A-Z of Services

Historic Parks and Gardens in Wrexham County Borough

Introduction

What is Listing?

Chirk Castle

Brynkinallt, Chirk

Erbistock Hall, Erbistock

Erddig, Marchwiel

Rosehill, Erbistock

Trevalyn Hall, Rossett

Trevalyn House, Rossett

Whitehurst, Chirk

Wrexham Cemetery

Wynnstay, Ruabon

Introduction

Historic parks and gardens in Wrexham County Borough are an important part of the area's heritage. Examples exist from as early as medieval times, but later examples survive from the Tudor and Jacobean period. They became particularly important in local towns and villages as urban populations swelled in the nineteenth century, but equally as important in rural estates, borrowing from the magnificent scenery to create an aesthetically satisfying sense of place.

Registered Historic Parks and Gardens in Wrexham County Borough

Argoed Hall, Froncysyllte (II)
Bettisfield Hall, Bettisfield (II)
Brynkinallt, Chirk (II*)
Chirk Castle, Chirk (I)
Erbistock Hall, Erbistock (II)
Erddig, Wrexham (I)
Gredington Park, Hanmer (II)
Horsley Hall, Marford (II)
Isycoed Park, Bronington (II)
Pen-y-Lan, Ruabon (II)
Rosehill, Erbistock (II)
Wynnstay, Ruabon (I)
Trevalyn Hall, Rossett (II)
Trevalyn House, Rossett (II)
Whitehurst, Chirk (II*)
Wrexham Cemetery (II)
St Mary's Churchyard, Overton (II)

What is Listing?

The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens was published in 1995 by CADW, an agency of the National Assembly for Wales. The purpose of the register is to provide information on Historic Parks and Gardens to aid their protection and conservation. No additional planning controls are involved. Historic parks and gardens are non-statutory designations, but are graded similar to that used for Listed Buildings I, II*, II.

What are the Gradings used?

Grade I

Parks and gardens which, by reason of their historic layout, features and architectural ornaments considered together, make them of exceptional interest.

Grade II*

Parks and gardens which, by reason of their historic layout, features and architectural ornaments considered together, make them of great quality.

Grade II

Parks and gardens which, by reason of their historic layout, features and architectural ornaments considered together, make them of special interest.

The historic parks and gardens may include listed structures, making the total representation valuable in terms of aesthetic appeal and historical layout.

Chirk Castle

Grade I

Chirk Castle, one of the original bastions of Edward I, was mainly built by Roger Mortimer at the end of the thirteenth century. Having passed through several changes of ownership in 1595, it was bought by Thomas Myddleton, whose descendants have lived there ever since.

Chirk Castle Park has a long history, beginning with the small fourteenth century deer park of the Mortimer family. The park was timber fenced and contained 500 acres of woodland. The timber was later cleared and replanted by the Earl of Leicester or the Myddletons. After 1595 the trees were again cut down during the Civil War, and replanting was carried out during the Restoration period. In 1675 Sir Thomas Myddleton extended the park to the south and east to hold 500 deer.

It is an outstanding landscape park, partly designed by William Emes, with a terraced and informal garden and remains from the medieval period. Striking features within the layout include the early eighteenth century entrance gates and screen by Robert and John Davies, the early eighteenth statue of Hercules by Van Nost and late nineteenth century yew hedging and topiary in the garden.

Listed Buildings

Chirk Castle (I)
Chirk Castle Gates, Screen and Piers (I)
Statue of Hercules (II)
Stable Ranges (II*)
Walls to Privy Garden (II)
Gates to E Garden (II)

Brynkinallt, Chirk

Grade II*

Brynkinallt, east of Chirk village, lies on high rolling ground above the valley, overlooking the River Ceiriog before it joins the River Dee. Members of the Trevor family have lived on this site since the year 942.

Extensive remodelling was carried out in 1808 to the design of Charlotte, Viscountess Dungannon, whose taste embellished the surrounding ground and park. The garden is a picturesque landscape park in a very fine setting, with Gothic features and an unusual tunnel to the kitchen garden.

