Identification and description | |||||
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Name | SHOBDON | ||||
Location |
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Localisation | Latitude: 52.259144 Longitude: -2.8827800 National Grid Reference: SO 39843 62698 Map: Download a full scale map (PDF) |
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Overview | Heritage Category: Park and Garden Grade: II List Entry Number: 1000894 Date first listed: 28-Feb-1986 |
Elements of formal gardens of c 1700 associated with a country house of the same date
(main house demolished), and landscape park developed in the mid C18 about the time
the celebrated Rococo-Gothick church was built immediately north of the house.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The Shobdon estate, including the recently rebuilt Shobdon Court, was bought from
Robert Chaplin in 1705 by Sir James Bateman, MP, financier, a director of the East
India Company, Governor of the Bank of England (1705-7) and sub-Governor of the South
Sea Company from 1711. On his death the estate passed to his son William, a great
art collector (cr Viscount 1725, d 1744). His son John, the second Viscount, committed
the care of the estate to his brother Richard, a friend of Horace Walpole. In 1751
Richard rebuilt Shobdon church, setting up the seat known as The Arches using materials
culled from the old church in 1752. On Viscount Bateman's death in 1802 the title
became extinct and Shobdon passed to his cousin's son William Hanbury. It then descended
in that family (who c 1840 took the name Bateman-Hanbury) until the death of the third
Lord Bateman in 1931, following which Shobdon was sold and the Court demolished. House
and estate remain (1997) in private hands.
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Shobdon Court lies 1km north of the
village of Shobdon, which stands on the B4362 Ludlow to Presteigne road 9km west of
Leominster. The park falls gently from north (190m) to south (140m); north of the
park the ground continues to rise to Shobdon Hill 2km to the north-west, while to
the south it continues to fall to the River Arrow 4km away. To the south, east and
north the park boundary largely follows local roads, and is generally defined by a
low stone wall. Elsewhere it follows field edges. The registered area is c 185ha.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The main approach to Shobdon Court is up a straight, 500m
long drive from Shobdon village to the south, which is raised on an embankment as
it passes Swan Pool and is partly tree lined. At the south entrance to the drive are
tall iron gates on ashlar stone gate piers, all probably C19. North of the Court the
drive continues up the west side of the church before turning east, to run on a straight
line, with trees to either side, to the hamlet of Easthampton, on the eastern boundary
of the park. The main entrance (listed grade II) into Shobdon Court lies on the north
side of the pleasure grounds, east of the church, and comprises ashlar gate piers
with flanking walls and iron railings and wrought-iron main gates with an elaborate
overthrow incorporating two 'B's. All is apparently pre 1765.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING The present Shobdon Court (listed grade II) was contrived from
the service and kitchen ranges when the existing house of that name was demolished
in 1933. Of brick with stone dressings, most of the fabric is of the early C18.
To the west of the Court, across the approach road, is the large, brick stables block
of c 1700 (listed grade II), remodelled and restored in 1930s and in late C20 used
as houses and garages. Beyond is a farm court. North of the Court is the celebrated
Rococo-Gothick church of 1751-2 (listed grade I), almost certainly designed by one
of the Strawberry Hill set although precisely who remains uncertain. West of the farm
court is a Norman castle mound (scheduled ancient monument), and north of it a later
C20 food processing factory.
When Sir James Bateman purchased Shobdon in 1705 he acquired 'A large new built seat
with outhouses and barns, stables, malt kilns and other offices, pigeon's house, gardens,
orchards, fishponds and plantations.' (Daniels and Watkins 1994, 20). A view of Shobdon
by Harris of c 1700 gives some idea of the scale and magnificence of the place in
the early C18, although there are difficulties in reconciling aspects of the view
with what survives or is documented. The house of c 1700 was said to be in the style
of Clarendon House, Piccadilly, with a five-bay front with two-bay wings to either
side. Family letters (HRO) refer to considerable improvements in the early 1740s.
