Pleasure Garden Walls

Cadw's description

Location

Immediately to the N and E of Bryn Eisteddfod, and closing the service court to the SE.

History

An early site on elevated ground at the mouth of the Conwy estuary; the name derives from a putative druidic stone, said traditionally to have served as seat for the elders during meetings. The original house on the site, called Pen-y-bryn until the mid C18, survives in fragment as the subsidiary house Bwthyn-y-Bryn. This is of mid-late C17 date and had primary associations with the Roberts family. Mews cottage is contemporary with this, the earlier house, and served as the primary barn before the erection of the present house and its offices in the 1760s. The walled pleasure gardens are perhaps also of this date, the construction of the former barn range and the NE garden wall being apparently of the same period (there are no masonry breaks visible and the two structures seem coursed into one another).

Exterior

The garden walls are of random rubble construction and enclose a roughly square space: the gable end of Mews Cottage is flush with the NW stretch at the centre. Here, there is a C19 6-pane cambered-headed window with brick voussoirs with a blocked primary opening to the L; Large tripartite C20 window to gable apex flanked by blocked vents. To the L of the cottage gable, a boarded garden entrance. The section to the R of the cottage is approximately 3m in height and has slate coping; remains of lime render are apparent internally. The NE side continues at the same height though has been much rebuilt; central entrance with boarded door. The SE return is roughly 2m high, the garden sloping up at this side. Gate at E corner of S stretch where some undressed slatestone coping remains. To the R of this, on a slightly raised plinth, a slated canopy over a fixed bench with flanking rubble buttresses; early C20. Adjoining the NW garden wall on the service court side are 2 plain, low service buildings of rubble and slate construction; C19.

Reason for designation

Listed for the special interest of its origins as an early walled garden with adjoining C17 former barn (now Mews Cottage).
Group value with other listed items at Bryn Eisteddfod.