Aberdare Park is located in Trecynon, at the north end of Aberdare. It is a well-preserved Victorian public park partly laid out by the eminent park and garden designer William Barron. As well as retaining most of its Victorian built features, including the bandstand and fountain, it has an attractive lake and many of the original trees are now fine mature specimens.

The park was laid out on 50 acres (20.25ha) of Hirwaun Common at the instigation of R.H. Rhys, chairman of the Local Board of Health, who in 1865 informed the Board that the 'pleasure ground' of nearly fifty acres would soon be made over to the Overseers of the Parish. Rhys intended it to be 'a pleasant place for the dust-begrimed inhabitants'. It was opened on 27 July 1869, and in 1877 the Board borrowed £5000 to wall, drain and plant the parkland. The park is triangular in shape, tapering to the north, and is bounded by public roads on the south and east and by footpaths on the west.

Prior to Barron's landscaping in the 1870s the park was laid out with two entrances and lodges at the north-east and south-east corners, a circuit walk and two informal fish ponds, the larger near the south end of the park, the smaller at the north end. This layout is shown on the 1st edition 25" Ordnance Survey map (1867-75) and remains unchanged today, except that the northern pond has been filled in. Further ornamental features and planting were grafted on to the early layout by Barron in the late 1870s, but were confined to the outer fringes of the park, the centre being left open as an undulating area of grass.

The park is enclosed by stone walls varying in height and in places supporting iron railings. The main entrance is in the south-east corner through simple iron gates flanked by tall square stone piers and pedestrian gates. On the west side of the entrance is the former lodge, opposite which is a small formal garden with a path leading to a statue of Lord Merthyr by Thomas Brock of London. A wide gently curving tarmacked walk runs north-west from the entrance up a gentle slope flanked by grass slopes planted with large mature specimen trees. These include pine, cypress, monkey puzzle, wellingtonia, beech, oak, and sycamore. The monkey puzzles, on the west side of the walk, are particularly large and handsome specimens. At the top of the slope the walk branches left and right on to the circuit walk. At the junction is a small statue (originally a fountain) named the Spirit of Industry.

The circuit walk leads to a boating lake to the west. Nearby is a brick pavilion with verandahs, now used as a cafe, and to its south is an elaborate cast iron fountain, the Coronation Fountain presented to the inhabitants of Aberdare by Lord Merthyr to commemorate the coronation of George V and Mary in 1911. To the west of the lake is an octagonal bandstand of 1910. The south-west corner of the park is taken up with sporting facilities - tennis courts and a bowling green. To their north is an area of oak woodland flanked by a shallow ravine. This was landscaped as part of the Barron scheme and has been restored. Water enters at the north end, emerging from a wall of rough boulders. It then winds down the valley through a series of small stone-edged pools and over stone cascades. Winding paths follow the stream on both sides, which is spanned by two bridges.

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)2(RCT).
Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map of Glamorgan, XI.11 (1900).

RCAHMW, 8 July 2022

Site Record

Aberdare Park