Pencerrig, a much-altered seventeenth-century house (nprn 30893), was  a Tudor mansion of the Powell family. It is notable as a good example of a medium size, mid-Wales estate and was the home of one of Wales’ foremost landscape painters and student of the picturesque, Thomas Jones (1742-1803). Pencerrig and the surrounding landscape provided the inspiration for some of Jones’ paintings and sketches of the Welsh landscape.
The tithe of 1845 and the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1888) show a drive entering the park at a lodge at an entrance to the southeast of the house, thought to have been created following the rebuilding of Pencerrig in the 1830s. The drive is now disused and the present entrance (with lodge) is further north, directly east of the house. It dates to sometime after 1905.

The park lies to the north-east and south-east of the house on either side of the present drive, on land which slopes down to the north-east. It is little more than about 50 acres in total. Thomas Jones kept day-to-day accounts in his Day Book (held at National Library Wales) of expenditure and works undertaken on the grounds. He created the lake soon after 1778 as a feature to be seen from the house. Known as 'the Great Pool', it became badly silted and was dug out in 1795, resulting in an enlarged lake of about five acres. Jones embarked on an extensive period of replanting in 1792-96, recording the transplanting of young oak (1793; 1794) and Scotch fir trees (in 1792) in the Great Wood behind the house. Jones also bought some of his tree stock from commercial nurseries; in 1794 he received white and black American Spruce, Spanish Chestnut, Filberts, Stone pine, Cluster pine, Ilex oak and Scots pine. Elements possibly survive today within the park plantations and in particular in woodland in former estate land beyond the park boundary to the north-east. Jones also refers to new walks being made behind the house in an entry of 14th December 1793.

Sources:
Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys (ref: PGW (Po)19(POW)).
Day Book of Thomas Jones, Pencerrig Ref: NLW MS 23811E.
Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch maps: Brecknockshire VIII.SE (1888). 

RCAHMW, 11 July 2022