The site of the largely demolished original gentry house at St Brides, erroneously called 'The Abbey' (first recorded in 1298 as 'le Hill'), is located about 700m east of the present St Brides Castle (nprn 30178), its precursor built by descendants of 'The Abbey' in the 1730s.

The remains of the old mansion constitute gateways (of possible sixteenth-century date), a one room section of some two and a half storeys, and stone-walled enclosures, former courtyards. The latter made up a large rectangular walled garden, long axis east by west, with a narrow forecourt of same depth at the east end and a further walled area of same depth to the east, about one quarter the length and with the cottages of The Green built onto its north side. A further wall extends diagonally east-north-east from the south-east corner towards the lane at the east for some 100 metres to form a triangular area with an approach track from the Marros road. The walled areas are surrounded mostly by woodland.

The smaller enclosure on the east was once a rose garden but is now covered by roughly mown grass. Through the central arch in the western, castellated, wall is the larger, western, courtyard. Within it are two changes of level, now laid out to grass, trees and shrubs. The courtyards may have been used as gardens continuously from the fifteenth century until the early twentieth century. Two ponds were situated centrally within St Brides Green.

Source: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 292-7 (ref: PGW(Dy)23(PEM)).

RCAHMW, 21 February 2022

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