Llangoed Hall, formerly Llangoed Castle and now an hotel (nprn 25773), was the first major architectural commission in the career of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. The house was remodelled, in an imposing Arts and Crafts style, around the core of an earlier house, and is one of the last Edwardian Country Houses to have been built. The grounds incorporate nineteenth-century tree planting and ha-ha, paved terraces and a sunken lawn, a wild garden, and walled kitchen garden.

The Hall lies on the west side of open farmland, below the A470. The River Wye, flows around the east boundary of the wood-pasture area to the east. No actual parkland remains attached to the site and it is unclear if any open park ever existed here. The original drive enters the grounds from the west, at an entrance lodge, off the present A 470. A later twentieth-century drive approaches from the southwest and arrives at the forecourt on the west front of the house. There are some mature trees in the pasture to the east of the present drive and some mature conifers amongst the shelter belt adjacent to the A470. This area is recorded as park on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1888).

The south lawn, accessed by steps from the forecourt above, is enclosed by a stone ha-ha. The east formal terrace garden runs along the length of the back of the Hall. The stone paved terrace stands on the west side of the east garden. The east garden is rectangular and comprises of a continuation of the terrace, as a raised walk, which surrounds a sunken croquet lawn. The Croquet Lawn is reached on all four sides by three central, stone steps from the surrounding walk.

Gardens surround the Hall on all sides. The formal garden created by Williams-Ellis lies immediately to the east of the Hall, a paved terrace connecting it to the house. A wild garden, also attributed to him, was created around a stream descending from the north-west approximately 250m to the west of the Hall. On the north of the Hall a walled enclosure has been laid out as a formal garden (since 1990) and lawns lie to the south.

Although the form of the present garden is attributed to Williams-Ellis, the earliest clear record of an ornamental garden a tithe map of 1842, which records wooded grounds around the house, a clear boundary on the south and east, possibly the ha-ha, a circulatory drive to the south of the house, and a formal 'canal' feature noted to the east of the house. By 1888 the form of the present garden had been established but the ‘canal’ feature had gone. The south and west grounds still appear to have been heavily planted at this date, the conifers, 'arboretum' to the west of the house probably having been established; it appears that Williams-Ellis probably augmented and extended the arboretum.

The old kitchen garden north of the Hall has been redeveloped (700361). 'New Garden' further to the north is believed to be associated with Llangoed (86082).

Sources:
Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys (ref: PGW (Po)59(POW)).
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, Brecknockshire sheet XVI.SE (editions of 1888 & 1905).

RCAHMW, 11 July 2022

Site Record

Llangoed Hall Garden and Grounds, Llyswen