Historic parks and gardens

Historic parks and gardens contribute to the setting of historic, listed buildings, and are valued as 'works of art', perhaps by a well known designer, or for their horticultural interest or association with a notable person or event, and as a focus for community identity and sense of place. There is also a growing movement for recognising and cherishing local character and distinctiveness and for working towards a sustainable environment. Historic parks and gardens make an important contribution to the environment and we need to ensure that they are recognised, conserved and protected.

 

They are contained within the Glamorgan and Gwent Registers of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales; however the register is advisory and has no statutory powers. The aim of producing it is to provide information on historic parks and gardens in order to aid their protection and conservation.

‘The Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016 makes it a statutory duty for the Welsh Ministers to compile and maintain a register of historic parks and gardens in Wales. This means that not only is your registered historic park or garden important to you, but it is also important to your local community and to the cultural heritage of Wales. 

Statutory registration does not introduce any new consent regimes. Registered historic parks and gardens and their settings will continue to be protected through the planning system. This means that local planning authorities consider registered historic parks and gardens, and their settings, when preparing local development plans and when making planning decisions.  

The purpose of registration is to protect and preserve the essential features of historic parks and gardens, but this need not be a barrier to change. Although your registered historic park and garden is a valuable asset that cannot be replaced, it has probably already changed over time, and you may need to make further changes to it. Conservation is about the careful management of change. This means finding the best way to protect and enhance the special qualities of your registered historic park or garden so that present and future generations can appreciate and enjoy it.

Registered historic parks and gardens in Caerphilly county borough are as follows:

Maes Manor Hotel
Ref No: PGW (Gt) 54
Grid Reference: ST 173 988
Community: Blackwood
Grading: II
Primary reason for grading: Well preserved garden designed by T H Mawson
Type of site: Terraced Edwardian formal garden; walled garden
Main phases of construction: c.1907

The Van

Ref No: PGW (Gm) 13 (CAE)
Grid Reference: ST 166 868
Community: Van
Grading: II
Primary reason for grading: Remains of a Tudor walled and terraced garden attached to an important house of the period.
Type of site: Walled and terraced garden.
Main phases of construction: c.1907

Ruperra Castle

Ref No: PGW (Gm) 17 (CAE)
Grid Reference: ST 219 863
Community: Rudry
Grading: II
Primary reason for grading: The survival on and unusual early Jacobean mock castle of exceptional historical importance with its attendant deer park and structural remains of contemporary formal gardens. The site includes an outlying hilltop mount of great historic interest, which is the site of a seventeenth-century summer house. During the early decades of the twentieth century the gardens were elaborately laid out, with a magnificent glasshouse, still largely intact, as the centrepiece. Type of site: Deer and landscape park; formal gardens and pleasure grounds; site of summer house.
Main phases of construction: 1626-55; 1785-89; 1909-13; 1920s

Cefn Mably

Ref No: PGW (Gm) 11 (CAE)
Grid Reference: ST 223 840
Community: Rudry
Grading: II
Primary reason for grading: Survival of much of the park, woodland grounds and terraced garden of major Glamorgan house, with features dating from the early eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. The steep slopes and mature oaks of the southern half of the park form a beautiful setting fort he house and are visible form a wide area to the south.
Type of site: Formal terraced garden; information pleasure grounds; landscape park; walled garden; Main phases of construction: late sixteen century; 1709-35; nineteenth century.

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