Landscape park laid out by Thomas Wright of Durham, probably in the 1760s.
LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES AND AREA
Holywell is located six miles north of Stamford and one mile south of Castle Bytham. The park and gardens occupy about 36 hectares of land situated in a shallow valley formed by a small stream which is a tributary of the River Glen. The stream has been dammed to form three lakes, and a public road crosses between the central and western lakes. The park is bounded on the south by Holywell Road, and on the west side by the woodland to the west of the lake continuing northwards to take in New Wood and The Slip. The northern boundary follows the northern drive running east-west which joins up with Holywell Road. The eastern boundary follows Holywell Road southwards to include the eastern lake (with a 5m buffer) before joining up with the road.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The principal entrance drive is at the south-eastern corner of the park and is marked by two pairs of panelled stone gate piers and decorative iron gates (not original). The drive falls across the southern slope of the valley to a causeway where it crosses between the central and western lake. The entrance to the causeway has a low stone wall and two pairs of panelled gate piers. A secondary drive is at the north-eastern corner of the park running westwards off Holywell Road and leading to the outbuildings on the north side of Holywell Hall.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING
The Grade II* listed Holywell Hall, built of ashlared Clipsham stone with a Collyweston slate roof covering, stands in the western part of the park looking southwards towards the lakes. It has three main phases of building with the core of a C17 house, the west front thought to date to the 1760s, and the early C19 south and east fronts. The east front has three wide bays with a Tuscan portico in antis in the recessed central bay, flanked by tripartite windows divided by slender colonettes, supporting a plain frieze. The six-bay south front has tall sash windows with blank recessed panels above, and smaller sashes to the first floor, plus a seventh bay on the left, lit by a tripartite window, which is the gable-end of the west range.
To the north of the Hall there is a range of service buildings including the Grade II listed former stables built about 1732 of squared limestone rubble with rusticated ashlar quoins and dressings, and a hipped Collyweston slate-clad roof; the Grade II* listed mid-C17 pigeoncote; and the C18 barn and tack room, both listed at Grade II.
ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
There is a sunken garden, of unknown date, to the west of the hall, and immediately above this to the north is the pond garden created in the late C20. This contains a large circular pond within a square enclosure, the corners of which have planted beds. To the north of this, aligned with the south wall of the kitchen garden, is a long herbaceous border.
To the west of the house, facing the lakes, is a Grade II listed orangery, built in 1764, in ashlared stone with a hipped slate roof. It has five bays with end pilasters and a central advanced bay with a broken pediment enclosing a bust. In front is a paved terrace, flanked by low stone walls which are curved at the ends and terminate with an urn. Further to the west is a tennis court, enclosed by a yew hedge.
PARK
The hall is situated in the western side of the park, the main extent of which lies to the south and east. It retains a great many specimen trees, some clearly of good age and quality. The lawn at the south front of the hall sweeps down to a series of three serpentine lakes, of which the western one has two small islands within it. The public road passes between the central and eastern lakes by means of a Grade II listed mid-C18 stone ashlar bridge with triple semi-circular arches. To the south-east of the bridge is Home Farm House, a picturesque two-storey double-gabled house constructed of ashlared stone with a date stone of 1877. To the south-west of the bridge there is a small additional entrance to the park that originally would have taken visitors in a scenic sweep across the park below the lake before joining the drive up to the front of the Hall. The remnant of this old trackway is still visible on aerial photographs taken in 2016. On the north side of the western lake is a Grade II* listed fishing temple, built in 1764, which has a pedimented Tuscan Doric portico in antis and rusticated windows in the side bays. On the north-eastern side of the western lake, to the left of the drive as it approaches the hall, is the small Grade II* listed Church of St Wilfrid, built circa 1700 re-using C12 and C14 material.
KITCHEN GARDEN
A large walled garden of an approximately rectangular shape lies to the north-west of the hall. The walls are constructed of stone with pantile coping and incorporate a gardener’s cottage on the outside of the north wall, and just to the west, a lean-to glasshouse on the inside. A glasshouse is shown in this position on the Ordnance Survey map of 1888 which also shows the kitchen garden divided into eight sections. Since then, a central walk with a cascade lined with clipped yew hedges has been created by Bunny Guinness in the 1990s.