History

Sir John Nicholl purchased the Merthyr Mawr Estate in 1804 and planned a new country residence away from the old manor house, Merthyr Mawr Hall (now the site of Home Farm). A new site was chosen below Chapel Hill which overlooks the Ogmore valley. The house was built in the period 1806-9 and the park and gardens laid out later, with a garden on the S and W of the house, a kitchen garden to the E and wooded pleasure grounds to the N on Chapel Hill and to the SW.

The kitchen garden was begun in the period 1806-9 but was probably not completed until after the house. A vinery was completed in 1822. Pigsties were added against the E wall late C19 and a greenhouse made by Skinner Board & Co of Bristol was built against the S wall in 1900.

Exterior

High kitchen garden walls with brick inner faces and random rubble outer faces, except the S wall which has stone inner and brick outer faces. There are no internal dividing walls. The N and S walls have doorways on the W side at the rear of the stable block, both inserted with segmental heads and a boarded door on the N side, cast iron gate to S. Against the N inner wall are brick foundations of the former peach house and a vinery with vine arches. To the R of the vinery is a further doorway. On the outside of the N wall is a lean-to stove house behind the peach house of random rubble with a slate roof, inside which is a fireplace and a flue leading to a cavity in the wall. Further E is another lean-to bothy and stove house of rubble stone with a roof of renewed slates and corrugated plastic. The E wall has, on its outer side, 2 small lean-to pigsties with walled pens. In the SE corner is an attached rubble stone wall, set back from which the S garden wall has a doorway with a segmental head and cast iron gate. Against the S wall is a greenhouse on a brick plinth with vine arches, and with an asymmetrical gable formed of curved cast iron trusses and curved glass. A door is inserted in the S wall to the greenhouse under a segmental head.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a well-preserved and integral component of Sir John Nicholl's new house and gardens at Merthyr Mawr House.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29498568

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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