Penoyre House, a large nineteenth-century Italianate mansion, said to incorporate late eighteenth-century house (nprn 16022), is located to the north-west of Brecon. Around the house are the remnants of a high Victorian formal garden (86098) set in what survives of eighteenth and nineteenth century parkland (700364).

The surviving gardens date from about 1848 onwards, when a series of steep, Italianate grass terraces were laid out to the east and west, below a balustraded terrace which surrounded the house. Those on the west descended to what was by 1868 an Italian Garden: a series of parterre beds around a circular fountain and basin, which survives today, covering the area of both the present fountain garden and the tennis court. The parterre garden was destroyed by the construction of a swimming pool within it in the 1960s. This was later filled in to form the present tennis court. The eastern terraces were described in 1868 as a series of 'broad walks' and in form seem very similar today. A walk ran along the northern edge of the south terrace from the steps in the south-east corner of the forecourt to an area of wild garden, around two small ponds, near the main drive. From photographs this walk appears to have been bordered on the south by another stone balustrade.
The 1868 sales particulars recorded pleasure grounds, 'well laid out and ornamentally timbered', to the west and south-west of the gardens, divided from the park by a ha-ha. All that survives of the ha-ha is the length of wall and circular bastion to the south-west of the present garden and earthworks on the golf course. This bastion would have had extensive views over the southern countryside, but the views have been lost due to recent planting. The former pleasure grounds have also been incorporated into the golf course.

A main feature of the garden was the conservatory, or orangery, contemporary with the rebuilding of 1846-48, and survived intact until 1899 when the glass dome was removed. Underneath the dome there was a circular pool. Along the south face of the north wall photographs dating from about 1920 record tufa rockwork with at least one drip pool half hidden among lush undergrowth. None of the rockwork survives, the conservatory has been converted to residential use.

Nineteenth-century maps recorded an extensive double kitchen garden with glass ranges to the north of the house. All of this was removed between in the 1960s when the golf course was extended.

Source:
Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, pp 191-193 (ref: PGW(Po)13(POW)).

RCAHMW, 12 July 2022

Site Record

Penoyre Garden, Cradoc, Brecon