A HIDDEN garden filled with spectacular plants including rhododendrons and giant redwood trees is set to be restored to its former glory.

The American Garden, a Grade II listed area of woodland in Penygarn, Pontypool, was created in the 1850s by local iron masters the Hanbury family.

The family used the garden as a place to relax, often holding tea parties there.

It was retained by the Hanburys when the rest of Pontypool Park was passed to public ownership in the 1920s.

Now a small but passionate group of volunteers have launched a painstaking 20-year restoration project.

The American Gardens Environmental Project, a community group from Trevethin, St Cadocs and Penygarn, wants to restore the site for educational, training and recreational purposes.

Working with the local Communities First project, the group secured £25,000 European funding and £5,000 Assembly cash to carry out ecological and rhododendron surveys.

But their restoration vision will cost many thousands of pounds more, money they hope to secure from the Heritage Lottery fund with help from HERIAN, Heritage in Action.

The group have commissioned a feasibility study for the restoration work, and are hopeful that their plan will come together.

Deputy chairman Steve Squires, said: "We are losing great areas of land to building and development, so we want to save this important part of our heritage.

"It's a 20-year project. We don't want to go ripping and tearing into it. We want to get it back to how it was when it was first laid out."

You can find out more about the project at www.americangarden.org