Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion – a fruitful estate…

Colourful nasturtiums in the garden at Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion, on a wet day in August 2012…

It’s November already and I still haven’t finished sharing my holiday snaps from August! On a wet day (and there were many) we visited the National Trust property at Llanerchaeron, in Ceredigion near the middle of Wales’s west coast.

The property at Llanerchaeron is a late 18th-century Welsh gentry estate – with a house, outbuildings, walled gardens and a small farm. The house is described as a villa, although that makes me think of a Roman country house, or a glamorous holiday home on the Mediterranean, or even a small town house in Edwardian times.

The villa, designed by John Nash, at Llanerchaeron

This one was designed in the 1790s by the famous John Nash. It was one of his early works. He went on to design Brighton Pavilion, much of Buckingham Palace and many other buildings in Regency London.

I hadn’t realised until now that although he was born in Lambeth, London, his father was a Welsh millwright and his mother was from Carmarthenshire. John Nash spent a decade or so in West Wales with his mother’s family and it was during this time that he designed Llanerchaeron.

Nash built Llanerchaeron, possibly replacing an earlier mansion, for Major (later Colonel) William Lewis. In those days it was known as Llanayron House.

Llanerch means “a clearing” (as does “Lanark” in Scotland), while Aeron is the name of the river running through this area. Other local place names include Ciliau Aeron (“corners of the Aeron”, because of all its bends) and Aberaeron (“mouth of the Aeron”, where the river comes down to the sea in Cardigan Bay).

It was a dark day, so I’m afraid my pictures of the interior of the house did not come out very well. To be honest, the ground-floor room settings are interesting but not spectacular. I did, though, have a bit more luck upstairs, where there was more light…

Glass dome over the stairs in the villa

Eau-de-nil jug and bowl in a bedroom at Llanerchaeron

Another bedroom – with chamber pot…

Going back downstairs, we encountered the little treasures of the Pamela M Ward collection – she seems to have been a bit of a magpie and gathered everything from bath plugs, carrier bags and corkscrews to children’s games and decorative fans. Also on display are some items from her antiques shop and the content of the glass cabinets is often changed as there is so much “stuff”.

Part of the Pamela Ward collection…

More shiny items from the Pamela Ward collection…

The collection was donated to Llanerchaeron in 1994, although she had no connection with Wales. She grew up in India and after travelling through Europe, settled in London and set up an antiques shop in Knightsbridge. It was more of a hobby than a business and she preferred to collect rather than sell.

Miss Ward never visited Llanerchaeron, but the trustees of her estate believed she would have wanted to leave her collection to such a place.

The lady herself – Pamela Ward, born in 1908, in a restored painting by Humphreys

Then we moved on to the kitchen, which was more interesting and there was someone there cooking little heart-shaped Welsh-cakes, which added warmth and a lovely sweet smell.

The old-fashioned country kitchen…

Earthenware flagons in the larder…

Then it was time to move outside. It was still raining…

View of countryside from the villa…

Llanerchaeron’s home farm outbuildings were left untouched for decades and include a laundry and linen-care room, brewery, dairy, a place for salting or smoking meat and fish and preserving fruit and vegetables.

One of the working courtyards with laundry…

An old door…

An old terracotta-tiled floor…

Workshops…

…including a saddlery…

The estate employed carpenters and a full-time stonemason who built farm field walls as well as designing and constructing whole buildings.

Lovely quartz veining in the stone of the cowshed wall…

This is a working organic farm with Welsh Black cattle, Llanwenog sheep and rare Welsh pigs, although we saw no livestock on the day we visited.

Pigsties on the left…

The dot in the sky is a swallow – they were nesting inside the cowshed…

A very blurred picture of the swallows’ nest, just to show I tried – but not hard enough – to keep a steady hand…

My favourite part of Llanerchaeron was the walled garden, where some of the fruit trees are 200 years old and are still part of the working farm’s organic production. The fruit and veg from the kitchen garden are on sale when in season.

Apple tree…

Apples at Llanerchaeron…

The apple trees have names…

These trees are great hosts for all kinds of insects, mosses and lichens.

Moss and lichen on an apple tree…

More lovely lichen…

Walled garden at Llanerchaeron…

Walled garden at Llanerchaeron…

Parterre garden in the walled garden…

Parterre garden…

Colourful cosmos…

If I had to guess, I’d say this was Achillea, perhaps?

Enchanter’s nightshade – click on the picture to go to my blog post on the plant…

We sheltered from the rain in a greenhouse with pelargoniums…

Another pelargonium…

Marrow? Some kind of cucurbit/squash, anyway…

I think this is a cucumber…

Green peppers…

Purple chilli peppers, perhaps?

Outside it was still raining – but it’s good for the vegetables…

Vine growing over an old conservatory at Llanerchaeron

Door to the walled garden – a note on the door asks you to shut it, as there is a rabbit problem!

The edge of the wild – brambles and rose bay willowherb (fireweed) at Llanerchaeron…

There are apparently also pleasure grounds and an ornamental lake and parkland so maybe one day when the weather is better we will return for a longer walk.

We are members of the National Trust, so to us all NT properties seem to be “free” and we don’t judge them on value for money. If you are not a member it’s £6-£7 for an adult at Aberaeron and I guess on some days there is more you can see than on others.

But I liked it, anyway – very green and fruitful…