Boundary wall S of Leighton Hall Tower

Cadw's description

Location

Situated S of Leighton Hall Tower and forming W side of a terrace walk and E side of a now disused service road.

History

Designed by Edward Kemp, a pupil of Joseph Paxton, c1860 and part of the formal gardens at Leighton Hall. Leighton Hall has formal gardens S of the library wing and SE of the tower. In contrast, NE of the Hall and Tower it has a landscape garden which was planted with trees and shrubs, its woodland walks also contrasting with the terrace walks of the formal garden.

John Naylor, a Liverpool banker, had acquired the Leighton Estate in 1846-47 and embarked on an ambitious programme of building, notably Leighton Hall, church and Leighton Farm, all designed by W.H. Gee and completed by the mid 1850s. Leighton Hall had been constructed 1850-56. John Naylor's grandson, Captain J.M. Naylor, sold Leighton Hall and the Estate in 1931.

Exterior

Boundary wall approximately 50m in length of coursed, rock-faced Cefn stone with ashlar dressings and ramped coping. At its S end it terminates in an octagonal pier with a conical cap over a frieze of blank shields. The inner face (to a terrace walk in the gardens of Leighton Hall) has stepped buttresses. A doorway towards the S end has a pointed head and a boarded door.

Reason for designation

The Leighton Estate is an exceptional example of high-Victorian estate development. It is remarkable for the scale and ambition of its conception and planning, the consistency of its design, the extent of its survival, and is the most complete example of its type in Wales. Leighton Hall represents the centrepiece of this development, and the garden features are a key element in the setting of the house. The gardens, of which the boundary wall is a strong component, are also a tour-de-force of landscaping while their individual components are remarkable for their consistency of design and the extent of their survival.