Thomas Mawson in Monmouthshire I was invited to write an article on Thomas Mawson in Wales for this Spring’s edition of Oriel, the magazine of the Friends of National Museum Wales. Mawson was the foremost landscape architect of his time (1861-1933) and the most notable of his designs in Wales are Dyffryn Gardens and Belle Vue Park, about which I have written in a blog for the MAA last year. My recent research covering the whole of Wales revealed more than I expected, especially in Monmouthshire. Mawson had four commissions in our county, one in Blackwood at Maes Manor and three in Newport, of which two are parks and one a private house. Maes Manor at Blackwood near Newport was originally known as Maesruddud and is now an hotel set in the countryside. British Listed Buildings notes it warrants Grade II status as an example of a small early C20th industrialist's country house retaining its original character, and representative of the early C20th prosperity of the mining indust