The house was restored in the mid C19 but demolished in 1933.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The pleasure grounds around the house occupy a roughly
rectangular area c 250m north/south by c 150m east/west, the north-west corner of
which is taken up by the churchyard. To the north, east and south there is a stone
ha-ha, while to the west the grounds are bounded by the churchyard wall and by its
continuation in brick past Shobdon Court.
When Shobdon Court was demolished the arcaded, ashlar stone terrace (probably C18,
restored in 1860s; listed grade II) along the south front of the house, with flights
of steps to either end, was retained and adapted as a raised walk. This overlooks,
to the south, a gravelled walk with clipped yew bushes with beyond extensive lawns
which fall away in various terraces, remnants of the earlier formal gardens on the
site. The lawn contains many mature specimen trees (many of them probably among those
mentioned in an article of 1877 which mentions Spa Chestnuts, cedars, occidental planes
and beeches, many already of 'remarkable' size), while in the late C20 a line of white
birch was planted running from the east side of the terraced walk to the east boundary
of the pleasure grounds.
The walls of the old house stand c 2m tall; within is a sunken lawn. To the north
and east is a shrubbery with specimen trees, including what would seem to be C18 examples.
West of the old house is a turning circle. Some 20m south of the south ha-ha is a
substantial ramped terrace, presumably an element of the early C18 formal gardens
depicted in Harris' view of c 1700. In that view, from the south, the area of the
present pleasure grounds is shown divided into a series of walled courts with a main
north/south axial path leading from the door in the centre of the house's south front.
Gazebos lay at the south-east and south-west corners of the garden. There was probably
also a mount, just beyond the area of the C19 gardens. Improvements, perhaps considerable,
were made in 1721-2 when £50 was paid to 'workmen employed in the garden' and '£50
to Mr. Greening' (cited in Daniels & Watkins 1994), almost certainly Thomas Greening
(1684-1757), George II's chief gardener who was consulted widely and who worked with
William Kent at Corsham. At Corsham, at least (and admittedly later, in 1746), he
promoted an irregular style of landscaping with serpentine walks winding through a
well-wooded landscape. There were still parterres at Shobdon in the 1740s; however,
it seems probable that the formal gardens were only swept away at about the time the
landscape park was reworked c 1750. New formal gardens were laid out at Shobdon in
the mid and late C19.
PARK Shobdon lies at the centre of a landscape park which slopes downhill from north
to south. Belts and plantations around its edge, especially to the east, screen the
interior where public roads run around the perimeter. South of and below the house
and gardens, around Rookery and Swan Pools, an arboretum has been planted since the
mid 1960s and the ornamental aspects of the landscape around the pools much enhanced.
North of Shobdon churchyard, and east of the walk to The Arches, is Shobdon cricket
pitch; a new pavilion was built in 1996 in the south-east corner. An extensive caravan
park, Pearl Lake Leisure Park, occupies the south-western corner of the park, on the
east shore of New Decoy Pool. Otherwise the park is largely farmland (late C20).
North-west of Shobdon church, and on the west side of the walk to The Arches, is a
large, rectangular, pool, c 100m north/south by c 50m east/west. A further three large
pools lie south-west of the house complex. Some 100m south of the kitchen gardens,
and running parallel with it, is Canal Pool, comprising a 250m long and 75m wide canal
with a broadened pond c 120m in diameter at its west end. In the south-western part
of the park is the 350m long New Decoy Pool, which connects with Park Pool to the
north-east.
Some 350m north of Shobdon Court, at the end of an uphill grass walk (continuing the
line of the main approach to Shobdon from the south), lined with some mature oaks
and late C20 replacements, is The Arches (listed grade II; also scheduled ancient
monument). This, an eyecatcher or seat, was contrived in 1751-2 from the Romanesque
chancel arch and other architectural elements removed from Shobdon church during its
rebuilding. The re-erected chancel arch has a triangular pediment above with crocketed
pinnacles to either side; smaller arches, also with triangular pediments, flank the
central one at an angle.
