Craig y Parc is a large Arts-and-Crafts house (nprn 96084) built in Tudor-vernacular style on a ridge top to the south-west of the village of Pentyrch in the Vale of Glamorgan, the ground below it falling away to the south. It was built in 1915 for Thomas ('small coal') Evans, a colliery owner who began his career as a railwayman, and made his fortune collecting coal that had fallen from coal trucks on the railways. He eventually became the owner of Ocean Colliery.

The property is notable as an outstanding example of an Edwardian Arts and Crafts garden designed by the English architect and garden designer C. E Mallows, who also designed the house. House and garden are integrated into a strongly axial design, taking full advantage of the southward slope. To the south and west of the house the ground drops quite steeply, giving fine views out over the Vale of Glamorgan from the south side of the house. The garden is largely formal, with a strong north-south axis centred on the house, the house in the middle of the axis, with the gatehouse and entrance drive to the north and the main garden to the south. To the north is an entrance drive and forecourt; to the south are two parallel series of terraces. Beyond it to the south and west is an area of mixed woodland.

The garden was laid out in 1913-1915, or soon after. Two drawings in the house by Mallows dated to 1913 show slight differences to the existing north and south fronts, with grand rusticated side gates to the forecourt and arcading and pavilions flanking the top terrace south of the house. A plan by Mallows dated March 1913 shows a rather different layout to that actually carried out, with a large kitchen garden north of the house, with curving entrance drives either side of it, and a circular entrance court. South of the house the terraces in front of the house appear more or less as built, except that they are flanked by pergolas on the plan. Below, the plan shows a large lawn with semi-circular ends, whereas only a semi-circular west end was made. The east terraces do not appear, and the area south of the lawn is different from the layout built, showing two small circular lawns, a tennis court, and a circular wild garden at the end.

The garden south of the house forms two main areas: the terraces on its immediate south, and the series of smaller terraces to their east. At the top of the first area is a long stone-flagged terrace which stretches beyond the house to the east and west ends of the garden. On the west side, the terrace, and that below it, are bounded by a stone revetment wall. Below the upper terrace are two narrow stone-paved terraces edged with narrow borders. Below is a large square lawn, reached by central steps, bounded by a border and the revetment wall to the east terraces on its east, and by yew and laurel hedges on the south and west. A clipped arch leads through to a cross path on the south side. To the west, the lawn extends in a semi-circle, bounded by a tall yew hedge. In the centre is a stone-paved circle, with a narrow flagstone path leading from it to an arch in the hedge on the north side. Beyond this a tarmac path below the revetment wall of the terraces leads northwards, with a flight of steps off it to the lower paved terrace. A matching opening on the south side of the yew semi-circle leads to a semi-circular projection in the revetment wall, possibly a former seat or viewpoint.

The cross axis below the lawn consists of a stone-paved path, with two flights of steps down to the woodland at its west end and two flights at its east end up to the east terraces. It is backed on the north side by the lawn revetment wall, and on the south by a revetment wall with a low flat-topped parapet. In the centre is a projecting platform with side steps down to a curving grass terrace above a large grass amphitheatre below which, and to the west of the garden, is mixed woodland with some ornamental evergreen oak, holly and laurel on its western fringe, now partly conifer plantation. A gravel path enters the woodland from the west side of the house. To the south-west, on the edge of the woodland is a recently-built lake.

The east terraces comprise eight small lawns with low retaining walls descending from the east end of the top terrace. The first six are linked by flights of steps on a north-south axis. On the west they are bounded by a revetment wall topped by a yew hedge. The top terrace wraps around the next two at its east end, and on this extension is an open-fronted loggia. The eighth, and last, terrace is bounded on the south side by a low crenellated wall with a semi-circular projection in the centre. From here there are wide-ranging views out over the Vale.

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(GM)006(CDF)).
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XLII.3 (edition of 1947).

RCAHMW, 15 July 2022

Site Record

Craig-y-Parc Garden, Pentyrch