Penmaenuchaf - CADW Reg No. PGW (Gd) 37 (GWY) |
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One glasshouse retains much of its glass, in a wooden framework on a brick base,
and is still in use. The vine rods and ventilation system remain, and the back wall
(the glasshouse is lean-to style, although free-standing) is whitewashed. The house
is in two divisions, although only about 8m long overall, and has a brick edged
path towards the back. Outside it on the east is a border, and the lights from
some frames are leaning against the glasshouse wall here.
South of this is the brick base of a demolished glasshouse, which was slightly larger. This is not shown on the 2nd edition 25 in. Ordnance Survey map, although there appears to be some, glass between its site and the northern glasshouse, perhaps the vanished frames. More foundations to the west may also have been for glasshouses, again not shown on the map. The large shed in the south-west corner of this area, however, was shown as glass and has obviously been converted since. A corrugated shed next to it is clearly more recent. A fairly steep path leads down from the front of the shed to the drive/forecourt area. The area of and borders south of the house has been much altered in adding a conservatory to the house and making the forecourt or parking, area. It seems originally to have been a shrubbery, but now has two small lawns at different levels, recently planted brick edged borders, including a sloping one joining the two levels and one all along the south side of the drive, and a paved area in front of the conservatory. The enclosure containing the kitchen garden and orchard is situated to the north-east of the stable block, north west of the house, on the north-facing slope of the south side of the Mawddach valley. This site, which slopes quite steeply and required extensive terracing to make cultivation possible, was probably chosen late in the garden's development, in the early twentieth century, when no more convenient site was available, but it seems never to have contained any glasshouses, these remaining on the old site near the house. The 2nd edition 2.5 in. Ordnance Survey map of 1901 shows a boundary crossing the area which later became the kitchen garden, and a long, narrow enclosure running alongside this (neither shown on the 1st edition), but there is no indication of what these might have been. The later kitchen garden and orchard is basically square, with a kink in the southern boundary (at the gate) and the north-west corner cut off; the garden terraces are on the east side, and the west was given over to fruit trees to the south, with apparently an ornamental area north of them.
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 Hatched lines show the site of glasshouses at Penmaenuchaf in 1900. One still remains and contains a peach tree.
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