, is dominated by three hard tennis courts. Modern asphalt or stone

5 slab paths connect these features. There are small areas of mown grass and a few shrubs including some mature azaleas. The southern boundary of the area is created by school buildings or the north wall of the orchard.

The walled kitchen garden and orchard appear to have been part of Nesfield's design, integrated into the garden, serving an aesthetic as well as a practical purpose. They dominate this area of the garden, but will be described later. The area between the tennis courts and the kitchen garden is abandoned, despite the recent creation of a small pond and appears to serve as a rubbish dump, partly hidden by rough grass.

About 30 m east of the orchard (see below) and to the south of buildings which abut the southern Walk of the terrace garden, is a car park covering an area of approximately 1/2 acre. It looks new, has no ornamentation and is separated from the park on the east by a wood and wire stock fence.

The garden area of Gwernyfed Park was taken out of the existing deer park. The earliest record of a garden in this area appears on the tithe map of 1850 which recorded orchards, a fish pond, pleasure grounds and a garden around a hunting lodge. Col. Wood augmented and remodelled what was possibly a summer residence when work started on the site in 1877. A possible survival of the earlier garden maybe a line of mature yews which run along an earth bank north of the tennis courts which appear, from their girths, to be about 200 years old. The garden layout, which survives today, is acknowledged to be that of Nesfield and it would seem that it reflected the Italianate and labour intensive, highly staffed style of the later Victorian period, although it may well have incorporated or remodelled existing features such as the north-west terrace the ha-ha and some existing trees. An intricate parterre, probably with box-edged beds filled with bedding plants, surrounded a fountain to the south of the house. This was linked to a more sober shrubbery to the west by the wide, tree lined, gravelled Walk, which concluded at the highly ornamental walled kitchen garden (see below). Richard Haslam (1979) suggests that W. E. Nesfield's father, the more famous garden designer William A. Nesfield, could have been involved at Gwernyfed, but no evidence to support this has been found.

Both the 1888 and 1905 Ordnance Survey maps record these established principal features. By 1905 it also appears that there was an escalation of conifer planting within the actual garden to which, for example, the thuja west of the parterre, may be contemporary. In the late nineteenth century Theophilus Jones visited, noting the 'beautiful grounds and gardens.... the long drive (and) the two massive iron worked gates of fine design' at the entrance. At this time the drive was apparently lined with cannonballs from the Civil War which had been dug up near Old Gwernyfed. The first visual records of the gardens come on postcards, dating from about 1930, which clearly record the tennis courts on the site of the western garden, the shrubbery being reduced to its northern boundary, and the south front of the house with neat, clipped yews along the main walk and the fountain in use. A large mature oak is also recorded on the south lawn to the south of the fountain, perhaps a relict of the earlier garden or even surviving from the park. An undated photograph of the south front of the house appears to date from a similar time, recording the fountain in use,

6 surrounded by a lawn with flower beds containing pillar roses nearer to the house. The construction date of the tennis courts is unknown. It would seem that the family noted garden fashions and by the time of the sale in 1938 the garden contained features commonly associated with those of the early twentieth century; a bog garden, an alpine garden 'with a fast running stream, fountain and cascade, with a lily pool below', and an enclosed rose garden. Sadly, none of these appear to have survived and even the site of their location is unknown.

Although the family were still wealthy in 1938 it appear that the size and cost of running an estate such as Gwernyfed Park had become too much. The gardens remained labour intensive and, as with so many similar estates, declined as the number of staff were reduced. It is possible that the gardens, including the kitchen garden, had been gradually declining since the Great War. Since the 1938 sale the garden's basic layout has survived but the grounds have become increasingly municipal and built over. Labour intensive features such as the parterre, rose, bog and alpine gardens would have been gradually abandoned.

About 150m south-west of the house is a large, integral walled kitchen garden of approximately 1 1/2 acres with an additional orchard of 1 acre immediately to the south-east, abutting the east wall of the kitchen garden. It is believed that both of these enclosures were designed by Nesfield, possibly on the site of an earlier orchard and 'garden' recorded on the 1850 tithe map.

