Historic Landscape Characterisation

Maelor Saesneg

Ornamental and Picturesque Landscapes

Parkland areas associated with a number of country houses and former country houses forms a significant element of several areas of the Maelor Saesneg landscape. There is no certain evidence for the creation of medieval parks within the area, and the surviving evidence suggests relatively late emparkment during the later 17th to earlier 19th centuries, and in some instances appears to correspond with a period during which a number of the major landowning families were rebuilding their family seats, abandoning earlier moated sites and replacing timber halls as their principal residences. In some instances, as at Emral in perhaps the 18th century and Gredington in the 19th century the parkland overlies areas of former ridge and furrow of perhaps several different periods, probably enclosed from former open fields in earlier centuries. In both of these instances the surviving parkland remains as a poignant reminder of the country houses which have now disappeared from the landscape, Emral having been demolished in 1936 and Gredington finally in the 1980s. A similar fate befell the parkland associated with Gwernheylod, a former country house with 17th century origins demolished in the 1860s and Bryn-y-Pys, a stylish house of the 1730s demolished in the 1950s, and Bettisfield Park, dating from the earlier 17th century and partly demolished in the late 1940s. Areas of former parkland associated with the house at Penley Hall and the Victorian country house at Llannerch Panna have been built over during the 20th century, for a hospital in the case of Penley and by a modern housing development in the case of Llannech Panna. The only surviving example where both the parkland and its house remain substantially intact is at Iscoyd Park where the 18th-century house, built for the Hanmer family and enlarged in the 19th century, stands within its complete 18th- and 19th-century landscape park.