Listed Buildings

Brynkinallt Hall (II*)
Gates, Piers and Railings to the West Gate (II)
Chirk Lodge (II)
Screen wall to the Service Yard at Brynkinallt Hall (II)
Arbour within Brynkinallt Park (II)
Lady's Bridge, continued into England (II)

Erbistock Hall, Erbistock

Grade II

Erbistock Hall is a Georgian brick mansion situated on elevated ground to the west of the River Dee. The house was built in 1770 and belonged to the Wynn family of Wynnstay. The history of the park is obscure, but it is likely that the straight drive was made at the same time as the house, in the early eighteenth century, and that the present drive was added later.

The garden lies mainly to the south and south-east of the house. The principal feature of the garden is its spectacular yew hedging and topiary. The formal structure of the garden probably dates from the building of the house. The hedges divide the garden into formal areas, and the topiary, some of which is clipped into giant 'mushrooms', helps to define the axes.

Its inclusion in the register is due to its partly terraced garden which probably dates to the early eighteenth century, with well preserved, very fine yew hedging and topiary of some antiquity. The garden incorporates a well preserved early eighteenth century dovecote.

Listed Buildings

Erbistock Hall (II)
Farm building to north (II)
Dovecote (II*)

Erddig, Marchwiel

Grade I

Erddig, owned by the National Trust, is a substantial, brick house situated to the south of Wrexham in a former coal mining area. The park is situated in two valleys; The Black Brook to the west of the house and the Clywedog River to the north, forming an L-shaped area.

It is an outstanding example of a grand formal garden in the Dutch style of late seventeenth/early eighteenth century. Its main features survive unaltered, and have been well restored. The park was landscaped by William Emes, with an unusual water feature, a cup and saucer and some tree planting. The garden was first made by Joshua Edisbury in 1684-87 and went with the first smaller house. It was a small walled formal garden in 1718-1733.

The park was first laid out by John Mellor between 1718-1733. Between 1767-1784 the park was landscaped by William Emes for Philip Yorke. Although the basic configuration remained, all formality was removed, and much tree planting took place.

Listed Buildings

Brynkinallt Hall (II*)
Gates, Piers and Railings to the West Gate (II)
Chirk Lodge (II)
Screen wall to the Service Yard at Brynkinallt Hall (II)
Arbour within Brynkinallt Park (II)
Lady's Bridge, continued into England (II)

Rosehill, Erbistock

Grade II

Rosehill is a small landscape park and a well preserved walled garden situated to the south of the main late Georgian house of the same name. Both house and garden are in a very picturesque location overlooking the River Dee.

The park was probably made at the same time as the house which was built in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Many of the trees in the park are mature and could date from this period. The park is square in shape.

The garden lies mainly to the east and south of the house. In its present form, the garden appears to be of Edwardian character, although terracing may be earlier.

It has survived in its entirety, with the unusual survivals of a box-edged Edwardian parterre and a well preserved and fully productive walled kitchen garden.

Listed Buildings

Rosehill (including walled garden) (II)
Coach House (II)
Barn (II)

Trevalyn Hall, Rossett

Grade II

Trevalyn Hall is one of the most important Elizabethan houses in the country and was built by John Trevor in 1576. The later picturesque village of Marford to the south-west was built in about 1813-14 by the Trevalyn Estate.

The garden encompasses many tiers of historic development. Although there are no deer at Trevalyn, the deer parks remain, now as arable farmland. These are probably contemporary with the original house. Big Park and Pine Tree Park lie to the south-west of Trevalyn Hall bordering on the village of Marford.

To the north-east of Pine Tree Park is Walnut Park. The orchard, now a field, lies to the north-west and south-west of the gardens. This still has an impressive earthen bank to keep the deer out. The kitchen garden is now only part walled on the north-west and north-east sides, but is thought to have originally been completely walled.

