New chapter starts in Aberglasney story

The story of Aberglasney House and Gardens in the Tywi Valley is about to enter a new chapter.
As part of the continued development of the gardens, plans for Phase Five of the restoration are moving forward.
“The gardens have come a long way since their derelict state more than 20 years ago,” said Roger Evans, the chief executive of the Aberglasney Restoration Trust.
“Our next step is to carry out extensive works to complete the ground floor of the mansion house.
“Aberglasney is billed as ‘a garden lost in time’, but the restoration trust is keen to ensure that no time is lost in preserving and enhancing what we have here.
“The Phase Five project is currently out to tender and the actual works involved are very extensive. They involve restoration of the main hall, the elegant staircase and restoring the interior of the East Wing and other rooms.
“We are at the tender stage at the moment, but lovers of the garden will be delighted to learn that, when work does start, disruption to visitors to Aberglasney will be kept to a minimum.
“The works will be a huge boost to Aberglasney and will give us many more options for exhibition spaces and meeting rooms.”
Mr Evans said the restoration would be carried out in cooperation with the Welsh Historic Monuments association Cadw, the Welsh European Funding Office WEFO and the ‘One Historic Garden Scheme’.
He added: “As you can imagine, a great deal of planning has to go into a restoration exercise such as this.
“But the very fact that Phase Five is moving forward is an indication of the desire of the Aberglasney Restoration Trust to build on the success of the gardens as a centre for excellence in heritage gardening and enhance the aesthetic beauty of the gardens for the enjoyment of our visitors.
“The work of the trust extends back to the early 1990s and the original restoration works saw us build towards the success of the opening of the gardens in July, 1999.
“We always like to remind ourselves of the following phrase - Aberglasney is changing and growing - a garden lost in time, but now belonging to the past, present and future.”
To find out more about Aberglasney, you can visit –
www.aberglasney.org.uk
The ‘One Historic Garden’ project in Wales covers a number of different sites in Wales, including Margam Park, near Port Talbot, and Scolton Manor in Pembrokeshire.
The theme is to incorporate the social history of garden estates and the design and development of the gardens over time, packaging the unique heritage of each site into one ‘niche’ product.
Rob Lewis, a spokesman for the ‘One Historic Garden’ scheme said: “We are delighted with the announcement that the ‘One Historic Garden’ scheme has been awarded Centre of Excellence status by Visit Wales. Gardens Tourism has grown considerably in recent years and this opportunity will allow us to make significant enhancements to historic garden sites across South West Wales by improving visitor facilities and expanding the historic interpretation of these important gardens.
“We anticipate this initiative will see 2.2 million additional visitors and 60 direct and indirect jobs created by 2014.”