Wyndcliffe Court, north of the village of
St. Arvans,
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, is a
Grade II* listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
and gardens in the
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
style, completed in 1922. The client was Charles Leigh Clay and the architect
Eric Francis. The gardens were designed by
Henry Avray Tipping
Henry Avray Tipping (22 August 1855 – 16 November 1933) was a French-born British writer on country houses and gardens, a garden designer, and Architectural Editor of '' Country Life'' magazine for 17 years.
Early life
Tipping was born in the ...
and are included on the
Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
History
Charles Leigh Clay (1866–1950) was the founder of the Claymore shipping company based in Cardiff, and the son of Henry Clay (1825–1921), who owned
Piercefield House
Piercefield House is a largely ruined neo-classical country house near St Arvans, Monmouthshire, Wales, about north of the centre of Chepstow. The central block of the house was designed in the very late 18th century, by, or to the designs of, ...
overlooking the
Wye valley
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales.
The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...
. In 1910, Charles Leigh Clay commissioned a house on the high ground to the north of St Arvans village, about west of the
Wyndcliff
The Wyndcliff or Wynd Cliff (historically sometimes spelt Wyndcliffe) is a steep limestone cliff rising above the western bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales, some north-east of the village of St Arvans, south of Tintern, and north ...
landscape feature. He later became
High Sheriff of Monmouthshire
This is a list of Sheriffs of Monmouthshire, an office which was created in 1536 but not fully settled until 1540.
On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the shrievalty of Monmouthshire was abolished, and replac ...
in 1926. His son, Henry Anthony Patrick Clay
ERD
ERD may refer to:
* Érd, a city in Hungary
* Berdyansk Airport, in Ukraine
* Economic Relations Division (Bangladesh), of the Bangladeshi Ministry of Finance
* Elastic recoil detection
Elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), also referred ...
, who continued to live at Wyndcliffe Court until his death in 2006, also became High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1965.
The house was commissioned after the first world war and built in 1922. The architect was
Eric Carwardine Francis, a local architect who had previously worked on the design of
Mounton House
Mounton House, Mounton, Monmouthshire, Wales, is the last major country house built in the county, constructed between 1910 and 1912 by the architect and writer Henry Avray Tipping for himself. Formerly a school, which has now relocated to the gr ...
for its owner
Henry Avray Tipping
Henry Avray Tipping (22 August 1855 – 16 November 1933) was a French-born British writer on country houses and gardens, a garden designer, and Architectural Editor of '' Country Life'' magazine for 17 years.
Early life
Tipping was born in the ...
, the Architectural Editor of ''
Country Life'' magazine.
In the early 21st century, the court was let, and the gardens were opened to the public on a regular basis during the summer to showcase exhibitions of
garden sculpture. The shows have exhibited the work of many prominent British sculptors. Regular events were also held throughout the summer, such as Shakespeare performances in the garden. The tenants announced in July 2016 that the gardens would close at the end of that September. The Clays returned to the house and, in 2018, lost a case at the
High Court regarding the re-roofing of the building. In January 2019, Wyndcliffe featured in a
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
series, ''The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts'', in which a group of craftspeople collaborate on refurbishing parts of the house.
Architecture and description
The house is built of local stone in the "Cotswold Tudor" style, with
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
and
transom windows. The architectural historian
John Newman describes it as "relaxed and sophisticated". The oak-lined ballroom, called the Oak Room, has Jacobethan-style paneling and one of the most extravagant plasterwork ceilings of its period anywhere in the country, depicting hops and roses, combining the early brewery roots of the Clay family with the Yorkshire rose of Mrs Clay. The plaster work was undertaken by Kebles.
The gardens were designed by Tipping in the Italianate Arts and Crafts Style. A paved terrace has steps down to a small pool and a summerhouse, linking the different levels on the steeply sloping site. The gardens also feature sculpted topiary, a sunken garden, walled gardens, fountains, an archery lawn and wooded walks, and remain substantially unaltered since Tipping created them. Tipping was influenced in the design of the garden at Wyndcliffe by the work of his friend Gertrude Jekyll, who was designing gardens of hardy plants contained within sequences of outdoor "rooms". All are planted with flowers in bedding schemes. The yew hedge topiary with the stone walls and terraces give structure to the garden.
The house was given
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
status on 14 February 2001,
its listing describing it as "a good and unaltered
Jacobean style
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated. At the start of James' reign ther ...
house (with) an unaltered contemporary garden".
The two sets of garages, with accompanying cottages, and the garden terraces, the steps, the pool, pergola and summerhouse all have their own Grade II* listings.
The gardens themselves are listed at Grade II* on the
Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Gallery
File:Wyndcliffe Court 2018.jpg, The house from the lawn
File:Sunken Pond.jpg, Sunken pond
File:Topiary garden and archery lawn.jpg, Topiary garden and archery lawn
File:Topiary October 2018.jpg, Topiary
File:Lily pond with dolphin below the terrace.jpg, Lily pond with dolphin below the terrace
File:Garden restoration Spring 2018.jpg, Restoration work in Spring 2018
Notes
References
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External links
{{Commons category, Wyndcliffe Court
Wyndcliffe Court
History of Monmouthshire
Grade II* listed buildings in Monmouthshire
Country houses in Monmouthshire
Houses completed in 1922
Arts and Crafts architecture in Wales
Registered historic parks and gardens in Monmouthshire
Gardens by Henry Avray Tipping
Arts and Crafts gardens