Bachymbyd (nprn 26772) is a seventeenth-century house on a more ancient site located on the western edge of the Vale of Clwyd, on the west side of the A525 Ruthin to Denbigh road. It is notable for the remains of its walled garden. Much of its structure and perimeter walls are thought to be seventeenth-century in origin and contemporary with the rebuilding of the house in 1666.

The garden, on ground falling away to the north-east, is of linear plan with long axis north-east by south-west, the house at the south-west end. The house is accessed via a drive alongside the south-east boundary of the garden. The garden surrounds the house and is built up with a drop to a small pond on the north-east side. The ground is retained here by a stone wall which incorporates a well house, the wall also used as a bee garth.

The remains of an orchard lie at the rear. Immediately in front of the house is a long lawn, partly enclosed by Leylandii hedges and shrub border, with a swimming pool at the far end. Part way down the lawn, on its north-west side, is a steep bank (possibly a former garden boundary) on the far side of which is a tennis court and twentieth-century summerhouse. There are shallow terraces on the south-east side, and below is a piece of informal ground flanking the drive. It contains the pond and, to the north-east, a much larger rectangular one, probably a fish pond in origin but now largely overgrown. The land beyond this pond was alienated from the estate in the 1930s and is partly built on but it still contains a group of late seventeenth-century sweet chestnuts known locally as The Three Sisters.

Sources:
Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 6-8 (ref: PGW(C)27).
Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map: sheet Denbighshire XIV.14 (second edition 1900).
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton.

RCAHMW, 15 June 2022

Site Record

Bachymbyd Garden, Rhew