the BULLETIN - the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust (WHGT)

GAZETTEthe BULLETINFor details of all Trust andbranch contacts and activities,visit the Trust’s website,www.whgt.org.ukOFFICERS OF THE TRUSTChairman: Gwyneth HaywardTel: (01239) 820654Vice-chairman: Anne CarterTel: (01597) 850077Email: acarter11@btinternet.comTreasurer: John BorronTel: (01432) 760351Bulletin Editor: Matthew DennisonTel: (01745) 550101Email:matthew.dennison@tiscali.co.ukGerddi Editor: Stephen BriggsTel: (01974) 202954Email: cstephenbriggs@hotmail.comPlanning Coordinator: Ros LaidlawTel: (01970) 832268Email: ros.laidlaw@hotmail.co.ukAdministratorThe Bothy, Aberglasney, Llangathen,Carmarthenshire SA32 8QHTel: (01558) 668485Email: admin@whgt.org.ukBRANCH CONTACTSBrecon & Radnor: Anne CarterTel: (01597) 850077Email: acarter11@btinternet.comCarmarthen: Simon WardleTel: (01550) 760151Ceredigion: Caroline PalmerTel: (01970) 615403Email: caroline-palmer@tiscali.co.ukClwyd: Glynis ShawTel: (01745) 710261Email: glynis@castellphotography.co.ukGwynedd: Olive HorsfallTel: (01766) 780187Email: oandmhorsfall@btinternet.comMonmouthshire: Helena GerrishTel: (01600) 860005Pembrokeshire: Ann SayerTel: (01348) 811145Email: ann.sayer@btinternet.comSouth & Mid Glamorgan: Val CapleTel: (01446) 775794Email: val.t.caple@care4free.netWest Glamorgan: Ann GardnerTel: (01792) 290014from THE TREASURERConservation Fighting FundLast year, with the support of theTrust Committee, we set up theConservation Fighting Fund. Someyears ago, the Pilgrim Trust gaveus £5,000 and this formed the startof the fund. Some of our brancheshave already contributed money toit. Clwyd, in particular, recentlymade a donation of £2,000.I wrote to all our Life Members,asking for their support. Theirresponse has been generous andalready amounts to over £2,000.I would like to set a target of£50,000. If we work steadilytowards this, we will be successfuland place the Trust in a strongposition to fulfil its aims ofconserving and protecting thehistoric gardens of Wales. Lifemembers, as I have said, havealready contributed handsomely.If other Trust members would liketo do the same, all donations,however small, will be gratefullyreceived.John BorronWELSH HISTORIC GARDENS TRUST YMDDIRIEDOLAETH GERDDI HANESYDDOL CYMRU No. LXI Autumn 2011CLWYD14 October (11am), Japanese Gardenat Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire,WA16 6QN. This is a specialopportunity to enjoy the centenary ofthe Japanese garden at Tatton Parkwith a tour given by Head GardenerSam Youd. Sam is a renowned experton Japanese gardens and will beretiring next year after 30 years atTatton. Only 25 places available (£10members, £15 non-members, plus £5garden admission charge for non-RHSand -NT members).21 January (12pm), New Year lunch atWatkin House, Wynnstay, Ruabon,Wrexham LL14 6LQ. Kindly hostedby Anna Dempsey. Lunch followed bya guided walk around the grounds(£15).Booking for both events is essential.Contact Glynis Shaw (tel: 01745710261; Email: glynis@castellphotography.co.uk)GWYNEDD29 October, Study Day, ‘HistoricGarden Restoration’. Venue, HotelMaes-y-Neaudd, Talsarnau, nrHarlech. Programme includes talkabout the resent restoration of WrestPark in Bedfordshire.For further information, contact OliveHorsfall (tel: 01766 780187; email:oandmhorsfall@btinternet.com).WEST GLAMORGAN10 November (2pm), ‘Creating avineyard in Swansea’, a talk byamateur vineyard grower ColinFielder, including a brief history ofwine-making in the UK. St Paul’sParish Centre, de la Beche Road,Sketty, Swansea.SOUTH & MIDGLAMORGAN BRANCH12 February (2 pm), Snowdrop walk.19 Westfield Rd, Pontypridd CF373AG. Lighten your winter blues with avisit to Sue and Brian Dockerill’swoodland garden, where you will seearound 150 varieties of snowdrops.The garden writer Margery Fish oncewrote, ‘once interest has been arousedin the many varieties of Galanthusnivalis... winter is no longer dull andcold but an exciting time when wewatch for the different snowdrops toappear.’ (£5 WHGT members, £7 nonmembers).Further information fromVal Caple, ‘Milestone’, Penllyn,Cowbridge, CF71 7RQ (tel: 01446775794; val.t.caple@care4free.net).The Welsh Historic Gardens TrustThe Bothy, Aberglasney,Llangathen SA32 8QHTel/Fax: 01558 668485Email: admin@whgt.org.ukwww.whgt.org.ukPRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND PUBLIC PROTECTION:OUTSTANDING GARDENS AT PENPONT,COEDARHYDYGLYN AND FONMON CASTLEPLANS FOR REGENERATION AT BRYNGARW ANDTHE NATIONAL TRUST’S GOOD NEWS FOR DYFFRYNplus: AGM REPORT; AND THE FORGOTTEN TALENTS OF EDWARD KEMP

