Nantclwyd Y Dre, Lords Garden | Pen Y Bryn Joinery

The Brief.

One of Wales’s oldest and most notable historic buildings, the Grade 1 listed Nantclwyd Y Dre, allows visitors to step back over 500 years. It was a real honour to be asked to work on such a high profile, heritage project, protecting one of the country’s most significant buildings.

Surrounded by the tranquil The Lords Garden, a much-loved haven in the centre of Ruthin, we were entrusted with re-building the collapsed sections of the perimeter wall and restoring the historically significant pathway, the Cunning Green footpath.

Phase one of the project involved securing the collapsed areas as a priority and erecting specialist, ballasted buttress scaffold to provide stability to the remaining wall.

Once the perimeter soil was excavated, we were able to batter the grounds, reduce the overall wall height and stockpile original stones for the rebuild. Once the surrounding trees had been expertly pollarded, we then installed industry leading Cintec Anchors to further strengthen the masonry.

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Denbighshire County Council engaged Pen Y Bryn in two phases to rebuild a large Grade II* retaining wall where a large section had collapsed into a public footpath. The site was within a highly sensitive area with the house being Grade I Listed, the garden being a Scheduled Historic Park & Garden, within a Conservation Area, in close proximity to a Scheduled Ancient Monument(Ruthin Castle) and numerous other listed buildings located within close proximity. The location of the collapsed wall was in a difficult place to access as there was no vehicular access and it was very tight and constrained making it difficult to bring plant and materials in.

A Structural Engineer project managed the contract, and the first phase, soon after the collapse, was to stabilise the wall and reduce the ground pressure. Pen Y Bryn were engaged at short notice and were asked to stabilise the wall with structural scaffold. They were very accommodating and would go out of their way to ensure this phase was completed as quickly as possible to make the area safe and reduce the possibility of further collapse. Their Health & Safety compliance was excellent carrying out this potentially dangerous work.

The second and main phase of the contract was to rebuild the damaged section of wall and make the remainder of the wall structurally safe, especially as it was adjacent to a public footpath. While doing this they had to liaise and work alongside Archaeologists who were on site for three months while excavation work was taking place. This slowed down progress but they were patient and understanding allowing this important historic recording to take place when many interesting and historically important artefacts were found.

They also had to liaise with Tree/Ecology officers in order to protect the historic garden removing trees and shrubs to be replanted, as well as protecting the grounds as much as possible damage during works. They also worked closely with myself as Conservation Officer to ensure the correct materials and details were reinstated during the rebuild, while trying to minimise the impact of modern structural interventions such as installing around 100 ground anchors into the wall.

I can confirm they completed this complex job within the required timescales to an excellent standard and were a pleasure to work with. All paperwork and administration was efficiently dealt with, no issues raised and I would highly recommend them for any future work.

Chris Evans Conservation Project Surveyor