The Argoed is located above the steep west side of the Wye valley, about 4km south of Monmouth, just south of the village of Penallt. Its gardens are noted for their magnificent position overlooking the valley. The estate was owned in the 1860s by Richard Potter, father of Beatrice Webb who founded The Fabians, and was visited by George Bernard Shaw amongst others. The Argoed house has origins in the mid seventeenth century (nprn 36392). Much of the present-day appearance of the gardens is due to alterations carried out by the Potter family who owned the estate from the 1860s. Although largely Victorian and Edwardian in their present state, there appear to be surviving earlier features, in particular the seventeenth-century terraces and perhaps the sycamore trees flanking the south drive.

The gardens lie just south of the village of Penallt, occupying a rougly triangular area with the house located on its ‘straight’ east side. They are bounded on the west by two minor roads, on the east by a wall and fence north and south of the house and by a ha-ha to the east of it. The rectangular gravel forecourt on its west side is approached by a straight drive from the south flanked by pairs of ancient sycamore trees. The forecourt is now subdivided and access to the north drive is blocked. This drive is flanked by Wellingtonias and runs past the former coach house to an entrance and lodge at the crossroads north of the house.

Most of the gardens are laid out informally with specimen trees, shrubberies, and lawns. Immediately around the house there is more formality with wide gravel paths and two large grass terraces to the east of the house. The latter are separated by a low scarp, and the lower one is bounded by a curving ha-ha. In the field below the ha-ha are traces of at least one further terrace.

To the north of the terraces is a large rectangular walled garden (now separately owned) with roughly coursed stone walls and arched doorways on the south and east sides. Both this and the terraces are probably seventeenth-century in date, laid out in the time of the Probert family who then owned the estate. In its south-east corner is a small raised decorated stone pavilion built into the walls. In the north-east corner an iron armillary sphere stands on a tall squared pillar of the same stone and construction as the walls and pavilion with which it may be contemporary.

To the south of the house is a small paved area with an open rustic loggia at the south end, called the 'Italian garden'. A narrow channel runs down the middle with three circular millstones set into it at intervals and a raised millstone at the south end. To the west of the Coach House is a small roughly circular pond with a stone revetted dam along its east side.

The western boundary the garden is planted with a belt of mixed coniferous and deciduous woodland and an underplanting of specimen shrubs including unusual rhododendrons. The rest of the area to the west of the house is grassed, with specimen conifers and deciduous trees. Evergreen shrubs flank the east end of the south drive.

Sources:
Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 8-10 (ref: PGW (Gt)49(MON)).
Additional notes: C.S.Briggs

RCAHMW, 30 March 2022