from THE EDITOR from THE CHAIRMAN AGM 2011At the beginning of the summer, I was fortunate enough tobe the first journalist to be shown over the newly restoredgardens at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire. Among those withwhom I spent a bright and blustery June day were EnglishHeritage’s Head of Gardens and Landscape, John Watkins,and Senior Properties Historian Andrew Hann.English Heritage’s approach at Wrest, for 600 years thehome of the de Grey family, has drawn on the full breadthof that organisation’s skillsbase to restore this large andlovely garden, which retains elements of three centuries ofhorticultural vogue and vagary and boasts contributions inparticular by preeminent eighteenth-century practitionersboth British and Continental. But EH has also targetedthose who would make no claim to eminence as gardenhistorians. Although the garden was still closed to the publicduring my visit, teams of volunteers and apprenticespeopled the green spaces: during the run up to openingday, both groups were encouraged to involve themselves inall aspects of preparation, from researching familydocuments in Wrest’s archives to planting disease-free elms.Such an inclusive approach, based on shared enthusiasmand the broadest understanding of ‘heritage’, is to beapplauded and prevents this rather grand garden from anyretreat into the aloofness of faux-academe.John Watkins’s long-term vision for Wrest has been greatlyfacilitated by the foresight of the 2nd Earl de Grey who, insweeping away the old house in the early 1830s in order toreplace it with his idiosyncratic, French-inspired mansioncomplete with formal parterre, commissioned an extensiveseries of watercolours of the estate. These illustrate mostaspects of the ninety-acre gardens as they appeared almost200 years ago. No act of restoration is ever whollystraightforward: thanks to Thomas de Grey’s commission,John Watkins and his team can draw on an accurate,coloured vision of the ghosts in the landscape. It is as nearas any historian is likely to get to that scenario expoundedby Mary Norton in the children’s novel Bedknob andBroomstick, when, thanks to a magic bedstead, theseventeenth-century Emelius Jones is transported to 1940sBedfordshire and reconstructs an image of his destroyedfamily home: ‘Here was the parlour, here the dairy. This,’he exclaimed as he jumped down into a long hollow, ‘wasthe sunken garden where my aunt grew sweet herbs.’ Hekicked the sandy rubble from some flat stones. ‘And herethe cellar steps.’In this my final Bulletin for the Trust, I thank all those ofyou who have supported my efforts to update the magazine.It was good to hear positive feedback at the AGM, among itCeredigion branch’s verdict that the Bulletin in its newformat was a work in progress. As that branch in particularhas reason to appreciate, the Bulletin retains its freshnessand visual appeal only as long as it remains a work inprogress – and forfeits those qualities when the templatebecomes rigid and ceases to develop or admit the possibilityof improvement.MATTHEW DENNISONThe Welsh Historic Gardens Trust has seen a number ofchanges in the months since the last Bulletin.It is with regret that we note the retirement of ProfessorTom Pritchard after many years as our President, havingalso been our Chairman between 1994 and 1997. He willbe sorely missed for his wide experience, his sound counseland good humour. I hope that his retirement will meanmore leisure for him, but I suspect that he will remain asbusy as ever.We are therefore extremely fortunate that Robin Herberthas agreed to be our President. His knowledge of historicgardens and of horticulture is extensive, having beenChairman of the Trustees at Kew, President Emeritus of theRoyal Horticultural Society and a Founder Trustee of theNational Botanic Garden of Wales.The Trust Council met for the first time in many years atthe end of May. The Council fulfils an important advisoryrole