LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES AND AREA
Stockgrove Park House and its formal gardens are located about 1km to the south-east of the village of Great Brickhill, on level ground that falls away steeply to the south-east, but more gradually to the south-west and north-east. The formal gardens constitute the main surviving designed element of the landscape around the house, and occupy geometric compartments on its south-east and south-west sides: those to the south-east measure in total about 36m x 92m, those to the south-west about 31m x 74m. Cutting across the west corner of the south-west compartment is a further compartment, about 37m square, with rounded corners. Access to the house, and so to the gardens, is from the drive that leaves the Heath Road to the north. Dense, wide, yew hedges separate the formal gardens from the wider parkland.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The formal gardens are accessed directly from the separate parts of the subdivided house, which is approached by a drive through parkland and pasture from the Brickhill Road to the north.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Stockgrove Park, listed at Grade II, designed by W Curtis Green for F M Kroyer-Kielberg between 1929 and 1938, is a country house built of red brick with limestone dressings in a free Georgian style. It forms a U plan around three sides of a courtyard, with the main outward facing south-east and south-west elevations creating a backdrop to the formal gardens. At the north-west end of the south-west elevation is the former swimming pool, with a single-storey parapeted brick façade, behind which is a tiled and glazed roof with dormer windows. Immediately to the east of this is the south elevation of the house; this is of two storeys, and is asymmetrical, divided into two planes, with square, canted and semi-circular bays. In contrast, the south-east elevation is symmetrical, of two storeys with attics. The parapeted façade is of five bays to either side of a canted bay, the outer bays set back.
ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The formal gardens form four main compartments, the most ornamental of which are the three on the south-east side of the house. These include the main garden structures: the lower garden terrace, pool and pergolas; and the upper garden terrace and garden temple. These were designed by W Curtis Green and form two separate listings at Grade II.
The lower terrace is reached down steps from doors to either side of the central canted bay of the south-east elevation, which meet at a raised stone paved platform, from where a short flight of steps descends to ground level, to an area of paving which forms part of the pergola walk that links the three south-east compartments. There are three pergolas, two of which form the north-west side of the largest compartment on this side. The other three sides of this compartment are defined by square-cut yew hedges about 1m wide, which have openings to the north-east and south-west sides, flanked by tightly clipped rounded yew piers. On the south-east side are two semi-circular paved alcoves. The south-west opening gives access to steps down to the sunken long pool, and also allows a view across the pool to the geometric rose garden beyond, also enclosed by a yew hedge. This is crossed by two paths at right angles, subdividing the garden into four, each square of which is further divided geometrically, with each bed surrounded by low hedges. From the north-west end of the pool, stone steps with a stone capped brick balustrade rise to the upper terrace, retained by a brick wall. The pergola walk continues to the south-east of the steps. The garden temple is at the south corner of the upper terrace, overlooking the park. There is also an upper terrace at the north-east corner of the house, the retaining wall of which turns south-east to enclose the north-east end of lower garden terrace, curving out to form a semi-circular alcove at this end of the pergola.
To the south-west, the garden forms a rectangle, truncated at the west corner, and is on two levels, with upper and lower lawns. The former is divided into two parts, but defined only by size: the upper lawn that serves the drawing room, sitting room and library is both wider and longer than the lawn accessible from the swimming pool, but both parts are connected by a paved path that bisects their full length. The larger lawn is subdivided by other paths, forming square and rectangular compartments. One of these paths leads to steps down to the lower lawn. Low hedges and gates have been inserted to subdivide the lawn into three, according to ownership. The south-west boundary, between the formal gardens and parkland, is defined by a yew hedge similar to those on the south-east side of the house. The rectangle is cut across at the west corner by a square garden with semi-circular corners, the shape again defined by wide, square-cut yew hedges. The enclosed space is bisected from north to south by an inserted, slighter hedge: in the north-west corner of the west side is a small building, a garage, and the whole of the ground surface is covered in tarmac; the east side is laid to grass and the hedge to the south, which by 1977 had been removed, has now been replanted.