Trewarren, a Regency period mansion (nprn 407225), is situated about 0.5km to the west of the village of St Ishmael's on the south-west coast of Pembrokeshire. The ground is gently rolling, falling south towards the sea, with a stream valley running south from Trewarren to Monk Haven. The house is fronted by a small park, probably laid out when the house built in 1845 along with its ornamental gardens (265280).

The park is little more than a large, roughly rectangular, field bounded by a partly-ruined rubble stone wall. Behind the south wall is a narrow belt of mixed trees, mostly oak and sycamore, with some mature ornamental conifers. On its west side the ground slopes down towards the Monk Haven valley and the garden area. The boundary with the garden is a substantial, rubble stone revetment wall, which extends from the lane on the east boundary of the garden all along the garden’s south side and beyond, bounding the area of farm enclosures to the west. This is shown in a photograph of the house of about 1870, with cattle grazing in the ‘park’ below. The south boundary wall, which is broken down in places, runs down to the north-east corner of the kitchen garden at its south-west end. Behind it is a narrow belt of mixed trees, mostly oak and sycamore but with a few mature ornamental conifers towards the west end. Within this belt is an ancient, broken down wall running roughly parallel with the park wall. This runs along the north side of a series of former fields on the northern side of a second valley which runs south-west from St Ishmael’s to join the Monk Haven valley to the south of St Ishmael’s church and former Vicarage. At the back of Monk Haven beach is a massive wall, stepped and battlemented, said to be associated with the Trewarren estate, the southern boundary of the park (410796).

The Monk Haven valley was ornamented as wooded pleasure grounds, as well as being used for the kitchen garden (700212).

Sources:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 318-21 (ref: PGW(Dy)65(PEM)).
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton

RCAHMW, 27 May 2022

Site Record

Trewarren House Park, St Ishmael's