Clytha Park

The original house on the site, Clytha House, was built by the Berkeley family of Spetchley Park in Worcestershire.{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=1941|desc=Clytha Park|grade=I|access-date=19 July 2019}} It was subsequently purchased by William Jones the Elder, who constructed the gates and Clytha Castle. His son, William Jones the Younger, from 1862 Herbert, razed the Georgian mansion to the ground and replaced it with the Neoclassical Clytha Park. The Monmouthshire antiquarian Sir Joseph Bradney, in his multi-volume A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present Time, records that Jones's attempts to change his name to Herbert occasioned a long feud with his near neighbour, Lord Llanover, the Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire, who sought to block the change;{{sfn|Bradney|1992|pp=116-17}} "A long and acrimonious, and at times highly humorous, correspondence ensued in the newspapers and a debate on the subject took place in the house of commons".{{sfn|Bradney|1992|pp=116-17}}

File:Clytha Park, Monmouthshire - The Gates.jpg

Beginning work on his inheritance in 1820, Jones used the Shrewsbury architect, Edward Haycock Snr. In the later 19th century, the house contained the painting, The Deluge by Francis Danby. At the end of the Second World War the estate was inherited as part of the Pontypool Park Estate by Richard Hanbury-Tenison, a former military officer who then pursued a career in the Diplomatic service.{{Coflein|num=91476|desc=Hafodyrynys Colliery|accessdate=10 October 2021}} In 1955 he married Euphan Wardlaw-Ramsay,{{cite web|url=https://www.abergavennychronicle.com/article.cfm?id=106300&headline=Death+of+former+Lord+Lieutenant+of+Gwent+Sir+Richard+Hanbury-Tenison§ionIs=news&searchyear=2017|title=Death of Sir Richard Hanbury-Tenison|first=Jake|last=Chown|publisher=Abergavenny Chronicle|date=16 August 2017}} and from 1957 with the architect Donald Insall, they undertook the restoration of the wider estate including demolition of the substantial rear service building to leave the present square plan house. In 1972 they donated Clytha to the National Trust in lieu of death duties, although the family retained a leasehold on the house where they still live today.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/10/17/sir-richard-hanbury-tenison-diplomat-obituary/|title=Obituary: Sir Richard Hanbury-Tenison, diplomat|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=17 October 2017|accessdate=10 October 2021}}

The Clytha estate encompasses Monmouthshire's "two outstanding examples of late eighteenth century Gothic",{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=190}} the gates to the park and Clytha Castle. Overlooking the house, on a prominent hill, stands the folly of Clytha Castle, constructed by William Jones the Elder in memory of his wife.{{sfn|Bradney|1992|pp=116-17}} Long attributed to John Nash, recent documentary discovery has shown that it was designed by John Davenport,{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=191}} who also laid out the grounds, a "well-preserved (example of) a late eighteenth century landscape park".{{Coflein|num=265945|desc=Clytha Park Garden|access-date=12 February 2012}} The original canal in the grounds by Davenport was extended in the early 19th century to create the present lake, the spoil from the excavations being used to create a raised platform for the new house.{{sfn|Attlee|2009|p=92}} The park was further developed by Henry Avray Tipping in the early 20th century.{{cite web|url=http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/868|title=Clytha Park|publisher=Parks & Gardens UK|access-date=16 August 2020}}

On the old Abergavenny-to-Raglan road stand the entrance gates, again reputedly by John Nash,{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=190}} who did undertake work in South Wales. A lodge is set to one side. They are earlier than the house, of 1797.{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=190}} The entry in Mee's The King's England suggests that the gateway came from the ruined mansion of Perth-hir near Rockfield but this is disputed.{{efn|Cyril Evans, in his county history, Monmouthshire: Its History and Topography, published in 1953, suggests that the gateway and another doorway which were brought from Perth-Hir, are not those at the main entrance, but are structures in the walled garden at Clytha.{{sfn|Evans|1953|p=273}} This corresponds with Cadw's dating of two doorways in the garden to the Tudor period.{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=22998|desc=Walled garden at Clytha Park|grade=II|access-date=16 August 2020}} John Newman,{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=191}} and Elisabeth Whittle also support this interpretation.{{sfn|Whittle|1990|p=8}}}}{{efn|The Dicamillo Guide records some Jacobean panelling in the dining room at Clytha Park which it suggests was brought from Perth-hir.{{cite web|url=https://www.thedicamillo.com/house/perth-hir-house/|title=Perth-hir House|publisher=Dicamillo|access-date=6 January 2022}}}}{{Coflein|num=20651|desc=Perth-Hir ruins, Rockfield|fewer-links=yes|access-date=16 August 2020}}{{sfn|Tyerman|Warner|1951|p=58}}

