Downing is located between Whitford and Mostyn (nprn 35791). It is noted for the picturesque style of its grounds (700098) and for its association with the eighteenth-century naturalist, antiquary and tourist Thomas Pennant who owned the estate and who, along with his son David, created the designed landscape. The main house was demolished in the 1950s though outbuildings survive.

The walled kitchen garden lies to the south-west of the outbuildings, on ground sloping to the west. It is of rectangular shape, long axis roughly north-east by south-west and tapering slightly to the north-east. There is an additional projection in the north eastern corner. An adjoining compartment on the south-west is surrounded by a fence/hedge. The enclosing walls are of brick with doorways in all four walls, the main entrance now in the north-eastern corner. The northern end of the garden once contained glasshouses and cold frames but this area now appears to have been re-developed, accessed from the north-east. The remainder is given over to grass. The late nineteenth-century layout of perimeter and cross paths has gone though a path/track traversing the long axis of the walled enclosure is still in use.

Sources:
Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 62-4 (ref: PGW(C)3(FL)).
Ordnance Survey third-edition 25-inch map: sheet Denbighshire XIII.7 (1910)
Google Maps (Infoterra) imagery (accessed 16.09.2021).

RCAHMW, 19 April 2022

Site Record

Downing Hall Garden, Whitford