PANTASAPH Ref No PGW (C) 40 OS Map 116 Grid Ref SJ 161 759 County Flintshire District Flintshire Community Council Holywell Designations Listed building: Pantasaph Grade II Conservation Area (Pantasaph) Site Evaluation Grade II Primary reasons for grading A very good example of a nineteenth-century landscaped Stations of the Cross making full use of the land formation. Type of Site Religious garden (Stations of the Cross). Main Phases of Construction 1849-1875 SITE DESCRIPTION Pantasaph is a Roman Catholic complex of buildings, comprising the church of St David's and a Franciscan friary. To the south is the ruined convent of St Clare's and the A55 dual carriageway. Pantasaph is situated on ground sloping gently to the south, backed by the hill to the north on which the garden is laid out. In 1846 Viscount Fielding later 8th Earl of Denbigh married Louisa the only child and heiress of David Pennant of Downing and grand-daughter of Thomas Pennant. In thanksgiving for their marriage they decided to build a church on their estate at Pantasaph and the foundation stone was laid on 16 August 1849. The following year Lord and Lady Fielding were received into the Catholic church, and the church became Roman Catholic. The architect of the church was T.H. Wyatt, who also made alterations to the Fieldings' home at Downing. Pugin was called in to give Catholic finishing touches to the interior. Not all his work remains, and alterations to the interior began as early as c. 1893. From the outside the church is a simple single-aisle building with a gabled roof and porch. The tower has a stepped pyramidal stone tower. The friary buildings adjoin the church on the north side forming a courtyard open on one side. These are also in Gothic style, possibly by T.H. Wyatt, and were built in 1858-65. The hill behind the friary has been used to its full advantage for the creation of a dramatic set of Stations of the Cross representing Christ's journey to Calvary. The entrance is marked by a stone arch surmounted with a stone cross. In niches on either side are statues of St Francis and St Anthony. The pathway zigzags its way up the hill with a Station at each turn in the path. Each station is marked by a tiny Gothic chapel containing a depiction of the particular station. The path is also punctuated by recesses for benches. The sides of the path are decorated with large rocks and the remains of coarse gravel can be seen in the pathway. The path widens out to form an apse-shaped space which marks the site of Calvary at the top of the hill. This is marked with a half life-size crucifix and a group of bronze figures representing Mary, Mother of Christ, Mary Magdalen, and St Peter. Steps either side of the last station provide a view over the boundary wall to the Irish Sea. Below Calvary and built into the hillside is the fourteenth and last station, erected by benefactors, one named Francis Reynolds. This takes the form of a much larger chapel, known as the Chapel of the Sepulchre, and is sometimes used for Mass and Benediction. On an axis with this chapel is a steep flight of stone steps which leads to the monastery buildings below. Below the Chapel of the Sepulchre is a Grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes made in the quarry which supplied the building stone for the chapel and monastic buildings. According to a guidebook written in 1964 originally there was no planting on the hill at all. When the garden was made in 1875-79 the hillside was planted with Scots pine and larch, with an underplanting of cherry laurel, mahonia, and yew, and a ground cover of Vinca minor. The planting has thinned and beech is now being planted. The Calvary area is planted around the edge with Irish yew and the vista to the Chapel of the Sepulchre is planted with Scots pine on either side. The main drive to the Friary has an avenue of sycamore interplanted with clipped Irish yews. The paddocks either side of the drive have a perimeter planting of Scots pine. The graveyard attached to the chapel has a perimeter planting of Chamaecyparis species. Two kitchen gardens are sited either side of the approach to the Stations of the Cross. They are bounded by low rubble limestone walls. The one to the east contains the remains of a glasshouse and some fruit bushes, whilst the one to the west is now a field. Sources Secondary Father Richard of Crawley, The History of Pantasaph (1964). Hubbard, E., Clwyd (1986), pp. 414-15. .