LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES AND AREA
Aswarby Park is located four miles to the south of Sleaford. It is bounded to the west and south by the main A15 road, to the north by a small watercourse identified on the 1905 Ordnance Survey (OS) map (at 1:10560 scale) as ‘North Beck’ and to the east by Wood Lane and the southern section of Main Street.
The principal house, formerly the Stable Block, is located in the south-east sector of the park, together with the buildings closely associated with Aswarby Hall – the Walled Garden and Gardener’s Bothy (listed Grade II – NHLE 1061821), the Kennels (listed Grade II – NHLE 1360595 ) and the Rose Pergola (listed Grade II –NHLE 1061822 ). The C19 hall was originally set within shelter belts, its formal gardens to the south and tree-lined vistas over open parkland to the north and west. The land rises gently at the northern end of the park towards Barrow Hill. On the periphery of the southern end of the park are other estate buildings and dwellings, together with the medieval Parish Church of St Denys (listed Grade I – NHLE 1360619) and Glebe House (listed Grade II – NHLE 1061782).
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The main entrance is situated at the south end of the park, where an acute bend takes Main Street eastwards above the Church of St Denys, and the entrance drive continues northwards past South Lodge and its gate piers, flanking wall and gates (listed Grade II – NHLE 1360620) The Gothic-style lodge, thought to have been designed by H E Kendall, architect of the Stable block is built of rubble limestone with ashlar dressings, and is T-shaped on plan. The entrance is defined by low stone boundary walls and stone gate piers with pyramidal caps which support wrought iron gates. The entrance drive then curves westwards through a shelter belt above the Walled Garden to the present house, and originally continued to the entrance of the Hall.
A secondary entrance carries a track from the A15 in the north-west area of the park south-eastwards and then directly south towards the site of the Hall. Access to the park at this point is overseen by North Lodge (listed Grade II - NHLE 1360617) and its separately-designated gateway and railings (listed Grade II - NHLE 1061780). The mid-C19 Gothic-style lodge is built of rubble limestone with ashlar dressings and is L-shaped on plan. The angled entrance gateway has stone gate piers supporting an iron gate and is flanked by low stone boundary walls carrying iron railings and pendant chains.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING
The original principal building, Aswarby Hall was demolished by 1952, after an extended period of neglect and decline, and finally after its occupation for military purposes in the Second World War, after which it was described as having been left in ‘such a condition that no sensible person would live there’. The principal building is now the converted stable block, which was made into a residence for the current owners of the estate in 1969.
ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The gardens to Aswarby Hall were located to the south, south-east and south-west of the house and their form is depicted on the OS 1905 map (at 1:10560 scale). These too have been largely lost, although aerial photographs show shallow tree lines marking the boundary of the former garden areas. A new formal avenue marking the main axis of the converted stable block extends westwards to align with an avenue of trees planted close to the line of the avenue shown on the early OS map depictions of the park.
OTHER BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES
To the north of the Stable Block are The Kennels (listed Grade II – NHLE 1360595), a small mid-C19 two-storey brick building with ashlar dressings described as having a central entrance passage, single fenced courts and slender wrought iron screens. To the south-east of the Stable Block is the Walled Garden and Gardener's Bothy (listed Grade II – NHLE 1061821). It comprises a large rectangular enclosure bounded by tall red brick walls laid to English Garden Wall bond. The garden dates to the mid-C19, and incorporates a small lean-to bothy on the outer face of its north elevation. A 2014 survey of Aswarby Park carried out by the Lincolnshire Gardens Trust (LGT) records the survival of 'old outhouses behind.. (the walled garden) ... stables and a mushroom house'. There is a lean-to glasshouse on the inner face of the garden north wall, but other parts of the garden now accommodate a tennis court and a large surfaced area.
Immediately to the south of the Walled Garden and running parallel to it is the Rose Pergola (listed Grade II – NHLE 1061822). The substantial remains of this mid-C19 garden structure are formed of parallel rows of circular brick columns with pyramidal limestone copings. These flank a path which leads from South Lodge to the eastern end of what were the hall gardens. It also incorporates a short access path leading into the Walled Garden mid-way along its south wall. At the centre and each end of the pergola were originally clusters of four taller square columns with ball finials. Some of these and a number of circular columns are now missing.
