PLAS NEWYDD, LLANFAIR DYFFRYN CLWYD
Ref No PGW (C) 39
OS Map 116
Grid Ref SJ 139 561
Former County Clwyd
Unitary Authority Denbighshire
Community Council Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd
Designations None
Site Evaluation Grade II
Primary reasons for grading Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century walled garden; fine curving ha-ha bounding the garden; Edwardian box parterre.
Type of Site Small park; walled garden; formal and informal garden.
Main Phases of Construction Seventeenth, eighteenth and late nineteenth century
SITE DESCRIPTION
Plas Newyd is a double pile seventeenth-century manor house situated on level ground in the Vale of Clwyd, to the south-east of Ruthin. It is a substantial two-storey rendered house with attic dormers and tall chimneys. The entrance front still retains its stone mullioned and transomed windows, whereas the garden front has eighteenth century-sash windows. The gable ends of the roof are stone with kneelered corbels. The kitchen area, which may be older, has decorative stone finials on the gables. To the east is a walled cobbled yard, contemporary with both house and adjacent walled garden.
To the north of the house is an L-shaped complex of nineteenth-century coach houses and stone farm buildings. The nineteenth-century brick and stone farm barn has a triangular wooden dovecote on the gable end.
To the west and south of the house and garden is an area of farmland that has been given a park-like appearance by the removal of field boundaries. This took place either in the eighteenth century or early nineteenth century. The present layout was certainly in existence by 1874 (lst edition Ordnance Survey map). The park is pasture, with a few isolated oaks and a clump of mixed coniferous and deciduous trees in the south- east corner. This was planted in about 1930 to hide a red brick house. The drive which approaches the house from the south-east was converted from a road in the nineteenth century and is still more a lane than a drive. It bounds the park on the east side, and the drive proper leads off it to the north front of the house. It is lined with a row of limes probably dating to the eighteenth century, when improvements were being made to the house. A lodge was built in the nineteenth century at the junction of the lane and the by road which bounds the south side of the park, and there is another lodge at the north end of the park. The park is separated from the garden by a long stone built ha-ha which serpentines along the boundary of the garden from the coach house to the north-west of the house almost to the east boundary. This gives fine views from the house and garden out across the park. A small stream bounds the park to the west. The north side of the house which forms part of the approach is informal, planted with mature trees and shrubs.
The garden is laid out in compartments to the south and east of the house, with a rectangular open lawn bounded by gently sloping grassy banks with flat tops to the south and west. It is bounded by the ha-ha. This layout was in existence in 1874 (1st edition Ordnance Survey map). The map shows a line of formal trees along the top of the ha-ha, with a corresponding line below the bank on the other side of the path. The latter line of trees/shrubs are no longer there but there is a line of clipped box trees along the top of the ha-ha which may be those marked on the map. A path is marked on the 1874 map all the way around the lawn, and it remains except on the west side, where it was removed in about 1975.
To the east of the main lawn is a new shrub border with an arch leading through to another area of new planting. A continuation of the path along the north side of the lawn runs along the north of this area and leads to a small formal wedge-shaped formal garden of box-edged beds planted with roses. This area is bordered by a path which continues along the southern edge of the new planting. Between the parterre and the new planting there used to be a small enclosure sheltered by a yew hedge.
To the south of the box garden are the remains of an old orchard, but only a few fruit trees remain. The east side is walled, whilst the south, which faces the park, is fenced, with an old hazel hedge, recently re-laid. A perimeter belt of trees, mainly beech, oak, ash, and Scots pine, runs down the east boundary of the garden.
The walled garden lies to the north of the old orchard and box garden, and is reached by a door in the south wall, and two doors in the north wall. The walled garden has part stone, part brick walls, and the stone ones are probably seventeenth-century in date. The north wall is entirely of stone and about 3 m. in height. The eastern and southern walls are of brick but have stone footings, presumably the remains of the earlier wall. The eastern brick wall extends into the orchard, where it is stepped. This part of the wall has flat buttresses on the inside. The southern wall is also brick with stone footings and buttresses, which do not extend to the full height of the wall and have sloping stone caps. The interior layout of the garden consists of box edged beds divided by gravel paths. The planting is mixed fruit, vegetables and flowers, the fruit being espaliered.
