Hilston Park

Hilston House, which is situated in the western half of the park, has two entrances. The south drive "skirts the forecourt to the N and sweeps round southwards past the lake and straight to the B4347", and the main drive in tarmac, from the northwest, "drive winds through a wooded area to a level forecourt of grass with a rectangular tarmac area in front of the main entrance to the house."[10] Two early 20th century lodges are contained on the estate, one at the northern end of the front drive and the other to the south, on the B4347. One of these, Lower Dyffryn, is an E-shaped building of Early Tudor style, with a slate roof, three gables, and a projecting chimney-breast.[3] The coach-house on the northeastern side of the drive was largely demolished in 1972; all that remains is its rear and side walls.[10]

In the early 1920s, the estate was described as being 1,050 acres (420 ha), and that there were 6 miles (9.7 km) of fishing along the River Monnow.[3] The park's flower meadow is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[11] Cadw cites the reason for it being listed as an SSSI in 1990 as "19th-century park and garden, with some well preserved features, including ornamental lake and folly tower".[10] Much of the park is under agricultural cultivation, and several streams arising from springs, mainly in the western side of the park flow through and enter the River Monnow.[10] To the southeast of the house is an Italian rose garden which contains a circular stone pool and fountain.[10] To the northeast of the house is a large walled kitchen garden, rectangular in shape, and framed by red brick walls, mostly 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height, but 2.2 metres (7 ft 3 in) on the eastern side and 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) to the east of the door on the southern side.[10] The kitchen garden is orientated in a southwest–northeast direction, with a buttressed northern wall, two entrances on the western side, and one on each of the northern, eastern and southern walls.[10] In the summer months it is used as a caravan park. The area to the north of the kitchen garden contains mainly ruined sheds and glasshouses and was wildly overgrown at the time of its surveying in December 1990.[10] The gardens and pleasure grounds surrounding the house, and the wider landscape park, are designated Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.[12]

A lake and silted artificial pond is situated to the southwest of the house, separated by a belt of woodland consisting of mainly deciduous, coniferous trees and shrubs, and also pines, cypresses, monkey puzzle trees, copper beeches, yews and laurel trees.[10] The lake, roughly 100 metres (330 ft) at longest from north to south and roughly 60 metres (200 ft) at its widest point, is cited by Cadw to be "fed by a spring at its [north] end, and dammed at its [south] end by a massive earthen dam across the valley floor."[10] The lake contains a "kidney-shaped island", framed by a sloping stone revetment wall, and a similar smaller island nearer the eastern shore.[10] On the eastern side of the lake is a boathouse and grotto.[10] The grotto is situated in the middle of a revetment wall of about 2 metres high built of large irregularly placed stones, and is characterised as a semi-circular alcove, 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) in height, 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) in depth and 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) in width.[10]

There is also a woodland, a former Forestry Commission plantation, planted around 1960 in the north-eastern corner of the park on a small hill, which contains a circular folly tower, of three storeys, in the centre.[13] The tower, built from red sandstone, is believed to date to the late 18th century.[10] The northern side is considerably more eroded by the weather than the southern side.[10] The tower is marginally wider at the base and has no internal floor structure, but contains holes for floor joists and stair treads. There are four windows on the ground floors and narrower windows higher up.[10]

Much work was done on the house in the expectation of a visit by George IV, which never happened.[3] The main building has been described as "a major early Victorian stuccoed classical mansion, about which little is known".[13] The two-storeyed north front features nine bays, the outermost ones slightly recessed, with a central pedimented porte-cochère of four massive Ionic columns. The southeast front has a single-storey portico running the length of the front, which leads to a conservatory at the northeast end of the house.[10] The architect is not known.[13] The building was extended on its eastern side and its interior remodelled, around 1912, when a large ballroom in the Arts and Crafts style, designed by Arthur Grove was added. This features elaborate plasterwork and decoration in the form of signs of the zodiac.[13] It became a Grade II* listed building on 5 January 1952.[14]