Vivod is located in the Dee valley, about 2km west of Llangollen (nprn 35551). It is an eighteenth-century house largely modified in the 1850s and 1860s and altered again in the early twentieth century.

The house and garden are situated on a north-facing slope in a small valley above the south side of the Dee valley. The garden lies to the north and east of the house. The immediate landscape setting is an irregular-shaped area bounded on the east by the wooded Dingle and its extensions to the north and south-west, and to the west by field boundaries, woodland and public roads.The garden was made when the house was modified, in the 1850s to 1870s. House and garden lie roughly centrally in the grounds. The former kitchen garden, north-west of the house, is now integrated into the pleasure garden. Picturesque woodland walks were laid out in The Dingle to the east, reached by a path across the intervening field.

The entrance is off a small approach lane north of the house. The two original lodges lie further north on the west side of this lane, a public road. A tarmac drive through a wooded area runs along the west side of the kitchen garden to the gravel forecourt on the south side of the house. The house stands on a terrace, rock-cut on the north and east sides. On the north this is grass, bounded by a scarp, with a gravel path around the house, steps down to a grass tennis court on the west. Below the tennis court is an informal rhododendron shrubbery.

Immediately east of the house are two terraces. The lower one, on the same level as that to the north, is laid out to lawn, bordered by a gravel path, with a box-edged parterre of herbs in the centre which replaced an earlier parterre of roses. In the 1950s there was a parterre delineated with narrow grass paths here. The terrace is bounded on the north by a grass scarp, with stone steps leading up to a small upper terrace cut into the slope. This is laid out to lawn, with a path along the south side leading to a grass path through shrubbery. To the east the shrubbery gives way to informal lawn, with a few islands of shrubs.

The south side of the garden is bordered by a path from the forecourt to the eastern edge of the garden. Originally this continued across the field to The Dingle where, now overgrown, paths led up and down the stream, crossing it over several small bridges now collapsed. Remnants of ornamental planting here include rhododendrons.

To the west of the is the former kitchen garden (700062).

Source:
Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 266-8 (ref: PGW(C)65(DEN)).

RCAHMW, 22 March 2022

4. This garden is depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Denbighshire XXXIV, sheet 14 (1899). Its main elements on that map include greenhouses, carriage drive, pheasantry, fbrs, kitchen garden, kennels, terrace, woodland, woodland with vista paths, parkland, lodge, pond, conservatory and covert. C.H. Nicholas, RCAHMW, 16th August 2006.

Site Record

Vivod Garden and Grounds, Llangollen