Sources
Secondary Hubbard, E., Clwyd (1986), p. 208. PANTASAPH
Ref No PGW (C) 40
OS Map 116
Grid Ref SJ 161 759
County Clwyd
District Delyn BC
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. LLANNERCH HALL
Ref No PGW (C) 41
OS Map 116
Grid Ref SJ 054 724
County Clwyd
District Colwyn BC
Community Council St Asaph
Designations Listed building: Llannerch Hall Grade II*
Site Evaluation Grade II
Primary reasons for grading Site of one of the most famous Welsh historic gardens, created by Mutton Davies c. 1660, overlain by 1920s garden designed by Percy Cane.
Type of Site Earthworks; formal terraced garden with canal; woodland garden; walled garden.
Main Phases of Construction c. 1660; 1927-1929
SITE DESCRIPTION
Llannerch Hall is a tall three-storey cement rendered house with stone dressings. It stands on elevated ground in the Vale of Clwyd, above the river Clwyd to the east. The earliest building on the site was a compact, tall Jacobean house built by Sir Peter Mutton at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although this has been swallowed up by later remodelling, the main block retains its seventeenth-century framework. The house was remodelled in about 1772 and again in 1862-64, when it took on its present appearance. The present house has stone dressings, two Ionic pillars at the front door on the south front, and a balcony and balustrading above. The second floor windows have stone pediments, whilst the other windows have stone mullions. By 1887 Llannerch was the seat of Sir George Cayley. The Cayleys were a Yorkshire family and one time owners of Ebberston Hall, on the North York Moors. By the 1920s Llannerch was the home of Captain and Mrs Piers Jones who called in Percy Cane to remodel the gardens between 1927 and 1929.
A brick built stableyard making up three sides of a courtyard is situated to the west of the houshe. It has all been converted to living accommodation. The date probably relates to the 1862-64 remodelling of the house. An entrance arch on the south side has stone dressings and a stone pediment, into which pigeon entrances are built.
The park at Llannerch lies to the south and south-east of the house, sloping down to the river Clwyd in the east. Part of the park adjacent to the river is taken up by a trotting track. The bank on the eastern boundary of the garden has a belt of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees. A few specimen oaks remain in the area adjacent to the south- eastern drive, which is now disused, and there are a few more to the east of the river Clwyd. An area of former park to the west of the house has been made into a golf course.
Three main drives serve the estate of Llannerch but only the one to the south-west is used today. This drive originally reached the A525, where the former entrance is marked by gate posts and former lodges either side. Another lodge was built, probably when the railway was made, on the eastern side of the railway. This stands at a sharp bend in the road, and is of stone. The entrance is flanked by stone gateposts and walls. The south and south-eastern drives are only tracks in the grass, the south- east one visible as a deep hollow way. Middle Lodge, at the entrance to the south drive, is a nineteenth-century two-storey brick house. Bottom Lodge, at the entrance to the south-east drive, is a single-storey stone house with a datestone of 1880. The entrance here is flanked by plain stone piers. Other tracks, also unused, connect these driveways. The drives lead to a rectangular forecourt on the south side of the house, and to the stable yard.
The park is now very sparsely planted, and the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map shows that it has been seriously depleted since the late nineteenth century. Some specimen oaks remain on the eastern side of the River Clwyd, and the banks of the river are thickly covered with regenerated growth.
The gardens at Llannerch date to two very distinct phases: the early 1660s and the 1920s. Of the first phase, an Italianate large-scale terraced garden of walled compartments, formal beds and planting, statues, ponds, and water tricks, created by Mutton Davies after a Grand Tour on the Continent, almost nothing remains. The gardens are known from two almost identical large oil paintings of c. 1662, which give a bird's- eye view of them. These gardens lasted until the end of the eighteenth century or the early years of the nineteenth century, when they were landscaped into a grass slope. John Claudius Loudon noted in 1822 that the 'whole place is modernised and the fine old house too much so'. What remains, below the later Percy Cane terracing on the east side of the house, is a steeply sloping pasture field in which scarps delineate the former terraces. At the foot of the slope is the flood plain of the river Clwyd, on which a large oak tree grows in the centre of the site of the circular pond, where the statue of Neptune stood. This pond and fountain may be depicted in a portrait of Letitia Whitehall (d. 1745) in front of a dolphin fountain with three putti, which is noted as being at Llannerch.
