Court Colman (nprn 18413) is a large nineteenth-century house situated on elevated ground in the Ffornwg valley, a few miles to the north-west of Bridgend. Its surrounding grounds provide a setting for the house. Noted for its gardens, the house lies within a small park.

The layout of the park and grounds is linear, long axis east by west, bounded on the east and west by lanes, the Great Western railway line along the south side, and by farmland on the north. The ground slopes down from north to south, the house and garden occupying the higher ground on the north-west. The grounds were entered from the east at Pen-y-fai through its iron gates and twin lodges, the drive approaching the forecourt in front of the house. From a lane west of the house a second, now main, access is through an entrance, with lodge (West Lodge), along a drive to the forecourt.

The park is small and rudimentary with a few specimen trees and a clump ornamenting two or three fields between the garden and the railway line. Below the house are further isolated trees and a fenced clump of trees and rhododendrons. Along the west and north boundaries are some large conifers and deciduous trees. To the south-west of the house a fishpond was converted into an ornamental lake with a concrete dam and fringed with thick banks of shrubs within an iron-fence boundary. Below, a stream runs southwards under a stone-arched culvert, to join a mill race on the far side of the railway line.

Gardens, including a walled kitchen garden, lie around the house (266752 & 700134).

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 6-9 (ref: PGW(Gm)7(BRI)).
Ordnance Survey Second Edition 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XL (editions of 1876-1919).

RCAHMW, 5 May 2022

Site Record

Court Colman Park, Pen-y-fai, Bridgend