Perhaps unusually, private pleasure gardens were first created and being enjoyed at Mounton well in advance of the acquisition of additional land for the construction of a house there
In the early 1900s H Avray Tipping designed and engineered a water garden in a limestone gorge through which ran the Mounton Brook - which some two miles distant also flowed past Mathern Palace, where he and his aged mother continued to reside
These monochrome photographs of the Mounton House and its gardens appeared in Country Life articles in 1915 and 1917
With the deaths of both his mother and his brother in 1911 Tipping inherited the wealth that allowed him to commence work on a suitable residence, on a plateau above the water garden
He commissioned young, local architect Eric C Francis to turn his vision of an Arts and Crafts house into a physical reality
It was completed remarkably swiftly, and in 1913 Tipping moved in, with the intention of entertaining (and no doubt impressing) guests with all that he had been able to create from absolutely nothing
World War I put paid to that - not only because gardeners and staff volunteered for King & Country. There was little appetite for Edwardian-style house parties after the war
In 1922 Tipping gave the Mounton estate to his late brother's godson, Major HCL Holden of Brasted, and moved on
to High Glanau
In 1951 Mounton was bought by Monmouthshire County Council and repurposed as a residential school for children of poor physical health. This closed in 1999 and in the early 2000s property developers divided the buidlings into 17 units
The current owners initially purchased one unit, but gradually acquired others, including those that made up the main house. They then began the herculean task of restoration
- not only of the house but also of the derelict gardens
For this they enlisted the help of celebrated garden designer Arne Maynard, not just to restore the gardens, but to transform and enhance them.
These new water gardens replaced the original,
which the estate had long since sold off
An original copper beech and modern topiary on the
bowling green
The tulip parterre (1916)
Magnolia, tulips and hyacinths in springtime
An urn originally brought by Tipping from his family's home at Brasted - now restored and in place on the bowling green
The north-west court and loggia (1916)
The north-west court and (mostly occluded) loggia (2021)
The south eastern end of the terrace (1916)
The border on the bowling green and the south eastern end
of the terrace (2021)
The pool and fountain (1916)
The pool and new fountain (2021)
The pergola garden, pool and fountain (2021)
The pergola garden in Spring with copper beech and hyacinths (2021)
The Bulbeck Foundry cistern (2021)
The original rock garden had become completely overgrown over many years of neglect - here it is, restored (2023)
A statue of Diana seen from the new water gardens (2021)
The garden house, whose open upper floor was intended for outdoor sleeping (1916)
The restored garden house (2023)
