Revettment Walls to Terracing at Parc including Walls and Revettments to Enclosure adjoining to SE

Cadw's description

Location

Occupying a steep slope from the upper Parc drive down to the Afon Maesgwm, between Parc Cottages and Gattws Parc

History

Parc was the ancient and chief seat of the Anwyls, one of the most notable families of Meirionedd in the Tudor and Stuart periods. A junior branch of the Clenneny family, they were settled at Parc by at least the mid C16 and possibly earlier. The house consisted of a series of unit-planned ranges which, by the late C17 comprised a large complex of 4 domestic blocks and a gatehouse, as well as associated stable and agricultural ranges. A mid C17 cywydd by the poet Huw Machno mentions gardens, orchards, walls, parks and 'fair towers' in a description of Parc and of the various surviving garden features/structures a number can probably be associated with this period. The most monumental and dramatic of the garden features however, is a series of colossal revetted terraces to the NE of the main domestic complex. In their scale and ambition they are almost without parallel (Powis Castle provides an obvious exception), and, curiously do not appear to relate in any meaningful way to the known buildings at Parc; furthermore, such a grand sequence of terraces is suggestive more of the first-half of the C18, or at the earliest the very late C17, when the fortunes of the Anwyls were beginning to wane. It is possible that these ambitious terraces were the first landscaping phase of a planned new house, designed to supercede the unit-planned complex which would consequently have been relegated to service or auxilliary accommodation, or else pulled fully of partly down. There is no real evidence for such a scheme, though to associate these sophisticated and apparently relatively late terraces with the sub-medieval Parc, is arguably a less plausible suggestion. What is certain is that Parc, heavily encumbered and long the subject of a contested inheritance, passed from the Anwyl to the Williams and then Owen families from c1716, to be finally mortgaged in 1748, effectively ruling out the second quarter of the C18 as a possible date of execution. An associated rubble-walled and revetted enclosure adjoins to the SW, and perhaps relates to an earlier or contemporary walled orchard.

Exterior

A series of four monumental terraces, each some 14m wide, 4m high and of an overall length of approximately 100m; of embanked earth with dry, boulder-built revettments, slightly battered. In at least two places on the upper terraces the evidence for flights of steps (now removed) can be inferred. The revettment walls are consideraably ruinous in the 2 lower terraces; beyond the lowest, a hollow way with flanking embankments runs parallel with, and immediately above, the Afon Maesgwm. On either side the terraces are closed by contemporary rubble walls. Adjoining that to the L (SW) is a similar rubble-walled enclosure approximately 100m long and 20m wide, its NW (uphill) side revetted. The walls are in part ruinous and are of an average height of 2m.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special historic interest as a remarkable series of C17/C18 formal garden terraces relating to this important sub-medieval site.

Group value with other listed items at Parc.