Revealing Lost Gardens: Conservation Planning for Powis Castle
Archival research and site analysis revealed lost gardens at Powis Castle, enabling a robust conservation plan that supports long-term stewardship of this nationally significant historic landscape.

Client: The National Trust
Location: Powys, Wales
Services Provided
Heritage Consultancy
Landscape Architecture
Archival Research
The Challenge
Powis Castle is a Grade I listed medieval castle, surrounded by equally significant gardens and historic parkland. The dramatic terraced gardens—originating in the 17th century—have evolved over centuries, but the extent and significance of the earlier water gardens and medieval walled gardens remained poorly understood. The National Trust required a clear conservation framework to guide future landscape management and interpretation, rooted in a robust understanding of the site’s historical layers.
The Solution
Using the established methodology from James Semple-Kerr’s The Conservation Plan and Historic England guidance, we undertook a four-step process:
Understanding the site through extensive archival research, historic mapping, site surveys, and visual analysis.
Assessing significance, identifying what aspects of the landscape held local, national, or international importance.
Identifying risks and opportunities, from visitor pressures to lost historic features.
Defining policies and actions to guide future management in a way that is both conservation-led and operationally feasible.
This work was led by our historic parks and gardens team, integrating landscape architecture and heritage expertise throughout.
The Result
Our research uncovered and contextualised the lost water gardens and medieval walled enclosures, including generating artist’s impressions of their former form and spatial layout. This significantly enriched understanding of the site’s historic development and directly informed the Conservation Management Plan.
The resulting plan provided the National Trust with a clear, actionable framework for the stewardship of Powis Castle’s landscape—balancing conservation priorities, operational needs, and interpretive potential for future generations.