and, at the meeting, it was joined by a number of newCouncil members: William Wilkins, Sara Furse, DavidLambert and Peter Hayden. The fifth new member was tohave been Donald Moore, who had done so much toadvance the cause of historic gardens in Wales. Sadly,Donald Moore died before the Council meeting. Hisobituary is included in this Bulletin.I am also deeply saddened to note the death of BryanMcSwiney, who was Treasurer of the Trust in its early days.He continued to promote the cause of historic gardensthrough his long and impressive contribution to the successof Aberglasney Gardens.The work of the Trust continues to develop well. There is asteady trickle of new members and the highly successfullaunch of the new Monmouthshire Branch by HelenaGerrish and her energetic committee was a remarkableachievement, especially as Helena had so recentlycompleted her monograph on Avray Tipping, EdwardianCountry Life: The Story of H Avray Tipping (Frances Lincoln),which was published at the beginning of September.Our AGM at Fonmon Castle was a most enjoyable event. Athought-provoking lecture by Christopher Woodward,Director of the Garden Museum in Lambeth, was followedby a delicious lunch and tour of the gardens at Fonmon,Coedarhydyglyn and Dyffryn. A reception the previousevening at the exquisite Cowbridge Physic Garden hadalready ensured a most entertaining weekend.I wish you all a relaxing autumn and hope to see as manyof you as possible at our events next year.GWYNETH HAYWARDJOY NEAL reports on the Trust’s Annual General Meeting at Fonmon CastleThe annual General Meeting of the Trust took place on 4June 2011 at Fonmon Castle in Glamorgan by kindinvitation of Sir Brooke Boothby. The Trust was delightedto welcome Mr Robin Herbert as its new President. Ourchairman Gwyneth Hayward paid tribute to the long yearsof leadership and inspiration given by Professor TomPritchard, our outgoing president.Our Chairman remarked on the satisfactory year andemphasised the importance for the trust to remain vigilantand to promote the significance of historic and designedlandscape, both from a historical perspective but also as amajor source of both public and private enjoyment, and asa record of past horticultural, environmental and culturalpatterns.She announced a study day at Bodnant gardens on 28 April2012 with the working title ‘“Canopied with Bowers”:Arbours, Arches and Pergolas’, which will provide anopportunity to investigate this important element of gardendesign. She gave notice that it would be her last year asChairman: the process of finding a replacement is alreadyunderway.Treasurer John Borron gave a report on the financial stateof the Trust and stressed that, though the records were nowin order, the most important thing to achieve was a rise inmembership which would cover the costs of running theTrust. There is now no public funding, which makes all themore important the generosity of NFU Mutual to the Trust.Following the AGM, a most interesting talk was given byChristopher Woodward, Director of the Garden Museumin Lambeth. The title was ‘The Afterlife of Gardens’ and hedeveloped this theme with reference to gardens such asSissinghurst, Great Dixter and Ninfa in Italy, examiningtheir development following the death of the gardens’original owners.The day continued with a delicious lunch at Fonmon andthe chance to walk round the garden. Sir Brooke Boothbycommented that they had many wedding celebrationsduring each year, so the borders need to have colourthroughout the seasons. On our visit, they were lookingbeautiful.We then drove to Coedarhydyglyn, and were taken roundthe woodlands by Tony Titchen, a friend of Sir Brooke anda well-known dendrologist. The owner, Colonel RhodriTraherne, has a remarkable collection of forest trees, someof which are champions and others very impressive, such asthe Summit Cedar from Tasmania, Athrotaxis laxifolia, andthe Golden larch, Pseudolarix amabilis.Finally we visited the restored Edwardian garden at Dyffryn(CADW Grade I). The landscape architect GeraldineDonovan conducted a tour, explaining how a NationalLottery grant of £8 million had enabled Dyffryn’srestoration (a further grant of £1.3 million was madetowards the restoration of the house). On my last visit someyears ago, the two walled kitchen gardens were derelict, soI was amazed to see the new aluminium greenhouse readyto be stocked with orchids and vines and the gardensalready planted.We would like to thank all who were involved in organisingthis highly enjoyable and informative event.DIARY DATE FOR2012 STUDY DAY'Canopied with bowers':Pergolas, Arbours and Arches28 April (10am–4pm)The Inaugural Event ofthe Bodnant Welsh Food CentreTaly-y-Cafn LL28 5RPSpeakersLinda FarrarPergolas of ancient RomeJan WoudstraBowers,‘berceaux’ and cradle walksTroy SmithBodnant Garden

