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Contents List of Figures 4 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Chapter 1: Medieval Parks and Gardens 9 Chapter 2: Tudor and Stuart Parks and Gardens 30 Chapter 3: The Grand Design: Parks and Gardens: 1660- 1750 48 Chapter 4: Parks and Gardens in the Later Eighteenth Century 56 Chapter 5: Nineteenth Century Parks and Gardens 62 Chapter 6: Parks and Gardens in the Twentieth Century 70 Appendix: List of Medieval Parks 77 Bibliography and References 79 Index 78
List of Figures
1. Aerial Photograph – Loughborough from the north-west 2. Aerial Photograph – Cold Overton Park 3. Aerial Photograph – Quarry and remains of Buddon Wood, Barrow Park 4. Map of the known medieval parks of Leicestershire and Rutland 5. Plans of eight medieval parks 6. A view of Bardon Hill, site of Whitwick Park 7. Aerial Photograph – Launde from the west 8. Aerial Photograph – The post-monastic house at Launde 9. Plan of the earthworks at the Launde site 10. Aerial Photograph – Abbey Park, Leicester 11. Aerial Photograph – Croxton Park 12. Remnant of park pale at Bagworth Park 13. A surviving section of park pale at Bardon (= Whitwick) Park 14. Plan of the arthworks at Leicester Castle 15. Plan of the earthworks at Oakham Castle 16. Ashby Castle, a view of the Hastings Tower 17. Plan of the erthworks at Ashby Castle 18. View of the formal garden eartworks at Ashby Castle 19. Engraving of the Moat House at Appleby Magna 20. Plan of the Moat House site, Appleby Magna 21. Photograph of Appleby Magna Moat House today 22. Engraving of Groby Old Hall, c. 1811 23. Photograph of Groby Old Hall today 24. Detail from Roberts’ map of Leicester, 1741 25. Plan of Burley-on-the-Hill, 1655 26. Aerial Photograph – Wistow from the east 27. Map of Wistow in 1636 28. Aerial Photograph – Stapleford Park 29. The park pale of Coleorton Park 30. Plan of the earthworks at Chilcote 31. Plan of the earthworks at Brooke House 32. Engraving of Brooke House in 1684 33. Plan of William Burton’s House at Lindley, in 1622 34. Engraving of the 18th century Hall at Lindley 35. Photgraph of the south front of Burley-on-the-Hill House 36. A view along the south avenue at Burley-on-the Hill 37. Map of the Burley-on-the-Hill site 38. Plan of the erthworks at Quenby Hall 39. Engraving of the house and gardens at Burbage House 40. Plan of the earthworks at Cotes 41. Aerial Photograph of the Coates site 42. Plan of the earthworks at Kirby Bellars 43. Map of the moated site at Breedon Lodge Farm, in 1758 44. Photograph of the Breedon Lodge moat in 1982 45. Aerial Photograph – the ruins of Bradgate House and gardens 46. Plan of the eartworks at Bradgate House 47. Detail from a map of Bradgate House in 1746 48. Engraving of Bradgate House c. 1700 49. Painting of Belvoir Castle in 1731 50. Photograph of the Belvoir Castle gardens 51. Plan of Nosely Hall, redrawn from a plan of 1743 52. Painting of Quenby Hall, from c.1710 53. Aerial Photograph – Burley-on-the-Hill from the west 54. Engraving of Exton old Hall and gardens, from a painting of 1739 55. Engraving of Staunton Harol grounds in 1716 56. Plan of the gardens at Belgrave Hall, Leicester 57. Photograph of the Triumphal Arch at Garendon Park, Loughborough 58. Photograph of Exton Park, showing ‘Fort Henry’, a Gothick summerhouse 59. Photograph of Braunstone Hall 60. Map of Rutland in 1684 by Joseph Wright, showing the four major parks of the time 61. Painting from 1790 of the design for the new hall at Donington Park 62. Photograph of Prestwold Hall 63. Photograph of Staunton Harold Hall and Church, seen across the lake 64. The reconstructed remnants of Leicester Abbey, in Abbey Park 65. Plaque comemorating the opening of Abby Park, Leicester, in 1882 66. Map of Leicester’s Abbey Park 67. Photograph of the reputed site of Cardinal Wolsey’s grave, in Abbey Park 68. Photograph of the ruins of Cavendish House, in the north-west corner of Abbey Park 69. Photograph of the River Soar, flowing through Abbey Park 70. Photograph of Victoria Park, Leicester 71. Aerial Photograph – Spinney Hill Park, Leicester 72. Photograph of queens Park, Loughborough, with the carillon 73. Photograph of Brooksby Hall and Church 74. Photograph of Bosworth Hall, now a hotel 75. Photograph of Burley-on-the-Hill, showing the enclosure for deer 76. One of the sign boards provided by the County Council at the Battle of Bosworth Country Park 77. Map of places mentioned in the book
INTRODUCTION
The parks and gardens of England are among its greatest glories and probably no other country in the world has so rich and varied an inheritance of them. The two counties of Leicestershire and Rutland are no exception and although they are not renowned for famous parks and gardens and for the most part lack the sort of documentary evidence available in some counties to reconstruct their detailed histories, nonetheless they contain much to delight us. Just how to define separately the terms “park” and “garden” is no easy matter; indeed, as is clear from the titles of many of the standard works on the subject they are often used synonymously. Suffice to say that probably the simplest difference is one of scale: as defined in this book gardens are taken to be relatively small while parks are considerably larger. In the case of many stately homes, for example, they have, or have had, gardens immediately about the house, while their parks extend much further into the surrounding countryside. This book sets out to provide a guide to the history of the more important parks and gardens with which the two counties are, and have been endowed. In that respect it is neither a treatise on horticulture and gardening, nor does it deal with the gardens of ‘ordinary’ people. During the two millenia in which parks have been carved out of the English countryside, and latterly inserted into English towns, they have taken different forms, reflecting different social and economic criteria. First introduced by the Normans, they were originally hunting parks devised to contain deer for their lordly owners to hunt. Unlike our modern conception of parks, they were generally well-wooded to provide “covert” for the deer and were surrounded by earthbanks and paling fences to contain them. In the later Middle Ages, as
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hunting became less practicable, though still wooded, they were replaced by “amenity” parks for the pleasure of their owners and to reflect their social status. Houses were built in them around which gardens were created. In the later seventeenth century, the fashion was for “formal” parks characterised, among other features, by long avenues of trees. A century later they were replaced by the sweeps of grassland, strategically placed trees and lakes associated with Capability Brown which still provide the dominant image conjured up by most people when they think of a stately home set in its parkland. Clearly, the development of these parks and gardens can only be fully understood in relation to the houses they surrounded and the aspirations and fortunes of their owners; hence, in our book, we have included something of the men and women who made them. Another type of park, the first to be widely open to the public, arrived in the latter half of the nineteenth century, namely the municipal or “people’s” park, designed to provide some means of rest and relaxation for those living in the mushrooming Victorian towns. In our present century, many changes have taken place in our parks and gardens, as with virtually every other aspect of society. Many have been lost but much has been saved and, indeed, new ones taking new forms have been created and existing ones modified. Thanks to our increasing mobility and the willingness of owners to open their parks and gardens to the public, more people than ever before can appreciate and enjoy them. We hope that, in some measure, this small book will contribute to that appreciation and enjoyment.
Leonard Cantor Anthony Squires July 1997
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Leonard Cantor is Professir Emeritus of Education at Loughborough University, and is a leading authority on the history of the English landscape.
Anthony Squires is a local history tutor with the University of Leicester,
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