Miskin Manor (nprn 19349), a largely nineteenth-century mansion now run as an hotel, is situated (700157) in parkland to the south-east of Pontyclun. The house is surrounded by gardens (265780), the kitchen garden to its north at the north end of the wooded grounds.

The garden is rectangular, long axis east by west, surrounded by walls about 3.5m high, of stone on the north side and brick on the remaining sides. The south wall is buttressed and has a gap at the west end. Two stone bothies lie against the outside of the north wall. In the centre of the south wall is a section of iron railings on a low brick wall. A path once ran through the woodland from the house to an entrance in the middle of the south side.

The interior, as portrayed in 1874, had a central ornamental layout comprising a north-south, stone-lined narrow canal with brick edging, flanked by yew hedges. Water enters the garden through a culvert on the north. At the south end the canal narrows and then opens out into a circular pool from which the water ran into an underground culvert. Otherwise the interior was laid out for fruit trees. By 1898 there was a small free-standing glasshouse in the western section. The interior is now overgrown with trees but the central layout survives. The cross and perimeter paths in the garden, either side of the canal, have become obscured.

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 140-3 (ref: PGW(Gm)9(RCT)).
Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, sheet: Glamorgan XLII (editions of 1874 & 1898).

RCAHMW, 13 May 2022

Site Record

Miskin Manor Kitchen Garden, Pontyclun