Originally a farmhouse and then a rectory, Machen House is situated in the hamlet of Lower Machen, adjacent to St Michaels Church. Part of the Tredegar estates, it was much enlarged in the 1830s for Augustus Morgan, a clergyman and third son of Sir Charles Morgan, 2nd Baronet
In the mid 20th Century it was home to Peter Thorneycroft, long-serving MP for Monmouth and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Harold Macmillan
The gardens were laid out in the 1830s and include two man-made pools, each of which contains an original fountain
Though much still exists, neither the maze garden nor the kitchen garden remain. This plan is from the 1950s
Castellated boundary walls also still exist, as seen on the far side of Big Pool (1950)
Little Pool with its original iron fountain (c1950)
Little Pool
- watercolour by Michael Edmunds (undated)
Pond and fountain by the drive (2016)
Lawns, stables and the bothy (2016)
The bee bole folly (2016)
The Rose Garden and Gothic potting shed
- watercolour by Michael Edmunds (undated)
John Thorneycroft in the
rose garden doorway in 1948 ....
... and again in 2016
A postcard of the house with verandahs and climbing plants
(pre-WW2)
The front entrance, post-war
Big Rose Garden with stone cistern and summer house (c1948)
Lawns and flower beds - and the house in 1948 prior to the demolition of the service wing
