Bettisfield Hall, a house of the sixteenth/early seventeenth century (nprn 35658), is located on the north side of Bettisfield village, close to the English border. It is notable for the surviving remains of its formal terraced garden.
The garden is situated to the west, south, and east of the house, on ground falling away gently to the east and west, and more steeply to the south. It is accessed by a modern gravel drive from the Bettisfield-Hanmer road to the west, which runs to a small forecourt to the north of the house.
The garden falls into two main sections: the terraces to the south and west of the house, and the former orchard to the east. The main, larger, terrace is rectangular and lawned, extending southwards from the north end of the house, and westwards to a scarp in the field west of the present garden. The south end of this terrace is built up over the slope and retained by a brick revetment wall. The garden is variously bounded by a beech hedge, the house itself, and by a brick wall at the south end of the house. The west and south walls are visible as slight bumps in the turf. It once had a 'knot garden' to the west of the house. Below the revetment on the west is another, narrow, terrace running alongside. Beyond the present garden the terrace continues across the pasture field to the west, with only scarps on the north and west sides indicating the original garden boundary walls. This entire, triangular, pasture field is now (2020) an orchard. To the south-east of the house, east of the main terrace, is a gently sloping pasture field with a few old fruit trees in it which was once part of the original gardens, probably an orchard.
The relationship of the garden with earthworks to the south-west (400821) is uncertain. There are further earthwork features to the east of the house.
The garden probably dates to the time of Hanmer family occupation of the house in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Its formal style accords with this date, and after 1640 both house and garden remained essentially untouched.
Sources:
Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 216-8 (ref: PGW(C)36).
Ordnance Survey first-edition 25-inch map: sheet Flintshire XXVI.13 (1873).
RCAHMW air photos: 94-CS 1722-4; 945177/41-2; 955017/60-1; 945191/44.
RCAHMW, 15 June 2022