The topiary work in the pleasure garden was carried out between 1836-38 by Thomas and Elizabeth Griffith. The topiary figures include a dog, rabbit and various tiered shapes. A small box garden is situated on the north-west corner of the garden.

Listed Buildings

Trevalyn Hall including former lodge (II*)
The Courtyard (formerly known as Trevalyn Hall Service Wing) (II)

Trevalyn House, Rossett

Grade II

Trevalyn House is brick with stone quoins and other dressings, built in the Georgian style in 1754. The pleasure grounds and kitchen garden occupy a rectangular area around the house, with the kitchen garden on its east side. The grounds consist largely of informal woodland and lawn, with more formal areas to the south and west of the house.

To the west of the formal lawn is a large rockery consisting of large mounds of rockwork with narrow winding paths between them. This was already in place when photographs were taken of it in the 1880s. Much of the rockwork is water worn limestone, with one large piece set upright as a pillar next to the path.

The kitchen garden lies to the north-east of the house, with a well preserved wall annexe to the south and an old orchard to the east. It is probably contemporary with the stable block, thought to be early Victorian. Its survival of nineteenth century pleasure grounds include a substantial rockery and some fine mature trees, both conifers and deciduous.

Listed Buildings

Trevalyn Hospital (II)
Former stable block (II)

Whitehurst, Chirk

Grade II*

Whitehurst, two miles north of Chirk Castle, is a good example of a seventeenth century walled garden, including tiered curving fruit walls, gates, banqueting house and moat.

The garden was built by the second Sir Thomas Myddleton in 1651. It was described by Thomas Dineley in the Beaufort Progress 1684 as being an 'admirable walled garden of trees, plants, flowers and herbs of the greatest rarity as well forreigne as of Great Britain, orange and lemon trees, the sensitive plant'.

Sir Thomas could entertain his friends at Whitehurst. It was convenient to those travelling north and south along the A5, and saved a journey to Chirk Castle. The southern and eastern parts of the garden are shown on Thomas Badeslade's 1735 drawing 'The West Prospect of Chirk Castle'.

The southern and eastern parts of the garden are shown as plantations with rows of conifers along the west and north boundaries and across the centre.

The mount is shown with radiating rides out through plantations on its slopes.

Listed Buildings

Whitehurst House (II)
Queen Ann's Cottage (II*)
Lowest Terrace Walls (II)
Second Terraced Wall (II)
Upper Terrace Wall (II)
Whitehurst Garden Gatepiers with Gates and Perimeter Garden Wall (II)

Wrexham Cemetery

Grade II

Wrexham Cemetery is a large Victorian cemetery on the western edge of the town. It was laid out by Yeaman Strachan of Wrexham. It was consecrated on 3 July 1876 and was extended eastwards in 1890. The layout has largely survived.

The cemetery was laid out as a public garden, with winding and straight paths, and scattered ornamental trees and shrubs. Inside the entrance on the west side is a small two-storey lodge designed by William Turner of Wrexham. Just inside the gates are twin Gothic chapels linked by a Chapel arch, also by Turner.

To the north is a tall slender tapering brick column of uncertain origins. In the middle of the cemetery is a small enclosure of memorial stones to Polish forces who died in 1946, surrounded by yew hedging.

Listed Buildings

Cemetery Chapels (II)
Lodge (II)
Gatepiers (II)
Gates (II)
Railings (II)

Wynnstay, Ruabon

Grade I

Wynnstay is a large Victorian mansion built of stone in the French Renaissance Chateau style. It stands on the plateau to the north of the Dee Valley, south east of Ruabon.

The park is an outstanding eighteenth century landscape, one of the largest and most important in Wales. Although now cut in two by the A483 trunk road, the park still retains many of its historic features, some of which are attributed to Richard Woods and Capability Brown.

An exceptional and rare survival is the pleasure ground or shrubbery designed by Capability Brown. The park also contains some important monuments, lodges, and other built structures, some by leading architects. Although Capability Brown's lake has gone, half of a large rockwork cascade remains at its lower end.