GREEN MEN AND ELEPHANTSDAVINA HOGG reflects on her garden atPenpont, Brecon, the destination for a WestGlamorgan branch visit in JuneTime has stood still at Penpont for much of the last centuryand whilst this has contributed considerably to the unspoiltcharm and tranquillity which characterise the house and itsgrounds, it has also left a continuing task of restoration andrepair. Over the past 18 years, my husband and I haveundertaken a challenging yet sympathetic restorationprogramme aimed at returning the buildings to theirformer glory and maintaining the sense of history andplace, with a further objective of developing a sustainablefuture for house and garden.Our hearts lie within the landscape – most of all we love tobe in the gardens and grounds. Given more resources andtime we would have developed the gardens further, but wehave had to be realistic about what we can personallyachieve and upkeep.However, that hasn’t stopped us creating and developingcertain aspects of the garden. For the past ten years, wehave been bringing the walled gardens back into fullproductivity. We have a small farm shop (open mid-June toChristmas) where we sell our vegetables, fruit and cutflowers as well as supplying a few local pubs and cafés. Weare certified by the Soil Association and have heldnumerous conferences/seminars and workshops using thekitchen gardens as a demonstration unit.In 2000, to celebrate the Millennium, we constructed abeech maze – using beech seedlings from our woods. Themaze has been designed in the shape of the Green Man –an ancient icon usually found in churches, the Green Mansymbolises the seasonal renewal of life and fertility: thePenpont Green Man is supposed to be the largest suchimage in the world. It is worth Googling Penpont toappreciate fully its design as it is not possible from theground to see what the shapes denote. And yes, there isquite a lot of maintenance involved, with the result that thisyear we need to repair some of the features. All in goodtime…Trees are also our passion and we are incredibly fortunateto have the space to be able to plant a wide range ofornamental trees and shrubs throughout the grounds.Gavin is a trained arborist, and having spent many yearsbefore we came here running his own tree surgery businessin Bristol and dealing with trees within an urbanenvironment, he can now allow our trees to grow andspread without having to doctor them too much.For those who visit Penpont, the Elephant box hedge is afeature which always amuses and delights. The originalhedge must be over 100 years old and in the past it hadbeen religiously but rather boringly trimmed. During anamazing visit to Kenya a few years ago, we were thrilled tosee African elephants in the wild – they were the inspirationbehind our box creation.Someone said to us one day how well kept Penpont looks. Iremarked that it was all an illusion: ‘If you cut your lawn,trim your edges and hedges… all appears to be in order!’For further information about the garden at Penpont, visitwww.penpont.com

EASTERN OUTLOOK IN SOUTH WALESEDWARD KEMP 1817–1891Landscape architect BRONWEN THOMASreports on plans for the enhancement of theearly-twentieth-century formal Gardens atBryngarw Country Park, Bridgend.In February 2011, I was appointed by Bridgend CountyBorough Council to prepare an enhancement scheme forthe formal gardens at Bryngarw Country Park. Funding forthe project comes from the Visit Wales Sustainable Tourismfund under the ‘One Historic Garden’ scheme. Runningparallel to this project is the Environmental Improvements,Phase 1 study for the whole of the Country Park carried outby Mackley Davies Associates with funding from WAGEnvironmental Improvements Grant and