Mounton House: The Birth and Rebirth of an Edwardian Country Home

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It also gives a rich and evocative portrait of Tipping and his friends, with visits from Lloyd George and from Tipping's gardening colleagues, including Harold Peto, Gertrude Jekyll and William Robinson. The south elevation and kitchen wing look into the walled orchard and have lower roofs. Mullion-and-transom windows on the ground floor, 3 and 4-light windows above, 4-light flat topped dormer in the end of the main range. Built 1910-12 for H Avray Tipping and designed by him and by Eric Francis who supervised its construction. Tipping used it as his country home from 1912-1922 when he made it over to Colonel Holden and moved to High Glanau in Mitcheltroy Community (qv). These buildings were converted for educational use in 1950 and continued as a part of a school until 1999. Exterior

All of the footpaths should be signposted from tarmac roads and way-marked with yellow arrows at various stages along the footpath. If you follow the general direction of these you are unlikely to go wrong. Cadw. "2, Mounton House Cottages(Grade II) (24076)". National Historic Assets of Wales . Retrieved 17 May 2020. Cadw. "3, Mounton House Cottages(Grade II) (24077)". National Historic Assets of Wales . Retrieved 17 May 2020. The house itself, the perfect unity of vernacular architecture with liberal use of oak panelling, the mullion windows and delightful sweep of the stone tiled roofs reminded me of houses designed by Edwin Lutyens, but in fact was a collaboration between Tipping and a young Chepstow architect Eric Carwardine Francis. From a charming garden room (Tipping loved an outside loggia where he could eat whenever the weather was clement) I surveyed the upper and lower western terraces and the octagonal pool below from which a flight of moss covered steps led to the wild garden in a wooded valley. Hidden beneath ivy and brambles, a rustic path winding under species rhododendrons led me down to the remains of an old grist mill and a stream which meandered between ferns and Rodgersia, which live in the shadow of ancient oaks and cherry trees. Returning to the formal garden, I found to the south, a four bedded plat with a rustic stone tank set into the wall with steps leading to a swimming pool surrounded by concrete and lamp posts. Beyond were nut trees obscuring the remains of a pergola with four huge cylindrical columns set against a high shaped wall. Through a gate in the wall, there was a dilapidated forty foot glasshouse with beaver tale glass and cast iron ratchets which opened all the windows. Avray Tipping created for himself with the help of the young Chepstow architect Eric Carwardine Francis.Gerrish, Helena (9 November 2022). "Birth and rebirth of an Edwardian country home". Monmouthshire Beacon . Retrieved 9 November 2022. Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) The parish was originally part of the holdings of Chepstow Priory, with the name Monktown. It has a tiny parish church dedicated to Saint Andoenus, which was almost wholly rebuilt in 1880 and which lies in the Parish of Mathern and Mounton with St Pierre. [1] One of the gravestones, to a Christopher Cooper, is dated 8 April 1680. [2] From his first visit to Mounton in 2016 up to the present, Mr Maynard has been able not merely to restore, but to transform and greatly enhance each of the different areas of the gardens. He first of all oversaw the repair and repointing of walls, terraces and footpaths and made sure there was an adequate water supply. He has an exceptional knowledge of the great variety of trees that can be clipped, pleached, pollarded and trained to add different shades and textures to a garden. Tipping’s rather gloomy lawns have thus been enlivened by new topiary, as overgrown trees have been removed to open up the view and a new avenue of magnolias added.

High Glanau is the culmination of Tipping’s lifetime experience of architecture and nurture of the landscape. The final two chapters reveal the careful adaptation of the interiors of Mounton House and the spectacular remaking of the gardens by the renowned garden designer Arne Maynard, all fully illustrated with plans and striking new photography.

Mounton House, now a special school for boys, was built as a country house in the Arts and Crafts style in 1914 by Henry Avray Tipping, a leading garden designer and writer, assisted by the local architect Eric Francis. Cadw. "South Urn on bowling green at Mounton House(Grade II) (24072)". National Historic Assets of Wales . Retrieved 17 May 2020. Cadw. "North Urn on bowling green at Mounton House(Grade II) (24073)". National Historic Assets of Wales . Retrieved 17 May 2020. A view looking out across several fields, towards the Second Severn Crossing, from the road to Mounton.