The garden is sophisticated and highly ornamented. The walls range from 1.8 - 4.5m high, with stretches, particularly on the west, having been rebuilt. The coped walls are of local, dressed stone with interior red brick skins on the south and east facing walls. Part of the west wall has been rebuilt in breeze block. The surviving original walls are coped with red brick and slate. The north and east walls are also externally supported by stone buttresses which seem contemporary with construction.

Inside a wide path runs west to east approximately 20m in from the south facing wall. At each end of this path are fine, ornamental stone gate piers supporting exceptionally fine examples of late nineteenth-century wrought iron gates. The gates are over 2m high, painted black and ornamented with gold sunflowers. The respective stone gate piers are square, a mixture of rustication, plain ashlar, red brick detail with a top ball and claw frieze and are up to 4m high. This path was apparently a carriage drive used by the family, on their return from church, to inspect the garden.

North of the path, along the south-facing wall, there survives a dilapidated but exceptional series of glass ranges, over 60m long with a central, octagonal extension. The ranges are assumed to be contemporary with the Nesfield garden but close inspection was prevented by their condition. They are presently sealed off, and so no maker's names were recorded. According to the 1938 Sale Catalogue this range contained a carnation house, vineries, a peach house and figs (one fig survives on the eastern end, growing out of the top of the range). A potting bench and seed/order store survives in the central extension. In the internal north-west corner of the garden is a small, abandoned red brick bothy.

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The east-facing wall terminates in a small, square building after about 50m. This has two storeys, probably having been used as a root or apple store , and a basement that still contains a redundant boiler that heated the east wall. Mature espalier pears survive along this wall but according to the 1938 Sale Catalogue it was, at that time, used for peaches, protected by netting and movable lights. Both the north and west- facing walls contain nail holes and nails, the wire pulleys partly survive on the south- east corner of the north facing wall. Between the square garden building and the north- facing wall there is no formal boundary on the east of the garden. A simple wire fence divides the garden area from the orchard beyond. In the south-east corner of the north-facing wall there is a doorway leading into what is now a prefabricated garage on the external south side. The south-west corner of the garden is defined by the Head Gardener's house which faces out north-east over the garden. A small garden has been taken from the kitchen garden and lies along the east facing wall. The central area of the garden has been abandoned, any paths or other features being lost under rough grass. Both the 1888 and 1905 Ordnance Survey maps record internal circulatory paths. A service drive runs externally along the south of the kitchen garden, past the Head Gardener's house and garage towards the Nursery site. On the south face of the southern wall are ornamental trees including a Mulberry.

On the external north wall of the garden are two bothies, that to the east being a corrugated iron bothy/garage with to the west a red brick bothy, potting shed and boiler house. All are abandoned and partly vandalised but contain miscellaneous garden items. A narrow, asphalt service path runs between these and a free standing, single aisled glasshouse to the north. This has likewise been abandoned and vandalised. No heating system was apparent but it still contains a vine.

To the south-east of the main kitchen garden there is an orchard. A stone wall, which abuts the east wall of the kitchen garden at the square garden house, creates the orchard's northern boundary. Espalier and fan-trained fruit trees survive along this wall. At its centre is a small, corrugated iron bothy. The orchard contains fourteen standard apples, many in good condition. South of the trees the Nursery business has fenced off a strip of land and has made a flower garden. A rough hazel hedge separated this from the farm/nursery yard beyond.

Sources

Primary 1850 Tithe Map, National Library of Wales Photographs c. 1900-30, Royal Commission for Ancient Historic Monuments in Wales, taken from a private collection. Previously unidentified and undated photograph of the south front of Gwernyfed Park, National Library of Wales (PBA612) Sales Catalogue, 1938, National Library of Wales.

Secondary Haslam, R., The Buildings of Powys , (1979), p. 318 Hyde, H. A., Welsh Timber Trees (1961), p.102

8 Jones, T., The History of Brecknockshire , (Glanusk edn, 1909). p. 277 Whittle, E., The Historic Gardens of Wales , (1992), p. 26

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