BCBC SpecialRegeneration Fund.The Grade II formal gardens were laid out by the lastgeneration of the Traherne family to live at Bryngarw,between 1910 and 1918. They consist of terraced lawns tothe south front of Bryngarw House, woodlands on the steepvalley side to the east, and the oriental or ‘Japanese Garden’running along the valley floor.Having changed hands in the 1940s, Bryngarw was acquiredby the local authority in 1960. In the 1980s, when it wasdesignated a Country Park, the Japanese garden wasrecovered after years of neglect. Scrub was cleared, anetwork of paths, both original and new, was put in, and thecurrent vaguely Japanese-style teahouse and bridge wereconstructed.Over the intervening years little attention was given tohorticultural maintenance apart from grass cutting, and thegardens have settled into gentle decay. Nevertheless, theJapanese garden continues to be a delightful sequesteredspot. Plenty of visitors stroll here, especially in spring andautumn, to take in the colours and scents of therhododendrons, cherries, maples and magnolias, to rest inthe teahouse and admire the reflections from the Japanesebridge. This is the essence of the garden that the schemeseeks to enhance.The emerging masterplan addresses the need to balance thehistoric significance with ecology, visitor expectations,legislation and restricted funding, and future managementand potential changes. The concentration of proposals relateto the Japanese Garden.Work is already starting with clearance of some of thebamboo. The splendid old rhododendrons and otheroriginal ornamental plantings are to be assessed and workcarried out to get them in good heart for the future.The teahouse and bridge need repairs. A ramp into theteahouse is planned, and more substantial railings to thebridge will keep to the oriental style. Handrails, restingplaces and surface repairs will make the paths moreaccessible, and new stepping-stone paths will encouragefurther exploration of the gardens. A new viewpoint-cumfocalfeature will overlook the main pond, bridge andteahouse at the point where the original path from theHouse opened up to the garden.An entrance feature is planned atthe lower end, with an outlookalong the length of the ponds andrill. With some judicial clearance inthe woodland, a tantalisingglimpse of this area will be gainedfrom the visitor centre.There are pressing issues howeverrelating to river erosion – the Garwis attempting to intrude into theJapanese garden. Also there is thevery real threat of Phytophthora,which is rampant in the larchforests further up the valley.Current funding covers only a firstphase of these enhancements. It ishoped that, with a masterplan inplace, other funding can besourced to prepare these gardensfor the next quarter century andbeyond.ELIZABETH SMART reports on the subject ofthis year’s Clwyd Branch AGM lectureElizabeth Davey’s lecture to the Clwyd Branch shed light onthe life and work of Edward Kemp, who has longlanguished in the sidelines of garden history. He appearsmost often as an adjunct to Joseph Paxton, who employedhim as Superintendant when he was creating BirkenheadPark. He did, indeed, spend 40 years there; that is but partof the story for, from 1849, he received commissions forgardens, parks and cemeteries.He was born in Streatham in 1847, the son of a tailor. Inabout 1830 he was employed as an apprentice gardener atthe Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick, aposition offered only to the most promising younggardeners: a ‘university’ training in all the most up-to-datehorticultural techniques, glasshouse management and inthe forefront of knowledge, including that of the manyplant introductions flooding into the country.In the late 1830s he was employed at Chatsworth, possiblythrough the Chiswick connection, Paxton having beenemployed there in the 1820s. 1841 census returns place himback in Streatham, as a gardener. He was also involved withhorticultural articles for the Gardening Magazine and, in1843, Paxton offered him the post of Superintendent of thePublic Park he was designing for Birkenhead. Kemp’s workthere has been acknowledged as of the highest standard – afine example of planting choice and design.Within three years of arriving in Birkenhead Kempreceived