Two late nineteenth-century photographs show a terrace bounded by a revetment wall, running the length of the east side of the house. It is laid out with formal beds planted with bedding out plants.
From 1927-29 Captain and Mrs Piers Jones called in the garden designer Percy Cane to alter and enlarge the existing gardens. This he did by creating formal gardens immediately around the house, woodland gardens in two dingles to the north, and on the west the old walled garden was utilized inside and out as pleasure garden. He felt it was very important to be able to walk around a garden without having to retrace one's steps, and it was possible to do this at Llannerch.
The forecourt on the south side of the house is tarmacked, and bounded on the south side by a fence and low wall, which is a continuation of the ha-ha/retaining wall to the east. The entrance has a stone pillared gateway with two stone armorial lions on the gateposts.
To the east of the house he laid out a garden in the Italianate style with a raised canal running north-south the length of the house on the already existing terrace. The canal widens at one end to make a formal pool (now converted to a swimming pool). The terrace is almost entirely paved with stone, with many flights of steps between levels. At the north end of the terrace is an arcaded loggia and summerhouse. Below the terrace are sloping lawns with shrub borders and specimen trees in the grass. Trees include a wellingtonia and deodar cedar, with poplars in the background. The garden is bounded on the east side by a stone retaining wall/ha-ha.
The two wooded dingles, Park Dingle and Smithy Dingle, which form the boundary to the north, behind the house and farm buildings, are reached by a steep flight of stone steps at the north-east corner of the garden by the house. The dingles are part of the same small valley, and were laid out as a semi-natural woodland walk. The existing woodland was thinned to let in some light and to enable other species of trees and shrubs to grow sucessfully.
To the west of the house and stables Percy Cane laid out a further area of pleasure garden, centred around the walled garden. Along the outside of the south wall of the walled garden was a long herbaceous border, of which only the Irish yews, which were planted equidistant along the back of the border, survive. On the north side of the walled garden is an area of lawn in which is a sunken swimming pool, the last part of the garden to be made. Two terrace walls with steps lead down to the pool which has broad expanses of sloping grass all around. These were purposely sloped and called the sun bathing slopes. To one side of the pool is a timber pavilion, which was originally thatched, and contained a bar and changing rooms. This part of the garden has a dry-stone retaining wall. Proceeding north from here one is able to reach the dingle again.
The walled garden lies to the west of the house and forms part of the pleasure garden, even though it retained its utilitarian function. The brick walls are probably eighteenth-century but the ridged stone copings could be older and may have been re-used. The outside of the wall has flat buttresses. Halfway along the herbaceous border on the south side Percy Cane inserted a gateway with pillars topped with stone balls. The opening has a double pair of narrow wrought iron gates. There is another gateway, but wider, on the corresponding north wall. On an axis with these gate is a brick pillared rose wall. The pillars stand on a low brick walling with stone slab coping. Wooden beams join the pillars together. There is a central stone paved path, and rectangular flower beds evenly spaced throughout the length of the pergola. At the centre point of the walk is a circular dipping well, now with a well cover. Steps either side lead east and west. The area to the east of the pergola is now fenced off and belongs to a recently built house at the eastern perimeter of the walled garden. This part of the garden also contains the remains of a vinery. There is a brick archway with a wooden door in the south-western corner. In the centre of the western wall is a house, recently enlarged and modernized, called The Granary, with a datestone of 1871.
Some of the original planting of shrub roses remains, and other plants include potentillas, cotoneasters and conifers. There are some rambling roses on the pillars.
Sources
Primary Two oil paintings, with only minor differences, of bird's-eye view of Llannerch, c. 1662, artist unknown. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, and private collection. Painting of Letitia Whitehall in front of a Dolphin fountain said to be at Llannerch.
Secondary Two nineteenth-century postcards of Llannerch showing house and terrace. Evans, Revd J., The Beauties of England and Wales (1812). Loudon, J.C., Encyclopaedia of Gardening (1822), p. 1248. Cane, P., 'Llannerch Park', Garden Design (1938), pp. 108-115. Pratt, D., and A.G. Veysey, A Handlist of the Topographical Prints of Clwyd (1977), no. 182. Hubbard, E., Clwyd (1986), p.290. Whittle, E., The Historic Gardens of Wales (1992), pp. 27-28.