PARK
The parkland which extends to the north, west and south of the site of Aswarby Hall is typical of many of the English country estate landscapes which were created in the C18, and further developed and expanded in the C19. Aswarby Park, possibly first laid out somewhat earlier, was developed on former late medieval or post-medieval plough land, evidence of which is to be seen in the extensive ridge and furrow which survives as well-preserved earthworks throughout most areas of the park. A drawing of Aswarby Park by William Stukeley in 1730 depicts an arched structure at the end of what appears to be a canal with a church spire in the distant background, suggesting the existence of designed park landscape features by the early C18. The further development of the park saw the superimposition of tracks, ponds and plantation woodland on the earlier landscape, but the maintenance of the park by means of grazing has ensured the survival of earlier patterns of use. This is clearly apparent to the west of the church where evidence of the medieval village survives as a series of well-preserved earthworks which delineate the positions of former crofts, tofts and a track way. Other surviving earthworks relate to the original line of the Turnpike road from Sleaford to Bourne, shown on the surveyor's drawing of 1814. The road was re-aligned when the park was enlarged in the mid-C19 and now forms the route of the A15.
Aswarby Hall stood with vistas extending in three directions into parkland characterised in the main by uninterrupted grassland populated with specimen trees, its boundaries reinforced by linear plantations, but otherwise defined by plain post-and-rail fencing or hedgerows. Inserted within this informally-arranged landscape were more disciplined areas of planting; an oak avenue extending from the western edge of the park and a much more densely-planted area to the north of the hall site flanking the approach from North Lodge. The northern half of the park was accessed from North Lodge, from which a grassed track led south-eastwards towards what is shown on late C19 and early C20 OS maps as a narrow rectangular pond identified as ‘The Canal’. This area is now densely-wooded and overgrown, and the feature is no longer recognisable although further evidence of its presence may be concealed by vegetation. However, map evidence suggests that the Canal formed part of, or the terminal element of, a vista extending northwards from the hall. It may also have had a practical function in providing water for an ice house now infilled and no longer visible, located at the centre of a field boundary to the east of the canal.
The northernmost sector of the park is defined by a narrow woodland belt extending east-north-east from North Lodge, which partially encloses the parkland up to its northern boundary at the North Beck. This area is undivided and has mature specimen trees scattered across its extent. The central and largest sector of the park extends from the North Lodge boundary to the east-west section of the A15 which joins Main Road. This sector of the park contains the principal estate buildings and, as previously described, notable features of the park landscape created in the C19. A significant number of veteran trees survive in this sector, particularly in the area to the north of the hall site adjacent to the cricket pitch, where there are parallel lines of trees of different generations, including veteran trees. To the east of this area, a raised track extends northwards across the ridge and furrow, then divides westwards towards the site of the Canal, passing across its base to join the track leading to North Lodge, and northwards towards Barrow Hill.
The cricket pitch, and a pavilion, (now demolished) were created at some time between 1891 and 1905, and appear to be the last additions to the park landscape apart from the re-planting of trees in areas of earlier planting. The most visible of such areas is the avenue planted to the west of the hall site, and now creating a vista towards the former Stable Block. Alongside this area are a small number of surviving veteran trees from the original avenue shown on the early OS map depictions of Aswarby Park. At the eastern end of the later avenue, a C21 metal bridge spans a drainage ditch at the base of a low ha ha, created following flooding in 1968.
To the north of the new avenue, close to the park boundary is an earthwork (Scheduled Monument NHLE 1004992) originally identified as ‘Barrow in Aswarby Park’. Another interpretation of the earthwork, which takes the form of a mound, is that it was the base of a windmill which pre-dated the creation of the park. The ordnance surveyors drawing of 1814 records the mound, and it is possible that it served as a prospect mound for the park. To the south of the Hall site is a further monument, formed of a pair of C18 ashlar masonry pillars (listed Grade II NHLE 1061778), which bear the Whichcote family crest, and which are now thought to mark the original approach to Aswarby Hall from the main road prior to its realignment in 1846. To the south of the pillars is a large, irregularly-shaped pond with a sluice at its northernmost point, apparently controlling the outflow into the drainage channel leading towards the hall site and beyond. The pond is fed from a drain system to the west passing through the southernmost sector of the park, an area separated from the other parts by the A15 road. Unlike the other sectors however, this area has been ploughed and although it retains parkland trees and the boundary plantations shown on late C19 and early C20 OS map depictions of Aswarby Park, the visual character of this area of the park is considerably altered.