The architectural historian John Newman considers Clytha, "the finest early nineteenth century Greek Revival house in the county",{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=190}} while John V. Hiling, in his study The Architecture of Wales: From the first to the twenty-first century, describes it as "the most robust and gracious example of the neo-Grec movement in Wales".{{sfn|Hiling|2018|p=176}} Peter Smith, in his 1975 (2nd edition 1988) study, Houses of the Welsh Countryside, concurs, calling it "the best of the Greek revival".{{sfn|Smith|1988|p=322}} The building is a square in the Greek Doric style, of ashlar with sandstone dressings.{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=190}} It is of two storeys and has a "fine centr(al) sandstone Ionic tetrastyle portico". The interior is pure Doric, with a circular vestibule leading to a spacious, top-lit,{{sfn|Smith|1988|p=322}} staircase hall.{{sfn|Newman|2000|p=191}}

The house was designated a Grade I listed building on 1 September 1956, the gates have their own Grade II* listing,{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=1967|desc=Gateway and railings to Clytha Park |grade=II*|access-date=16 August 2020}} while the lodge is today listed Grade II.{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=23003|desc=The Lodge at Clytha Park |grade=II|access-date=16 August 2020}} Cadw's listing describes Clytha Park as "one of the best neo-classical houses in Wales". The gardens and park at Clytha are designated Grade I on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.{{NHAW|uid=270|num=PGW(Gt)15(MON)|desc=Clytha Park|class=HPG|access-date=4 February 2023}}

{{notes}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book

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|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-JFvgAACAAJ&q=the+gardens+of+wales

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}}

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|title=A History of Monmouthshire: The Hundred of Raglan, Volume 2 Part 1

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fBVAAAAYAAJ&q=A+history+of+Monmouthshire+The+Hundred+of+Raglan

|year=1992

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|isbn=1-873361-15-7

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|last=Evans|first=Cyril James Oswald

|title=Monmouthshire: Its History and Topography

|year=1953

|publisher=William Lewis Printers

|location=Cardiff

|oclc=2415203

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Hiling | first=John B.

|title=The Architecture of Wales: From the First to the Twenty-First Centuries

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe2VDwAAQBAJ&dq=Penrhyn+Castle+architecture&pg=PA174

|year=2018

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|publisher=University of Wales Press

|isbn=978-1-786-83285-6

}}

• {{Cite book

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|author-link = John Newman (architectural historian)

|series=The Buildings of Wales

|title=Gwent/Monmouthshire

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knRf4U60QjcC&dq=The+Buildings+of+Wales%3A+Gwent%2FMonmouthshire&pg=PA2

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|isbn=0-14-071053-1

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|last=Smith|first=Peter

|author-link = Peter Smith (architectural historian)

|title=Houses of the Welsh Countryside

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKs_nYwrOHcC&q=houses+of+the+welsh+countryside|year=1988

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• {{Cite book

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|series=The King's England

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|oclc=906097367

}}

• {{Cite book

|last=Whittle|first=Elisabeth

|title=Cadw/Icomos Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Clytha Park

|url=http://orapweb.rcahms.gov.uk/coflein/C/CPG267.pdf

|year=1990

|publisher=Cadw & RCAHMW

}}

{{commons category|Clytha Park}}

• [https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/36684/details/clytha-houseclytha-park Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales entry for Clytha Park with photo gallery]

Category:Buildings and structures in Monmouthshire

Category:Grade I listed buildings in Monmouthshire

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Monmouthshire

Category:Country houses in Monmouthshire

Category:Registered historic parks and gardens in Monmouthshire