Grounds and gardens of Bryncaerau Castle, an Italianate villa built in 1885 (NPRN 23331) and depicted on the 2nd edition OS county series (Carmarthen. LVIII.3 1907). These were laid out over the more formal scheme associated with an earlier house replaced by the 1885 villa. These appear on the 1st edition County series of 1880 and, partially and in greater detail, on the 1st edition OS 1:500 Town Plan of the same year. The villa grounds were in turn overlain by the Parc Howard municipal park in 1912, depicted on the County series 3rd edition of 1916.
The pre-1885 grounds lay to the south-east of the house, with walled kitchen(?) gardens behind to the north-west. There was some planting in the adjacent fields, producing a park-like setting. The south-eastern grounds featured a carriage drive and a geometric network of paths winding through shrubberies. There was a croquet ground with a central tree, a fountain and a lodge at the entrance to the drive.
The 1885 grounds were more informal, with irregular curving boundaries and a pond. It retained little of the earlier layout, although the terrace of the croquet ground remained. The kitchen gardens were also substantially reordered.
The present park retains few earlier features, although the main drive remains, as does the pond.

Source: CADW Register of Parks and Gardens in Wales. Carmarthen, Ceredigion & Pembroke (2002), 62-4

John Wiles 28.11.07





This garden is depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Carmarthenshire LVIII, sheet 3 (1907). Its main elements on that map include a kitchen garden, terrace, orchard, lodge, isolated geometric copses, conservatory, carriage drive in a possibly formal setting. C.S.Briggs 13.07.05