The Vivian’s, whom lavished so much time and money on the house, were exceptionally keen gardeners. Algernon Walker-Heneage-Vivian known locally as simply the Admiral inherited the estate from Grayham Vivian. The Admiral was responsible for some of Swansea’s most spectacular gardens notably Clyne but lived at Parc prior to inheriting the Clyne estate.
Old documents relating to the house hold fascinating descriptions of the gardens making references to the types of shrubs and trees which were planted and notes about the old conservatories and melon houses. Unfortunately many of these features were lost prior to the 1950s and even when the house was purchased by Tom and Gladys Edwards in 1953 having no money to see them through that first winter they sold many of the large trees on what was known as the admirals walk around a steep sided valley we call the dell. There are old photos in the gallery below of the trees on lorries at the front gate, a real shame as they were huge. Following this the woodland was used as a farm tip for the next 40 years.
We started restoration work on the walk in 2001 but found the dump was full of amongst other things excellent cut stone from old buildings that had been pulled down around the estate. We began to sieve out the stone and sop soil using an old power screen and a JCB digger called Sophie. Over 10 years we screened around 10,000 tons of soil and eventually re- landscaped the garden, just one piece remains to finish in the summer of 2012, you can find photos of the work in the restoration gallery. We are slowly replanting the garden with amongst other plants rhododendrons some rare species of which have still survived in the grounds.
At the top end of the walk are the trout ponds, originally there were cart ponds here where the carts were left in the water for a time in the summer to ensure that their wooden wheels did not dry out and shrink, in the 70s they were expanded into larger ponds which we keep stocked with trout, it’s a haven for wildlife with a mix of domestic ducks, mallards and the local more hen family.
 One of the huge trees removed from the gardens in the early 1950′s |
 Picking flowers from the overgrown gardens in the 1950′s |
