1. Heywood Nursery - The Grove
SN 12080088 Sheet XLI 11 Tenby
The house was a modest building facing Tenby, said by the present owner to have been built in 1886 . There were two glasshouses backed by service buildings to the west. GH does not understand what the three-sides-of -a-rectangle structure to the south of the house is. In 1872 a Mr Shaw was nurseryman. He became aware of the abundant small daffodil in the area which he realised was unusual. After consulting various authorities he decided to introduce it to the gardening world as the 'Tenby daffodil'. He employed several people to scour the area to meet the phenomenal demand that he had created.

At some time the property came to belong to Tenby council and a Mr David Harrison became leaseholder. A large "wing" was built to the south and west in 1910 making the house L-shaped, the new part being much the larger and more "modern". In the process the glasshouses were removed.

Mr Harrison owned a string of racehorses (there was at that time a race course at Tenby) which was stabled in town at (the now) Mews. He appeared to live extravagantly and was reputed to have dissipated his inheritance. His son, also David, married Auriol Allen the owner of the Cresselly estate. The house was now called Grove.

In 1951 Mr Harrison relinquished the lease and the council auctioned the property. (Details in Tenby Museum where there are also a number of photographs: 1. A view through the arch at the south-west corner of the house eastwards along the quite elaborate frontage; 2. The oak room inside - not reproduced here; 3. East elevation across the lawn; 4. A peach wall towards the east end of the northern boundary - a high brick wall with coping stones and tree protector frames at frequent intervals; the bases of glasshouses/cold frames can be seen along the base; 5. A more amateurish and smaller picture is a view from east looking across the kitchen garden to the house; it shows the four glasshouses advertised ("three with heating") along the north wall with the tallest labelled "The Vinery".)
The property was purchased by a developer. The western part and enclosure 167 eventually became Oakridge Acres, a private housing estate. The kitchen garden was hived off; the Argent family bought the building sites offered for sale and built their Scotsborough House at the east end.
Grove house was divided into east and west but later joined together again by the present owners when they had a chance to purchase the other half..

Today there are some mature Scots pine and sycamore west of the arch. Further west, beyond the drive, there are some fine mature beech and sycamore. To the east of the house is a square lawn; the kitchen garden was approached by way of a gate through the hedge which formed its western edge; to the right of the "front" drive is a fairly large araucaria.
The kitchen garden, now the garden of the neighbouring Scotsborough House, was almost square. There was a stone and brick wall to the north; much of this has been taken down or lowered and the bases of the glasshouses are used as beds for flowers. Some of the original brickwork survives but the remains of the heating systems were removed quite recently as being an eyesore. Most of the square is grassed with some shrub borders being developed. Near the southern end of the boundary with Grove is a line of fairly large blue cedar at least three of which form an impressive group; the others are dying and/or part-felled.

1918 David Harrison, b 1875, was High Sheriff. He was the son of Thomas Ashton Harrison of Stalybridge who had married the daughter of Rev W Morris of The Norton,(Old Rectory?) Tenby..
1920 David Harrison
1926 David Harrison
1945 Marriage of son Mjr David Harrison to Auriol Allen of Cresselly
1951 Death of David Harrison and relinquishment of lease

G.Hudson for WHGT
August 2001
entered by CSB