Dewstow Gardens

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Dewstow Gardens

Dewstow Gardens & Grottoes, Monmouthshire – the house

When I was a child at Caerwent in Monmouthshire in the 1950s and 1960s, Dewstow House was just a big house with a lawn in front of it, viewed through big iron gates. We would pass it on the way to the next village and sometimes wondered who lived there. But we never realised at the time what treasures lay buried beneath.

Dewstow Gardens & Grottoes, Monmouthshire – ferns

A lost garden with tunnels and underground grottoes was buried under thousands of tons of soil at Dewstow for more than 50 years. The gardens were built around 1895 but buried just after World War II and rediscovered only as recently as the year 2000.

The gardens were originally created by James Pulham & Sons at the behest of owner Squire Henry Oakley. The squire was a director of “God’s Wonderful Railway” (the Great Western) and bred shire horses for a hobby.

His other hobby was cultivating ferns and tropical plants and this led to his idea for a labyrinth of underground grottoes, tunnels and sunken ferneries. The London landscape gardener James Pulham used a combination of real stone and the artificial stone he called Pulhamite.

Dewstow Gardens & Grottoes, Monmouthshire – peacock butterfly

Dewstow Gardens cover around seven acres, including ponds and herbaceous borders, along with pretty features such as a wooden bridge, statues and a dovecote, but the focus is that magical underground world of tunnels.

Congratulations to John Harris and his family, who rediscovered the tunnels when they moved in during 2000 and have put in all the work to bring them back to light.