Wern Manor, the Victorian remodelling of an earlier house (nprn 17039), lies in a rural setting north-west of Porthmadog, just off the road to Criccieth and Pwllheli. It is surrounded by gardens (see 86512) set in parkland, on an estate originally founded in the sixteenth century by Morris Johns.

The park, which is farmed, lies on flat ground to the east, and on more uneven ground rising to the west. Some parts of it are unploughed and lightly grazed. The house lies at the west end of its rectangular park. In the park to the east, viewed over a ha-ha, are two circular foreground copses planted to enhance the outlook of a ridge of hills and a level skyline without obscuring too much of the view. The enclosures to the north-west of the house are similar but drier and slightly sloping. To the west and south-west, north and west of the lodge, is a more undulating area with rocky outcrops which is traditional parkland with scattered trees, a fair proportion of those shown on the 1915 map surviving. To the north of it is a wooded hill (Coed Bryn-tŵr) with the remains of the look-out tower, probably a summer house. Closer to the the manor house, a summer house is positioned just outside the garden (23020).

Beyond, to the north-west, is a similar area but without the trees. South of Coed Bryn-tŵr, is a small lake which acts as a reservoir, forming an important element of the foreground of the view from the tower, and is probably the late nineteenth-century date. Two small ponds south-west of the house, shown in 1915, were filled from the overflow of the reservoir, but lie in an area now completely overgrown. A watercourse flowed northwards from the ponds past the kitchen gardens and farm. Near the ponds was an orchard area.

There are two drives, both still in use. The south drive is the main approach, with heavy wooden gates at the entrance and, just inside it, a lodge (17038). The north drive is now a rough track. The only other path is the approach to the tower on the hill, a partly overgrown walk with an avenue crossing the park from east to west, probably fairly recent.
Improvements would have been made in the first half of the eighteenth century, or after 1811. The park boundaries were the same in 1839 as after the building of the 1892 house, but only the western enclosure and the wooded hill with the tower are likely to be part of an eighteenth-century, or older, park. Much of the planting is nineteenth century or later; the woods around the tower are likely eighteenth-century plantings.

Source:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 308-14 (ref: PGW(Gd)19(GWY).

RCAHMW, 21 June 2022

Site Record

Wern Manor Park, Porthmadog