Cefn Ila
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| Cefn Ila | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Monmouthshire, Wales |
| OS grid | SO359004 |
| Coordinates | 51°41′58″N 2°55′40″W / 51.6995°N 2.9279°W |
| Area | 83 acres (34 ha) |
| Administration | |
| Governing body | Woodland Trust Wales |
Cefn Ila (Welsh: Coed Cefn Ila) is an 83-acre (34 ha) woodland located in Llanbadoc, a mile away from Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales, owned and run by the Woodland Trust Wales (Coed Cadw).[1][2] The estate is designated Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The estate was developed as a hunting lodge and then a medieval manor house with surrounding lands. Bought in the mid-Victorian era by Edward John Trelawny, a friend of notable poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he extensively redeveloped the gardens as then-modern pleasure gardens through extensive terracing. After his death, new owner Joseph Lister employed architect Alfred Waterhouse to rebuild the property as a picturesque large cottage manor house. After his death in 1885 in a riding accident on the estate, it was bought by Gustavus Ducarel, the 4th Marquis de la Pasture.[3] His family had fled to England post the French Revolution, and although his father had by this time regained control of the family estate at Montreuil-sur-Mer, they lived mainly at the close-by Llandogo Priory.[4]
After World War I, with the estate virtually abandoned by the now-again fully French-resident family, in 1925 the entire estate was annexed to Pontypool Hospital, and after redevelopment, it opened on 3 October 1925 as the "Kate Ayres Gustard Convalescent Home", providing care for up to 24 women and children.[5] Used from September 1939 as a child evacuation centre in the phoney war leading up to World War II, it then became a war casualty convalescence unit. Post war, in 1947 it was reopened as a maternity hospital, with accommodation for up to 18 patients.[3]
During the early hours of 14 September 1973,[6] only two weeks after a fire inspection, a fire consumed the entire main property. As today, only the stable block survived (now home to a protected roost of bats), and the patients resultantly transferred to County Hospital in Griffithstown.[3]