his first commission – to prepare plans for CarlettPark in Eastham; these plans were never realised. In 1849,he created a rose garden for James Barrett at Lymm Hall.During the next 45 years he is credited with 26 privategardens, four cemeteries and seven parks. Additionally hepublished five books,including, in 1850, How toLay Out a Small Garden:intended as a general guidein choosing, forming orimproving an estate (from aquarter of an acre to thirtyacres in extent). Includedwere details of design,planting for specific sites,plans, engravings and noteson features, construction andeffects to be obtained. It raninto several editions and wasupdated by Waugh in 1911. Most of his commissions werein and around Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire.Describing his early Lymm Hall commission, he says thedesign was for part of the garden of ‘an ancient Elizabethanedifice… evergreens screen off the kitchen garden…’ Thedesign includes features and planting – for example,Summer House, garden seats, grass path dividing the rosebeds of standard and climbing varieties to be trained uppoles and along looped ropes (cateneries) to form festoons.Throughout are engravings to aid clarification includingvistas and garden structures. When designing a completegarden, such as that for the Frost family of Chester, there isa complete plan, two adjacent gardens made to appear asone although remaining separate. Some designs are forsections of an established garden; as in the approach driveat Lytham Hall, a terrace at Daylesford House and theAmerican Garden at Knightshayes Court, Tiverton.Leighton Hall, Welshpool, commissioned for John Naylorfor his rebuilt house, is his sole Welsh garden.Between 1846 and 1888 he designed seven parks; two ofhis gardens – Park Place, Frodsham and Pyrgo Park,northeast London – have now become public parks.Additionally there were four cemeteries: St Helens, Anfield,Birkenhead (Flaybrick) and Southport.Grosvenor Park, Chester, is significant in that, although apublic park, it was commissioned and paid for by a privateindividual – Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess ofWestminster. The site, some 20 acres, is on the north bankof the Dee, east of St John’s Church. Two avenues form themain structure and at their intersection was placed a statueof the Marquess. The avenues were of lime and holly,planted alternately to create light and shade, colouring andwinter interest.Although Kemp’swork at BirkenheadPark and his privatecommissions musthave kept himbusily employed, healso publishedbooks and wrote forgardening journals,particularly theGardeners’ Chronicle.His articles on the gardens of James Bateman at BiddulphPark were published in book form in 1862.It is hard to appreciate why such a gifted andknowledgeable man could have lapsed into comparativeobscurity. Was he overshadowed by his connection withPaxton? Was it that so many commissions were from ‘thehuge and rising class of ungentlemen’ whose Victorianhouses have lost their gardens as they have becomecommercial institutions or lapsed into multiple ownership?Or was it the new fashion for herbaceous borders andinformality championed by William Robinson and GertrudeJekyll? Who knows? Remnants of his private works remain,to be sought out and appreciated.

SITE LINESHILARY THOMAS, editor of Historic Gardens of the Vale of Glamorgan (WHGT, 2007), offers briefsketches of the gardens visited over the AGM weekend.COWBRIDGE PHYSIC GARDENThis garden, now a prestige visitor attraction in the Vale ofGlamorgan, was created between 2003 and 2007 out of a neglected,overgrown site in the heart of Cowbridge. It represents a majorachievement of the South & Mid Glamorgan Branch of WHGT andits then chairman Dan Clayton Jones who initiated the project andsaw it through to completion. Since the eighteenth century, the walledsite had been successively part of the gardens of Old Hall, the townresidence of the Edmondes family, the kitchen garden of the formerGrammar School and a tree nursery of the Local Authority. By 2000the site had long been abandoned and was an overgrown eyesore; afew years later, after the formation of the Cowbridge Physic GardenTrust, it had been transformed into a formally laid-out ‘eighteenthcentury’physic garden. The garden contains twelve medicinal beds:each is devoted to a particular medical condition and to plants towhich, over the centuries, have been attributed medicinal properties;some have a recognised medicinal value today. Other areas of thegarden include a dyebed, a fragrant border and pleached fruit trees,and the whole garden is enhanced by built features such as the centralfountain and pavilions.