Wyndcliffe Court, north of the village of

St. Arvans St. Arvans ( Welsh: ''Sain Arfan'' or ''Llanarfan'') is a village and community (parish) in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom. It is located two miles north west of Chepstow, close to Chepstow Racecourse, Piercefield House and the ...

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, wit ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, 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 I ...

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 peop ...

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 The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is a heritage register of significant historic parks and gardens in Wales. It is maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government. Th ...

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 o ...

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, 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

, 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 predominant garden types in the ancient world were domestic gardens and sacred gardens. Sculpture of gods and kings were placed in temple compounds, along with sacred lakes and sacred groves. It is not known whether statues were placed in Gree ...

. 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 a ...

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 sup ...

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 Ir ...

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

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