About 400m east of the house, on a natural hillock, is a later C18 garden temple (listed
grade II*, in poor condition in 1997). It comprises a stone facade with four Ionic
columns approached by three stone steps supporting a full entablature and pediment
with much rich carving. Seven sweet chestnuts, probably contemporary with the temple,
stand as an incomplete ring around the bottom of the hillock.
Canal Pool, and perhaps the pool north-west of the church, presumably formed a part
of the formal landscape at Shobdon depicted c 1700. As noted above, it is possible
that Mr Greening's work at Shobdon in the early 1720s extended outside the formal
gardens to the landscape beyond. In the 1740s correspondence shows that the woodland
on the Shobdon estate was managed for its amenity value as well as for its commercial
value. The steward was instructed that following the cropping of beeches 'over against
the Wilderness' elms were to be planted 'not in clumps ... (but) irregularly, like
the Wilderness' (cited in Daniels & Watkins 1994). Conifers were purchased in London
and Shrewsbury. In 1741 a 'Great Walk' was created in the woods; also mentioned is
'the great garden in the woods', planted with roots of liley of the valley, white
aconites, honeysuckle and roses' (ibid). The main woodland then lay within the deer
park, which when mapped in 1774 occupied the whole area north of the east drive and
west of the kitchen garden and Canal Pool. In 1747 an ornamental pool below the house
(Swan Pool) was stocked with perch and tench. The Arches were set up within the deer
park by March 1752; soon after Richard Bateman wrote to his steward enquiring about
how 'the ruins of the Abbey' appeared, suggesting The Arches were an allusion to Shobdon's
past and specifically to the brief period in the earlier C12 when it was the site
of England's first Victorine priory. This may also have been the period when the landscape
park began to be developed, following the campaign of works on the house in the 1740s.
Several features, however, date from later in the C18. The temple east of the house,
whose location mirrors that of The Arches as an eyecatcher, is not shown on the map
of 1774 although a date very soon after that seems likely on architectural grounds.
Also post-dating 1774 are New Decoy Pool and Park Pool in the south-west of the park.
KITCHEN GARDEN The kitchen gardens, which lie west of Shobdon Court and immediately
south of the stables and farm complex, are surrounded by 1.5-3m tall brick walls (listed
grade II) with triangular brick coping which encompass an area c 180m east/west by
70m north/south. Opposite Shobdon Court, in the east wall, is an elaborate door into
the gardens with enriched stone architrave (possibly re-set). A slightly raised walk,
unenclosed to the south, runs along the exterior of the garden's south wall. The ground
within, which is rough pasture, slopes gently to the south. No glass survives. A brick
pigeon house (listed grade II) stands within, and close to, the north-eastern corner
of the garden. One of the houses to the north of the garden was presumably the gardener's
house.
A walled enclosure with pigeon house within is shown on Harris's view of c 1700. The
brickwork indicates an early C18 date, and it seems probable that at least the pigeon
house (specifically mentioned in the particular of 1705) was but a few years old when
Shobdon was purchased by Sir James Bateman in 1705. The present garden walls may be
slightly later, as a new kitchen garden was constructed in 1721-2.
REFERENCES Anon, The Churches of Shobdon and their Builders (nd), [reproducing Harris'
view] Country Life, 20 (10 November 1906), pp 666-74 J Brit Archaeological Assoc 146,
(1993), pp 87-92 S Daniels and C Watkins, The Picturesque Landscape: Visions of Georgian
Herefordshire (1994), pp 20-1 I Pfuell, A History of Shobdon (1994)
Maps Plan of Shobdon, 1774 (G39, box 66), (Herefordshire Record Office)
OS 6" to 1 mile: Herefordshire sheet 11 NE, 1st edition 1889 OS 25" to 1 mile: Herefordshire
sheet 11.7, 2nd edition 1903
Archival items Estate accounts, plans and other drawings (G39), (Herefordshire Record
Office)
Description written: 1997 Register Inspector: PAS Edited: September 1999
This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England for its special historic interest.