(www.cowbridgephysicgarden.org.uk)PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT MOOREFONMON CASTLEFonmon Castle retains the core of the medieval castlewithin an elegant eighteenth-century house. Thecastle is Grade I listed, the site is Grade II. Theproperty has been in the possession of the Jonesfamily and their descendants, the Boothbys, since theseventeenth century and it was Sir Brooke Boothbywho was our host. The elegant interior of the houseboasts an impressive staircase hall, and a magnificentfirst-floor drawing room with an outstandingplasterwork ceiling by Thomas Stocking. Walledgardens, including a productive kitchen garden,terraces and informal gardens, surround the houseon three sides, while on the east side the land dropssteeply down the slopes of a ravine. The tower at theend of the south terrace, long thought to be an angletower of the medieval castle, is now interpreted as apseudo-medieval folly erected by Robert Jones in theeighteenth century. The gardens reflect a series ofchanges over the centuries and also the particularhorticultural interests of their owners: the wide varietyof fuchsias, for example, is a legacy of the interests ofthe present owner’s grandmother.DYFFRYN PHOTOGRAPH: VALE OF GLAMORGAN COUNCILDYFFRYN GARDENSDuffryn (the form of the name favoured historically) is amagnificent Grade I garden and arboretum created byReginald Cory and Thomas Mawson early in thetwentieth century. The collaboration between Cory,wealthy owner of Duffryn and informed horticulturalist,and Thomas Mawson the distinguished landscapearchitect, produced what has been described as ‘thegrandest and most outstanding Edwardian gardens inWales’. Balustraded terraces close to the house, extensivelawns running south and bisected by a formal canal, panelgardens or ‘garden rooms’ which predate those at Hidcoteand Sissinghurst, are among the delights to be exploredat Duffryn. In the arboretum are many notable treessurviving from Cory’s planting, among them newintroductions in his day, and in the gardens there stillsurvive some plants from Duffryn’s heyday. Grants fromthe Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources are nowenabling Duffryn to be restored to its Edwardiansplendour, with restoration of the kitchen gardens part ofthe current programme. On June 8, the Vale ofGlamorgan Council’s Cabinet announced a fifty-year leaseof Dyffryn House and Gardens to the National Trust.(www.dyffryngardens.com)COEDARHYDYGLYNThe house, built in 1820, probably to the designs of the architect Edward Haycock, stands on theside of a deep valley and commands extensive views to the north over the Ely valley. It wascommissioned by the Revd John Montgomery Traherne and replaced the old ‘Coedriglan’ house ashort distance to the west. It stands in the centre of the parkland, which was laid outcontemporaneously with the house and has survived virtually intact to the present day. House andparkland together form a picturesque early-nineteenth-century landscape – both the buildings andthe site are Grade II* listed. The topography of the site has largely determined the content of thegrounds, with woodland predominating. Terraced gardens around the house are laid mainly tolawns. The Dell, a narrow, spring-fed valley to the south of the house, was developed by LlewellynEdmund Traherne early in the twentieth century as a woodland and water garden with strongJapanese influences; it included some original Japanese features. It was possibly the work of AlfredParsons & Partners. The woodlands contain notable plantings of rhododendrons and conifers, manyof them planted by the present owner’s uncle and aunt, Sir Cennydd Traherne and his wife Rowena,who took a keen and knowledgeable interest in the woodlands and who established the cypressgarden and the pinetum. Coedarhydyglyn is not usually open to the public.

