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Garden Name: Museum of Welsh Life
Last Modified: 27/01/2011
Garden ID: 0081

pic: 0081_museumWelshLIfe.jpg

Owner: Nick Beasley: re National Museum of Wales
Address:
St. Fagans
Cardiff
S. Glamorgan
Postcode: CF5 6XB
County: Wales

tel: 029-2057-3500
fax: 029-2057-3490
website: www.nmgw.ac.uk
email: 

Features: 
Restored late Victorian Rosery and recently restored Italian Garden (featured on Hidden Gardens series on BBC2). Recreated domestic gardens around re-erected buildings, reflecting horticultural development from the 16th century to the present day.

English Heritage Grade:
I

Opening Times:
All year except 24th -26th December and New Year's Day; 10am - 5pm.

Best Times of Year to Visit: 


To see: 


National Collection: 


National Garden Scheme days: No
Comments: 

Parties / Coaches: Yes 
Comments: 

Viewing by Appointment: Yes
Comments: Groups of 20+ should tel.to book. 

House Open for Viewing: Yes
Comments: 

Admission Prices:
Free.
Car Parking £3.50 per day. 12-month season ticket for £15.

Parking: Yes
Lavatories: Yes
Disabled Access: Yes
Shop: Yes
Plants for Sale: No
Lunches: Yes
Teas: Yes
Refreshments: Yes
Picnics: Yes
Dogs allowed: Yes
Only on Lead: Yes
Events: Yes

Other Facilities:
Some areas difficult for disabled.


Designer: 
Description of Garden:
On a bluff above the Ely River is a D-shaped court which is surrounded by a 13th-century curtain wall, 2 metres thick. The moat on the east and north sides has been filled in and the parapets rebuilt. It is surrounded by a 100-acre parkland with over thirty original buildings, all of which were moved from various parts of Wales and re-erected here to show how the people of Wales lived at various times in history. It contains both formal gardens and cottage gardens designed to show the contrast between gardens created for leisure and those with more domestic uses.

From the grand terraces there are sweeping views down over pools and ponds designed to reflect their surroundings. There is a restored Victorian rose garden and parterre all of which contrasts with the recreated domestic plots where fruit, vegetables and herbs show the type of productivity typical of the cottage garden.


History: 
Peter le Sore raised a ringwork here after dispossessing the Welsh lord, Meurig ap Hywell, in 1091. In the early 14th century the castle passed to the le Vele family by marriage, and in 1475 it passed to David Mathew when he married Alice le Vele. The descendants of their daughters sold the castle to Dr John Gibbon in c1560, who built a fine mansion in the court. Either he, or Sir Nicholas Herbert of Cogan Pill, who purchased the castle in 1584, laid out the outer court to the north. 

The castle was sold again in 1616 to Sir Edward Lewis of The Van, near Caerphilly, and became the chief Lewis residence. In 1730 the 3rd Earl of Plymouth married the heiress of Elizabeth Lewis. Some decorative work was undertaken in the 1760s, but by 1815 the building was neglected and used only by a farmer. It was restored in the 1850s, most of the formal gardens being developed between the 1860s - 1900s, and in 1946 was presented to the National Museum of Wales by the Earl of Plymouth, the grounds being opened as the Welsh Folk Museum in 1948.

Local Inns: 
The Old Post Office, St. Fagans
Caesar's Arms, Creigiau
Bush Inn, St. Hilary
Blue Anchor Inn, East Aberthaw

Accomodation: 
Mill Farm, Pontypool

Restaurants: 
The Plymouth Arms, St Fagans
The Old Post Office, St Fagans

Village/Town/Sightseeing: 
Cardiff
South Wales Coast
Vale of Glamorgan