Pant y Goitre, an eighteenth-century house on more ancient foundations (nprn 20558), is located on rising ground above the south bank of the river Usk to the east of Llanover. The house lies on the south boundary of a small landscape park set on level and rolling ground above the river. It is linear, aligned roughly east by west, bounded on the north by the river itself, on the south-east by a minor road, and elsewhere by farmland. The park layout is shown on the tithe map of 1841 and the first edition Ordnance Survey of 1885. It was probably landscaped by Thomas Hooper after l770 at the same time as the house was enlarged.   

Most of the park is open pasture with isolated trees, mainly oak and lime, and some clumps. Some of the oaks may predate the park. There are two areas of woodland: The Rookery, a semi-natural mainly deciduous wood on the north by the river with some coniferous planting; and an area of mixed natural and planted woodland near the south boundary in which are a series of ponds which may be medieval in origin. A small lake shown on the tithe map had gone by 1880.

The original main entrance drive approached the house from the north, entering the park just south of the river near Pant y Goitre bridge, at a lodge now gone. The drive is disused and largely ploughed up but the entrance remains on the B4598. The main entrance is now from the south-east, off the lane near the house. A service drive enters the grounds at a lodge (now Old Gardener’s Cottage) off the same lane just to the southwest.

The park is separated from the garden on the west side of the house by a curving ha-ha. To the north the boundary here is only a fence but which may originally have been a ha-ha. In the late eighteenth century there was a pavilion west of the house but this is now lost.
Gardens lie around the house (79024) with a kitchen garden to its south-west (700406).

Sources:
Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 114-15 (ref: PGW (Gt)10(MON)).
Ordnance Survey first-edition 25-inch map sheet: Monmouthshire XIII. 9 &13 (1880).
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton

RCAHMW, 7 September 2022