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To find out what your local police are doing totackle rural crime, it’s worth checking our your local force’swebsite. Some include a section on rural policing withinformation on local crime trends, security advice andcontact details for the officers dealing with your patch.With more than 300 local branches across the UKcountryside, NFU Mutual is part of the fabric of rural life.It provides a personal local service and deals with thousandsof rural theft claims every year, giving a snapshot view ofcrime trends in the countryside.NFU Mutual’s theft claims statistics for home and contentspolicies reveal that stolen heating oil was the most commoncrime reported in 2010, followed by jewellery and fenceposts.Outbuildings and sheds were the locations shown to be mostat risk of theft, highlighting the need to secure outbuildingswhere machinery is stored.With concerns about rural crime increasing in many areasit’s a good time to check out your security precautions – andalso make sure your insurance cover is up to date. NFUMutual’s website www.nfumutual.co.uk includes detailedadvice on security.For information on NFU Mutual’s business, home, andvehicle insurance contact your local NFU Mutual branch orcall 0800 197 1283.ANNE CARTER celebrates the life ofDONALD MOORE, who died on May 1Donald Moore, who died at the beginning of May at the ageof 89, was a founder member and Vice-Chairman of theTrust and for very many years a strong and valued memberof the Committee. With his wife, Patricia, WHGT’sadmirable archivist who died in 2002, he played animmense part in maintaining the Trust’s reputation as ascholarly as well as a campaigning body. No one who hadthe pleasure of sitting on the committee with Donald, willforget that gravel voice cutting, with a mixture of authorityand diffidence, into any argument that was getting out ofhand.Donald was diffident in other ways, too. Bettina Harden,writing in The Bulletin to congratulate him on being createdan MBE in 2003, said that she had failed to spot his nameat first, not recognising him as Commander Donald Moore.His naval career was not something he talked about in hisother lives. In fact, after war service, first in the RoyalFusiliers and later in the navy as a signalman, then anairman, then an instructor, he spent twenty years with theRNVR and rose to the rank of Commander; he wasdecorated for his service in 1967. Postwar, his careerbrought him to the education side of the National Museumof Wales, from where he was seconded for a period asMuseums Education Officer in Uganda and later as anadviser in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. In 1977, hereturned to his university town of Aberystwyth, as Keeperof Pictures and Maps at the National Library. His range ofinterests was enormous: museums and art galleries,archaeology and landscape studies – he was consulted in allthese fields and still found time to write about them. Formany years, he even led groups of folk dancers and singersto a festival in Brittany. President of the CambrianArchaeological Society and Founder Chairman of WHGT’sfirst baby, The Hafod Trust, Donald was also a Gorseddbard of the National Eisteddfod and, in recent years, astrong supporter of the Penarth Pier Project. His MBE wasawarded for ‘services to archaeology and Welsh culturallife’. Putting it mildly, I should say.There seems no better way of commemorating Donald’slong and distinguished association with the Trust than toreprint part of a short piece he wrote for The Bulletin in theWinter of 1994 about the Cardiganshire mansion ofNanteos. In its combination of brevity and detail, it is typicalof his outlook and approach:‘...The house lies at the centre of a long secluded valley, throughwhich runs Nant Paith, supplying water for a large ornamentallake. The house was built in 1793, a rectangular block of threestoreys with a basement, its roof hidden behind a parapet. To judgefrom an engraving of 1808, its appearance has changed little since,apart from two small blocks added to the east side and a portion tothe front. The house looks out across landscaped grounds to therising slope opposite…‘...There is a tree tunnel of old Cherry Laurels (Prunuslaurocerasus) with Rhododendrons, known as ‘The Lovers’ Walk’,leading from the mansion to the gatehouse. From there one is drawntowards the lake, with its dense growth of the water lily Nymphaealutea. An island provides a picturesque refuge for geese. The pathcontinues along the nearer bank of Nant Paith, the water theredirected along an artificial channel.‘East of the house the monumental pomp of the neoclassical stableblock takes everyone by surprise. The large derelict kitchen gardenbeyond bears witness to a vanished self-sufficiency and hints at apast bounty of yellow raspberries, tansy and mint. That dreadedforeign invader, Japanese knotweed, has gained a foothold in thefurther part.‘To the south of the walled garden lies the dogs’ graveyard, with 23stones commemorating mostly hounds of the Nanteos Harriers; theysurround a splendid mulberry tree. Nearby stand four Gingko trees.Finally, one should mention a tall Cedar of Lebanon. Much hardwork will be in store for anyone trying to bring the grounds back totheir former glory.’NFU Mutual is The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited (No. 111982). Registered in England. Registered Office: Tiddington Road,Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire CV37 7BJ. 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