Rheola House, an early nineteenth-century house by John Nash (nprn 19836), is located on the north side of the Neath valley, about 2km north-east of Resolven. It is notable for the survival of a contemporary designed landscape which provided the picturesque setting to the country house. It is surrounded by largely informal grounds (700371) with a small area of surviving parkland (265631). 

The kitchen garden lies to the south-west of the house, on ground sloping to the south. To its east is a steep wooded bank down to the drive and to its south is a track, formerly the public road, leading to the Keeper’s cottage. The garden is divided east-west into two four-sided, walled compartments, irregular rectangles, the northern one being the larger. They are enclosed by, now partly discontinuos, walls of brick and stone. The upper, northern compartment is wider at the top than the bottom, its walls of brick about 2.5m high. In the northwest corner is a large, oval pool. The lower compartment is more rectangular, elongated east-west, enclosed by stone walls up to 3m high. A door in the north wall leads through into the upper compartment. Inside are traces of whitewashing on the north wall, indicating a former lean-to glasshouse, the ruined walls and chimney of a large freestanding glasshouse, a circular stone-lined well, and a small L-shaped building in the north-west corner. 

The walled garden probably dates from when the house was built, 1812-13. 

Source:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan pp129-131 (PGW(Gm)53(NEP)).

RCAHMW, 15 July 2022