Maes Manor

Maes Manor is a country house near Blackwood, Caerphilly, Wales. It dates mainly from the early 20th century and is notable for its gardens, designed by Thomas Mawson. Now a hotel, Maes Manor is a Grade II listed building and its gardens and grounds are listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

History
The house, initially called Maesruddud, was built for Captain Edmund Williams, a local colliery owner and Sheriff of Monmouthshire between the early 1890s and around 1900. His architect was Edward Prioleau Warren, who studied under George Frederick Bodley. Warren worked on an earlier house which had stood since the 18th century. In 1907 a major expansion was undertaken by Williams' heir, Edmund William Tom Llewelyn Brewer-Williams, who again engaged Warren to enlarge the house and employed Thomas Mawson to lay out an important garden. Mawson's comment on the gardens, "a jewel stuck into a lump of lead", reflected the garden's situation within the industrial Valleys landscape from which the Williams' wealth derived. The Williams family left Maes in the 1930s and it subsequently served as a hospital and then a children's home. It now operates as a hotel, having had multiple owners throughout the 21st century.

Architecture and description
Maes Manor is a Grade II listed building, and its gardens and grounds are listed, also at Grade II, on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

Mawson's garden is highly structural and contains a number of buildings to his designs. Many are themselves listed, all at Grade II, including: the North and South Lodges; the gates to the estate; the kitchen garden; the Upper and Lower terraces;  and the coach house.