Tremadog New Village 

 ‘It’s like being in a theatre,’ Mr Madocks said, ‘the trees form a coulisse which frames the stage. Driving through the landscape will be a drama. You go downhill through the dark wood. Then along the margin of the estuary, through Tremadog and out over the marshland. Then you fly across the sands, dipping into the River Glaslyn.’ This is a quote from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024).

More about Tremadog 

Elisabeth Beazley, in Madocks: And the Wonder of Wales (P & Q, 1985) wrote (p.83) ‘One or two thumbnail sketches of a very back of an envelope character have fortunately survived in [Madocks] letters but otherwise there is nothing except a finely drawn but topographically irrelevant Ideal Plan for Tre Madoc which was published some years later by John Claudius Loudon. Loudon, then in his early twenties, was to be well known for his numerous publications and projects in landscape design. He had recently written An Observation on the Laying out of Public Squares and this may have caught Madocks. attention. Three years later he had a bad attack of rheumatic fever which disabled him for some time; such a plight would easily arouse Madocks' sympathy and may have been partly responsible for his invitation to Tan-yr-alld at Christmas 1806, but by then the town was under way. His report concentrated on the agricultural possibilities of the property and he was certainly consulted on this aspect rather than on architecture or town planning. Some of Loudon's later comments on landscaping in general, on the treatment of ruins and every imaginable aid to the picturesque, are reflected in various parts of the estate.’

Comments by Tom Turner:

1. Beazley’s remark about Loudon’s drawing being ‘topographically irrelevant’ is inaccurate. It was not drawn on a topographic survey map but it has a strong relationship with the topography. Loudon's work on Tremadog was interrupted by the bout of rheumatic fever that ruined his health.
2. Beazley has the title of Loudon’s article on squares wrong and, to me, it is much more probable that Madocks had seen a copy of Loudon’s Observations (which has a section on reclaiming land from the sea).
3. Beazley writes that Loudon visited Tremadoc over Christmas in 1806 so I do not know why she thinks he was there three years earlier. She may have known this from an archival source or it could be an error.
4. Beazley may be mistaken about Loudon not having been consulted ‘on architecture or town planning’. His book on Country residences, published in 1806, has much material on architecture and the advertisement at the end of his Observations declares an intention to write about towns. He knew the two great squares in Edinburgh New Town and it is possible (no more) that the village square Madocks built was suggested by Loudon'

Observations on the Formation and Management of Useful and Ornamental Plantations; on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening; and on Gaining and Embanking Land from Rivers or the Sea John Claudius Loudon (Published by Archibald Constable & Co., Edinburgh, 1804)

Tremadog New Village history
William Madocks landscape
John Claudius Loudon designs
Welsh village planning
early 19th-century architecture
picturesque landscape design
Glaslyn estuary scenery
Tremadog scenic drive
Madocks and Loudon collaboration
Welsh architectural heritage