Croeso/Welcome to Clearbrook
Clearbrook was originally part of the adjoining Middleton Estate in Carmarthenshire, now the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
Middleton Estate and its mansion, Middleton Hall has a rich history spanning several centuries, with ownership periods by the Middleton, Paxton, and Abadam families.
Our history
1600s
The estate was built by Henry Middleton in the 17th Century before Sir Wiliam Paxton bought the whole estate and c 2,600 acres in 1789 for £40,000. He commissioned the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell to design a new mansion, replacing the manor with significant additions and alterations.
The surrounding landscape was transformed by Samuel Lapidge, Capability Brown’s former assistant into a grand regency parkland, double walled garden (outer stone wall and inner brick wall to create a micro-climate), ornamental parklands and woodlands, necklace of lakes, damns, sluices, waterfall, walkways, boat houses and folly. This regency landscape was why Wales selected this site for their first national botanic garden.
From 1824
After Paxton’s death in 1824, Middleton Hall estate was passed to descendants and later sold to the Adams/Abadam family. The Abadams built Clearbrook Hall (then Cottage) in c1831 as a dowager (dower) house, where the surviving heir’s wife, or dowager, would relocate when the estate passed to the next in line. It is built directly across from the former mansion and would have had line of sight to the main house. The Abadam family moved into Clearbrook during renovations to Middleton Hall for some time. Sadly, the main house of Middleton Hall was destroyed by fire in 1931 but outbuildings and parts of the estate, including Paxton’s Tower (a folly for entertaining built by Paxton in honour of Lord Nelson), the 3 acre double walled garden, and Clearbrook still remain. The Abadam family are associated with the crest and family motto “Ad Adam” .
Clearbrook Hall was built around 1831 by the Abadam family, who acquired Middleton Hall Estate, directly next door, now home to Wales’ National Botanic Garden. The Middleton Estate’s location, parkland, lakes and location, in a tranquil stretch of Carmarthenshire’s rolling countryside made it the perfect spot for Wales’ first botanic garden. Clearbrook is located 1km southeast of Middleton Hall, just outside the perimeter road. It was constructed as a large ornate cottage between 1831 and 1847 by E.H. Adams and later enlarged by Col. Morse in the 1870s, renamed Clearbrook Hall and sold to Col. Jones in 1919.
The coach-house 1831
Clearbrook’s stable and coach-house, built around 1831, were later converted into two cottages: Meadow Cottage was formerly the coachman’s cottage and Clearbrook Lodge was converted from the stable.
These buildings are Grade II listed, recognised for their architectural and historical significance and mentioned in the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, noted for their distinctive picturesque design, including features including: a hipped slate roof; cambered carriage arch; wheel windows and pointed casements; slate-hung attic gable with decorative bargeboards and finial.
These are all details consistent with the romantic rural aesthetic popular in early 19th-century estate architecture. Clearbrook Lodge, formerly the stable, used to contain 4 stalls (latterly 2); the design paid particular attention to ventilation including one flue that rose up through the stanchion.
The loft stairs were to the centre and a tackroom was sited to the rear. Meadow Cottage was formerly a 19th century’s coachman’s cottage.
