At the end of a long drive, through beautiful parkland complete with lavish trees and hidden away in a huge valley lies the breathtaking Plas Cadnant gardens. This secret location can be found alongside the Menai Strait, a narrow stretch of low tidal water, on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales. Situated between the Menai Bridge and the historic town of Beaumaris, these stunning hidden gardens belong to Anthony Tavernor, who is originally from the village of Weston (near Stafford) and still has a strong connection with the area.
"I come from a farming family. I farmed in Stafford, my father farmed there, and so did my grandfather and great-grandfather. Four generations at the very least, and probably longer. I still have family and friends there."
But just how did a farmer from Staffordshire end up in North Wales?
"I made a change of direction in 1996. I was looking for another farm with land and this property came on the market. It was a bit of a wreck; very dilapidated and very ruinous. It was an old place that hadn't had much done to it for very many years."
Anthony refused to be deterred however, and saw the infinite potential in restoring these historic gardens to their former glory days - and Anthony says he's never been one to turn an opportunity down.
"I regarded it as a challenge. All my life I have been intrested in gardening, history and architecture, so it satisfied all of my interests. There's no question it's a labour of love. When you come up the drive you enter another world. It is like Narnia, and that was the attraction. Because it is in a valley, when you drive past you have no idea that it's there. But even in its semi-derelict state, I could see it was a beautiful place."
Anthony knew he was taking on a tremendous task; one that he is still working on to this day, 15 years later.
The Plas Cadnant gardens cover nearly ten acres, so the restoration was never going to be a simple job. Indeed, the first year was spent purely clearing much of the area. The gardens had been badly neglected, overgrown with trees, cherry laurel and ponticum.
The first treasure to be unearthed was a spectacular walled garden, which was formerly a kitchen garden. "The walled garden, which is almost two acres, had been converted to a wood," Anthony recalls. "You don't touch anything for 60 to 70 years and nature takes over. It took about a year to clear the walled garden. We did it very carefully, by hand. Most of it had just been swamped by things growing. It is quite an unusual walled garden, as it is a valley with a curved wall round it. It is also quite a large walled garden for the size of the house."
A previous occupant had actually used the space for rearing his pheasants! "He was more keen on shooting," Anthony laughs.
Now, the garden has been planted with a great number of perennials and looks like a completely different space. There is also a picturesque valley garden, complete with a river and waterfalls, and an outcrop garden with a ruined folly. In addition, Anthony has restored all the derelict outbuildings and transformed them into holiday cottages. He has tried to be sympathetic to their past by using lime water on the walls and lime plaster.
Consequently, five individual self-catering cottages have been created. These charming cottages offer an enchanting hideaway, with the luxury of real oak beams, local slate floors and your very own sumptuous four-poster bed. "It is such a magical, lovely place," Anthony enthuses. "You can't describe it, you need to visit."
Work on the site is still on-going, however.
"The gardens are being developed all the time. Most of the gardens started declining in the 1940s for several reasons: financial constraints, labour and economics. For example, it became cheaper to buy your own vegetables than grow your own."
And in a similar way to how the gardens have slowly revealed themselves through the restoration, Anthony has learnt more about the previous owners of the estate with the passing of time. Former owners of Plas Cadnant were related to the Tremayne family of Heligan House, which is now famous for its Lost Gardens in Cornwall.
Life at the property began in 1804 when John Price chose a highly scenic position for his new Georgian house. This estate continued to be well-maintained under the Price family until after the First World War. However in 1928 the estate was split and sold to various owners. The penultimate owner was a keen gardener but simply did not have the resources to fully manage the area, hence why the property has been such an enormous project for Anthony.
The gardens are open for groups from April through to September. There is only limited opening hours available because it is still a private estate, but any money made from the public will be put back into the gardens. "The idea is that it will eventually become self-suistainable," says Anthony.
Furthermore, the Plas Cadnant gardens have received growing media attention, having featured in a book entitled Discovering Welsh Gardens, which claimed it to be one of the liveliest gardens within Wales.
"It's gone from being totally unknown to recognised," Anthony considers. "It is an endorsement of what we are doing and all part of the thrill. As the custodian of this project, it is nice to know they are slowly being discovered by the public."
With visitors travelling from as far afield as Germany, Denmark, Belgium and Holland, not to mention a fair few from Stafford, these hidden gardens truly offer a new world of discovery, a sentiment Anthony wholeheartedly agrees with: "I uncovered far more here than I could have possibly dreamed."
