A regency villa with Picturesque park and pleasure ground dating from the early C19 and laid out in a steep-sided valley. The terraced gardens to the west were added in the 1920s, and attributed to Sidney Barnsley and Norman Jewson.
LOCATION: Glenfall House occupies an elevated position to the north of Charlton Kings, and two miles to the east of Cheltenham. The site offers far-reaching views west towards Gloucester and north-west to the Malverns.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: the main approach is from Glenfall Lodge (Grade II) on a sharp bend in Mill Lane, to the north-west of the house. Glenfall Lodge built in 1855 for the Molyneux family is a single-storey octagonal building with C20 additions and alterations. From the gates, also 1855 (with gate piers and walls, Grade II), the drive runs south-east through an avenue of small-leafed lime trees, oaks and fern-leafed beech to a stone bridge over the Ham Brook, with hazel coppices to either side. The drive then sweeps round to run south-west, hiding the house from view apart from glimpses of the north elevation through a line of oak tress, one planted in c1662. The evergreen shrubbery along the drive includes several rhododendrons. The drive was re-aligned in the 1810s to its present route, previously having commenced at a lodge (now demolished) by the brook, from where it led directly south to the house. This line survives as an earthwork. There was also a south drive which ran from the road to the south of the estate up to the house.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING: Glenfall House (Grade II), mid-C18, rebuilt in 1799-1808 for Charles Higgs in the cottage ornee style. Extended and remodelled in 1830-40. The south wing was added in 1929. The house is constructed of brick with ashlar dressings; the brick has been rendered and painted white. It is of two storeys with a raised parapet and three stacks with cornices. The entrance (north) façade is arranged as eight bays. The two bays to the left-hand end are set forward and have Doric pilasters to the corners and a pediment. The entrance is towards the right-hand end and set within a 1920s doorcase beneath an acanthus modillion cornice with a broken triangular pediment above. The garden (west) façade is arranged as six bays. The ground floor projects forward and has a central canted bay, and is surmounted by a stone balustrade to the first-floor veranda. Between the first-floor windows are Doric pilasters. The east return of the south elevation has a C19 bow window to the first floor. Two, full-height bow windows with pilaster mullions flank the three window range with a balcony to the central first-floor window. Separated from the east elevation by a courtyard, the former stables and coach house have been converted to accommodation.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS: the gardens lie to the west and south of Glenfall House and make full use of the views, particularly those out to the west. The C19 gardens were simple, divided from the park by a fence. Towards the end of the C19 they were extended westwards, then, in the 1920s, during Arthur Mitchell’s ownership, the garden area was again reworked and extended to create the terraced gardens.
A decorative iron gate, known as the Tulip Gate and attributed to the Arts and Crafts architect Norman Jewson, is set in a yew hedge and provides access to the garden from the forecourt to the north of the house. At the north and south end of the upper flagstone terrace, paths lead down to the main terrace through rockeries, whilst to the centre is a flight of stone steps. The main terrace is lawned and approximately picks up the line of the western limit of the original garden. It is supported by a dry stone wall built of Cotswold stone quarried on the estate and these walls, which are slightly inclined, have square pillars along their length. From the centre point of the wall a double flight of steps lead down to the rose garden, and within the arms of the steps on the terrace beneath is an ornamental, semi-circular pool which is fed by a scallop shell fountain on the back wall, which is set with an arched recess with keystone. To the south of this is an alcove or summerhouse set into an arched recess in the wall. Above the keystone is a datestone, inscribed ‘AM 1922’. To the south again, runs the wisteria walk, with a line of dry stone square pillars. The levelled ground is set out with yew hedging and a rose garden, the southern part in front of the wisteria walk having been used as a hard tennis court in the 1930s. To the centre of this terrace, to the west of the central rose garden, a flight of stone steps leads down to the broad walk, a grass walk separated from the orchard beyond by a low dry-stone wall built in the 1920s. The orchard was built out into the park, also in the 1920s, and bounded by a stone-faced ha-ha. Its laying out required re-routing the south drive to loop round the western end of the new enclosure. The pair of blue cedars, planted around 1872 have been felled, but the two weeping willows of comparable age survive.
Mitchell was responsible too for reworking and moving the boundary eastwards to create the south garden to complement the addition of the south wing. A central door from the south wing opens onto a paved terrace with Cotswold stone semi-circular steps leading up to the sloping south lawn, which includes three herbaceous beds, lime trees and a cedar planted in 1872, the other cedar has been felled. The lawn is screened from the ground to the east by a yew hedge, to the north end of which is a decorative iron gate, known as the Rose Gate. A holly hedge runs along the top of the retaining wall which forms the boundary between the south lawn and the field beyond.
During the early years of the C19 Edward Iggulden laid out a path through the hazel coppice which lined the steep-sided valley of the Ham Brook which runs east to west, approximately 100m to the north of the house. Treating these steep-sided valleys as a pleasure ground, he laid out a path through the Upper and Lower Glens, with views capitalising on the extensive horizons. Where the north drive bisects the valley, it crosses via a bridge over a waterfall. The waterfall became popular as a particularly romantic spot in the early C19, and was painted and described by visitors, despite a reduction in the volume of water over the fall from 1824 onwards as a result of extraction from the wells above by the Cheltenham Water Works Company. The form of the falls was presumably altered with the building of the bridge in the 1920s. The bridge which is constructed of Brownstone was severely damaged in 2007, and in 2008 the east side was rebuilt, as well as the top layers of the west side. A flight of steps to the west of the bridge leads down to the Lower Glen.
Further along the drive, on the sharp bend, a second set of stone steps leads down to a wooden bridge across the brook. This bridge, which is supported on the original stone pillars, replaces the 1920s timber bridge which was destroyed in 1994. Further upstream is a stone bridge carrying a date stone, ‘AM 1923’.
THE PARK: Home Ground, the field to the north and west of the house, between the drive and the gardens, and the Ham Brook, was planted up by Iggulden to provide a small park, with a scattering of limes, oaks and horse chestnuts. There are also a number of grafted standard pear trees in this area. Gutter Herne and Mill Piece, to the west between the brook and Mill Lane, were acquired by Iggulden in 1819.
KITCHEN GARDEN: the C19 kitchen garden lies to the east of the south garden. Its west wall was demolished in the early C20 to accommodate the extended south garden which is now separated from the remaining kitchen garden by the yew hedge. The kitchen garden is still bounded by walls to three of its sides. To the north of the kitchen garden are the C19 stables which have been converted to accommodation.