Introduction
Middleton Hall is now home to the National Botanical Garden of Wales. The site has a 1790s landscape park in fine rolling countryside, the main feature of which is a string of lakes.
The site has a 1790s landscape park in fine rolling countryside, the main feature of which is a string of lakes. Paxton was possibly advised by Samuel Lapidge, and the work was supervised by the agent James Grier.
The triangular Paxton's Tower (1808-15) by S.P. Cockerell is an outlier of the park on a ridge to the north-east. There is also a double-walled kitchen garden and an icehouse. The lakes were drained in the 1930s.
Most of the central area was developed as the National Botanic Garden for Wales in 2000, incorporating surviving older structures. Most of the lakes were restored. New fountains and sculptures are by contemporary artists. A broad walk flanked by rock specimens representing the full chronology of geological time in Wales leads up towards the old stables and the Great Glasshouse by Norman Foster and Partners which covers a large-scale arid landscape and rock garden by Kathryn Gustaffson. Most recently, a tropical House by John Belle, devoted mainly to monocotyledononous plants, has been built at one side of the walled garden. The new hard landscaping within the walled garden utilises four different styles and materials of pathway in the four quarters. Three quarters are devoted to plantings representing the evolutionary affinities of plants, and the fourth is a series of allotments gardened by local schools.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
Telephone
44 1558 667149Website
https://botanicgarden.walesAccess contact details
This is the site of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, and is open daily with the exception of Christmas Day. See:
Directions
The site is off the M4, from where it is signposted.
Owners
National Botanic Garden for Wales
Llanarthne, SA32 8HGOther Websites
- History
The house was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell in 1793-5 for Sir William Paxton, who had been master of the Mint in Bengal. The extensive rolling landscape was embellished with a chain of lakes which ran west and south of the house and incorporated a stepped cascade, bridge and dam. The appearance of the lakes is recorded in the paintings by Thomas Hornor executed for the proud owner in 1815.
The mansion was extended in the late-1820s by its next owner, Edward Hamlyn Adams, a Jamaica merchant. The family restyled their house Abadam and owned it until the early-20th century. After the mansion was destroyed by fire in 1931 the estate was divided into starter farms owned by Carmarthenshire County Council.
Its renaissance as the National Botanic Garden of Wales began in 1996 as a result of the influence of William Wilkins, founder of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, who secured Millenium Commission funding for the project.
Period
- 18th Century (1701 to 1800)
- Late 18th Century (1767 to 1800)
- Associated People
- Features & Designations
Designations
CADW Register of Landscapes Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales
- Reference: PGW(Dy)4(CAM)
- Grade: II
CADW Register of Landscapes Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales
- Reference: PGW(Dy)49(CAM)
- Grade: II*
CADW Register of Listed Buildings in Wales
- Reference: stables
- Grade: II
CADW Register of Listed Buildings in Wales
- Reference: Tower Lodge
- Grade: II
Features
- Mansion House (featured building)
- Description: The house was destroyed by fire in November 1931 and subsequently demolished. Stables and servants' quarters survived in a degraded state and have been recently refurbished for new uses.
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- Stable Block
- Description: The stables are now used as a visitor centre and restaurant.
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- Drive
- Description: There were originally four drives.
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- Lake
- Description: A string of seven lakes formed a central feature of the park.
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- Ornamental Bridge
- Description: This modern bridge with stone piers and iron railings replaces a fine single span stone bridge which formerly spanned the second lake South lake, or Llyn Uchaf as it now known.
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- Tropical House
- Description: A tropical house by John Belle has been constructed in the double walled garden.
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- Cascade
- Description: There is a stepped cascade taking water from Pond Ddu to rejoin the Afon Gwynon. The three steps decrease in height from bottom to top. This is a part of the historic waterworks.
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- Pool
- Description: Circular plunge pool on the north east bank of the most northerly of the chain of lakes. This was shown on Thomas Hornor's plan and described in 1824 as a grotto and chalybeate spring.
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- Glasshouse
- Description: The Great Glasshouse is by Norman Foster Associates. It is a circular structure rather resembling an insect eye. It is the largest single span glass building in the world.
- Kitchen Garden
- Description: The kitchen garden is unusual in being of a double walled design with additional growing space in the 9 metre band between the inner and outer walls. The outer walls are predominantly of stone, and the inner ones of brick, stuccoed in part. There was formerly an extensive range of glasshouses against the south-east facing inner wall, part of which is interpreted as a polite area where the ladies perhaps sewed.
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- Icehouse
- Description: Set into the bank to the south-west of the walled garden is the entrance to a well-preserved icehouse, with domed and brick-lined chamber and barrel-vaulted approach passage. It was mentioned in sale particulars of 1824.
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- Key Information
Type
Park
Purpose
Educational
Principal Building
Parks, Gardens And Urban Spaces
Period
18th Century (1701 to 1800)
Survival
Part: standing remains
Hectares
243
Open to the public
Yes
Civil Parish
Llanarthney
- References
References
- CADW, {Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire} (Cardiff: CADW, 2002) 50 Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire
- Coflein website
- Whittle, E., {The Historic Gardens of Wales} (Cardiff: CADW, 1992) 44, 45, 49, 52 The historic gardens of Wales : an introduction to parks and gardens in the history of Wales
- Barber, J.T., {Tour Through South Wales and Monmouthshire} (London: Printed by J. Nichols and Son for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1803) A tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire : comprehending a general survey of the picturesque scenery, remains of antiquity, historical events
Contributors
Caroline Palmer
- Related Documents
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CLS 1/381
Landscape Conservation Plan - Digital Copy
Elizabeth Banks Associates - 2000
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CLS 1/381