1. Parklands & Gardens of Wales No:PGW.GT1
Park/gardens associated with Dingestow Court (Nprn36810).
RCAHMW AP94-CS 0385-6 and RCAHMW AP945054/4-3

Dingestow Court is a late l9th-century garden layout by Edward Milner, with survival of its main features. It forms part of a mid l9th-century medium-sized landscape park with mid and late l9th century garden layout, part formal, part informal. There are some surviving earlier features, mainly of c. l845 and c. l883.

It has a small Mid l9th century landscaped picturesque park in rolling agricultural landscape, sloping down from the house to a 4-acre artificial lake in the valley bottom, and rising up beyond to a view of woodland on a ridge. An uninterrupted view of the park from the garden is achieved by a ha-ha on the edge of the garden (pre-l789). The park is chiefly pasture and arable, with some individual trees, including cedars planted in the l9th century (originally four, now one remains), and clumps of deciduous trees (oak, lime, horse chestnut). The park was landscaped after the 1760s, when the public road ran immediately north of it, partly along the line of the present east drive. Much of the planting dates from the l9th century. The road was moved northwards to its present position in the middle of the l9th century by Samuel Bosanquet IV and the ornamental lake also dates from the mid l9th century but may have replaced earlier fishponds drained in the l7th century. In 1971 this 4-acre lake was dredged out and the dam was enlarged to its wide flat present shape (it is l00 ft. wide at the base). It is an informally-shaped lake, created by damming the valley bottom at a point where it is at its narrowest.

Most of the trees planted in the mid l9th century, and some of the earlier ones survive. The gales of Jan l990 brought down one of the cedars at the W end of the park. The present owner has revived the lake by dredging it out (l979), and it is now in excellent condition.

THE PLEASURE GARDEN is mid l9th century/l883/20th century; of formal terrace, late Victorian picturesque style.

The gardens lie to the N, SE and E of the house and have three main components: the formal terrace along the SE front, lawns, and trees, which lie mainly in the eastern half of the garden. Within this framework are further features - a ha-ha along the SE edge of the garden, gravel paths, a mound in the N corner, next to the E drive (called 'Happy Dick's mount after Richard Jones, the last Jones to live here, who died in the l760s), a small pond to the NW of it, on the opposite side of the drive, and a long straight grass walk lined with nut trees, Scots pines, sweet chestnuts and other trees, called 'The Vista', which runs eastwards from the E end of the house.
This layout is the result of an overlay of several periods of construction and planting, the main ones of which are the mid l9th century and the mid l880s.

The only survivals from the 1789 period are the ha-ha and the mount.
There are extensive lawns to S, E and N of house. The oldest recorded trees in the garden are the two Cedars of Lebanon to the E of the house, near the garden's SE boundary. These are mid l9th century. A third blew down in the January l990 gales, and will be replaced. This one was tree-ring dated to l830. Nearby, to the N, is an old holm oak.

The Wellingtonia to the N of the house is recorded on the l883 Milner plan. It is already quite tall in a photograph of l877-l883.
Other trees already in existence in l883 are some of the Scots pines and deciduous trees in the eastern part of the garden (oaks and sweet chestnuts, incorporated into 'The Vista'). Further trees were planted between 'The Vista' and the drive (including Lawson's cypresses, shown on late l9th century photographs) and further E, according to the Milner plan. Many of these survive - mixed deciduous and coniferous, including yews.