Talycoed Court (nprn 20807), a large late Victorian mansion built for the local historian J.A. Bradney (1859-1933), is located on the north side of the B4233 between Monmouth and Llantilio Crossenny.

The house stands within a small landscape park on ground sloping to the east, just to the north of the Trothy valley. It is approached from the south by a drive from an entrance, with gates and lodge (20879), on the B4233. The drive enters the small forecourt on the west front of the house. An avenue of oaks flanks the east-west part of the drive, and continues across the park, to the horizon on the ridge east of Talycoed Farm. Trees have been lost but originally the avenue was continuous.

The park consists of pasture and isolated deciduous and coniferous trees set on gently rising and undulating ground to the north of the river Trothy. The park was landscaped at the same time as the house was built, in the 1880s and 1890s, by Sir Joseph Bradney. A small stream runs down the east side of the park, with a wooded slope to its east. Along the south boundary is a belt of deciduous woodland. Throughout the park are fine mature specimen trees, including pines, limes, sycamore, and oaks. In the western half of the park is a small clump of pines, and a larger clump of pines east of Pen-y-parc. To the north of the house there is little landscaping, and the open pasture land is divided into fields.

To the north-east of the house a small lake was formed, with a dam at its southern end, and a walk to it from the north end of the garden. The lake is now silted up, but it is still surrounded by ornamental shrubs, and the straight path to it from the garden remains, although now turf covered. The area between the lake and the garden has a high stepped brick wall along its west and north sides, and may have originally been an orchard. In the north wall is a door into the woodland, which probably originally led to a woodland walk.

Around the house is a terraced garden (79026).

Sources:
Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 143-144 (ref: PGW (Gt)52(MON)).
Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map, sheet: Monmouthshire VII (1901); six-inch sheet Monmouthshire VII.SE (1902).

RCAHMW, 21 July 2022

Site Record

Talycoed Court Park, Llantilio Crossenny