Rookwood Hospital is a large Victorian house situated on the north side of Fairwater Road in Llandaff, Cardiff (nprn 31877). In the second half of the eighteenth century the grounds were part of the estate of Thomas Edwards of Llandaff House. A large part of the grounds were sold in the middle of the nineteenth century and new grounds were developed by Col. Sir Edward Stock Hill between 1866 and his death in 1902, though landscaping may have begun in the 1770s. By the late 1860s a new house had recently been erected and named Rookwood House. From 1917 the house was turned over to health care, in use as a general hospital until its closure in 2020.

The grounds occupy a trapezoidal area of about 26 acres of level ground around the house. The southern half is now taken up with hospital buildings. This area was originally sparsely planted with trees and fenced off from the rest of the grounds to the north and west which were more highly ornamented. The grounds were laid out informally with areas of lawn and  trees and shrubs. Much of this layout and planting remain. A wide range of trees was planted, and fine specimens of cedar, wellingtonia, pine, lime and beech remain. Specimen trees were planted to commemorate family events, and two wellingtonias on the lawn mark the birth of the Hills's sons. The grounds are also notable for their fine camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas and Japanese maples.

To the north-west of the house is a circular flat-topped mound about 2m high, its sides planted with laurel and bay, which supports an octagonal gothic summerhouse in ruinous condition (23084). A summer house is shown in this position on an estate map of 1776 but its appearance is not known. The present building resembles depictions of one at Cardiff Castle in 1773 and 1775 which may have been re-erected here.

The grounds were originally more extensive. They included two fields to the west and one large one to the north which were ornamented with boundary belts of trees and specimen plantings, a drive running north-westwards from the south front of the house to an entrance and lodge on Llantrisant Road. By 1940 the west field had become a sports ground, and both the outlying parts are now built on. The drive has also gone but the half-timbered lodge, designed in 1881 by J. Prichard, remains (422060). 

Source:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)28(CDF)).
Ordnance Survey Second Edition 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XLIII.10 (1901).

RCAHMW, 5 July 2022