Impact of property being included in Register of Historic Parks & Gardens, Wales

phoebe1989seb

Background -

We purchased our current cottage in S W Wales as a repossession in February.

There are two neighbouring properties, both listed buildings whereas ours is not - I believe ours was derelict at the time the smaller/less important of the other two were listed. Both ours and this other small(ish) property were originally estate buildings belonging to the much larger property.

At the front boundary of our cottage/some of our land is a wall that originally encompassed the gardens of the 'big house'. That wall is grade 2 listed.

We have just received a letter from CADW stating that as we "own or occupy all or part of the historic park and garden at *********** " it is to be included in the Statutory Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. It is to be listed as Grade 2.

The area shown on the accompanying plan covers in excess of 20 acres of which we own a small fraction. Apart from the three residential properties - a combined total of approximately 10 acres - the land included in the listing is farmland (pasture). Historically all this land belonged to the main house which used to own several thousand acres.

Our land comprises garden - in a terrible state when we took it on, gradually restoring it to proper gardens - and woodland.

There appears to be a reference to a consultation period but that has obviously passed. As the house was a repo there was no contact with the POs and no such info was passed on to us. Our nearest neighbour doesn't speak to us and the big house is not inhabited so we've not discussed the matter with them.

We did mention it to the guy that owns about 6 of the included acres - a non-residential smallholding with pigs, cows, chickens and several recently built shacks He hadn't received any paperwork and knew nothing about it but assumed the value of his land would increase as a result, lol!

We have no issues with the gardens being listed - although find it odd that the two lots of farmland (which are no longer owned by the big house) are included when they are neither gardens or parkland.

None of the land in question is open to the public, btw.

However, we wonder what the implications will be? For instance we were considering seeking pre-application advice for a potential extension, not to build ourselves but more that if we were to sell we could do so with planning in place and wonder if this might now be unlikely to be approved.

I suppose it's a bit like living in a national park or AONB (we used to live in the latter), just on a smaller scale?

We will of course contact CADW regarding this but just wondered if anyone had any experience of similar - especially where the house itself isn't listed? Although I have a feeling that will be next!

Thanks in advance.....

davidmcn

Unlikely to be many tales from those with experience given it's just been created:

https://cadw.gov.wales/historicenvironment/protection/historicparksandgardens/?lang=en

Essentially it's similar to listed buildings, in practice I think it just means the planners will consult with Cadw about whether proposals adversely affect the historic aspects of the garden.

phoebe1989seb

davidmcn wrote: »

Unlikely to be many tales from those with experience given it's just been created:

https://cadw.gov.wales/historicenvironment/protection/historicparksandgardens/?lang=en

Essentially it's similar to listed buildings, in practice I think it just means the planners will consult with Cadw about whether proposals adversely affect the historic aspects of the garden.

Thanks David I guess the reason for including the fields/small holding land is to forestall future housing development, although it's so rural here I think it unlikely that would have ever been on the cards anyway....

Sadly, the big house gardens - what remains of them - are a shadow of their former selves and unless CADW saw fit to give a grant for their reinstatement (unlikely!) I assume they'll stay that way as the current owner doesn't have a clue about the importance/historical aspect