The Pump House at Stourhead House, Stourton, Warminster, Wiltshire

Home , Henry Hoare, Stourhead

Heritage Assessment incorporating Statement of Significance

National Trust February 2016

Contents

Introduction 3

Context: History of Stourhead and Stourton 4

The Site 5

Description of Pump House building 8

Development: Map evidence 13

Historical use and development 19

Summary and Statement of Significance 21

Sources Consulted 22

Appendix: Listed Building entries: Stourhead House & Stourhead Garden and Park 23

Introduction

This document has been prepared to provide a historical and architectural assessment of the Pump House building at Stourhead House, Stourton, Wiltshire, and its relationship with the main house and wider estate.

The report is intended to inform and support an application for planning permission and listed building consent for installation of a biomass boiler and fuel store to serve the main house at Stourhead, as part of the National Trust’s wider renewable energy scheme. It does not include a structural or condition survey.

This report has been produced in accordance with the recommendations of National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012), and follows the guidance of English Heritage/Historic England concerning standards of building conservation and good recording practice, as detailed in Conservation Principles (2008), Informed Conservation (2001) and Understanding Historic Buildings (2006).

The Pump House building proposed for conversion to accommodate a biomass boiler system lies to the northwest of the Grade 1-listed Stourhead House, in the ownership and care of the National Trust. The Pump House is not subject to any individual statutory designation, but is considered to be curtilage-listed on account of its proximity to—and historic relationship with—Stourhead House. The site also lies within the Grade 1-registered park and garden, as well as the wider Stourhead Conservation Area and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire AONB.

Context: History of Stourhead and Stourton

The settlement at Stourton, lies on the border of Wiltshire and Somerset, and was mentioned in the Domesday survey (as Storetone). The manor and estate are reputed to have been in the ownership of the Stourton family from before the time of the Norman Conquest. The estate was first sold to Thomas Mere c.1704, and was soon afterwards bought, in 1717, by Henry Hoare (1677-1725), who was part of an established London banking family. The previous medieval house, Stourton House was demolished in 1720, and the current Palladian house was built for Henry Hoare on a new site c.1721-24 and renamed Stourhead. It was Henry’s son (also Henry) who created the landscape gardens in the valley to the southwest of the house. The Stourhead estate passed down through generations of the Hoare family until 1946, when it was given into the care of National Trust by Sir Henry and Lady Alda Hoare, following the death of their only son Harry in the First World War. The Hoare family retains ownership of the neighbouring Stourhead Western estate.

The Grade 1-listed Stourhead House is a prototype Palladian house designed by Colen Campbell for the first Henry Hoare, and constructed c.1721-24, faced in limestone ashlar under slate roofs. When the house was first built, a railed forecourt with oval lawn was laid out to the east front of the house, while walled gardens were constructed to the south (Estate Map, 1722; Woodbridge 1970). Wings to accommodate a picture gallery and library were added to the north and south of the house, c.1796-1800, for Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838). The tetrastyle portico was added c.1840 for Sir Henry Hugh Hoare (1762- 1841), in accordance with Campbell’s original designs. The central portion of the house was severely damaged by fire in 1902, and was restored for the Hoare family under the architectural supervision of, first, Doran Webb and, later, Sir Aston Webb. The house was served by a walled kitchen garden, which survives to the south, while the neighbouring stable yard is believed to incorporate survivals from the service courts of the demolished medieval house (Mayes 1995).

To the southwest of the house lies the iconic eighteenth-century landscape garden originally created by Henry Hoare II (1705-85) after his return from Italy c.1741. Henry Hoare II also employed the architect Henry Flitcroft, who was responsible for the design of many of the garden buildings and features. Notable structures include the Temple of Apollo, Pantheon, Palladian bridge, Grotto, Gothic Cottage and Obelisk, each of which is individually designated at Grade 1. The extensive lake at the heart of the garden was created through damming of the existing stream. After Henry Hoare II’s death, the garden was further embellished over time with additional planting, while some early buildings were removed. Sir Richard Colt Hoare created a new entrance to the gardens from the village, close to St Peter’s Church, in addition to the original entrance from the higher ground close to the house. He also added gravel paths to allow easier enjoyment of the garden circuit by the already-plentiful visitors. The registered park and garden at Stourhead are Grade 1-listed, while the wider Stourhead estate contains a wealth of designated heritage assets: a total of 22 listed features (8 of these listed at Grade 1) and 16 scheduled monuments, with a history traceable back through archaeological features and investigations to Neolithic times. Stourhead house, gardens, park and village also sit within a designated Conservation Area and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB.

It may therefore be readily appreciated that the house, grounds and wider estate at Stourhead have a long and complex history of development and evolution, with many distinct and interrelated historical layers. The Pump House site proposed for adaptive reuse, as part of the plans to create a new biomass heating system to serve the house, sits within the curtilage of the Grade 1-listed house, and its essential history is a subservient and functional one, of providing first water and later electric light to the house.

The Site

The building now known as the Pump House is a small detached building of traditional construction in two distinct phases. The building lies approximately fifty metres to the northwest of the closest portion of Stourhead House, and has a historically close functional relationship with the house. With the advent of mains water and electricity in the twentieth century, the Pump House lost its original functions, and is currently used purely for storage. The wider Pump House site has an ongoing use as the gardeners’ compound for the estate, used for composting, storage of machinery etc.

The series of images below demonstrates the physical and visual relationship of the Pump House with Stourhead House, and with the gardens, wider park and landscape.

The Pump House building (extreme right of image) lies to the northwest of Stourhead House (left of image). (View facing approximately southwest.)

The separation between the functional Pump House site and Stourhead House and formal grounds is clearly demonstrated by the line of the stone screen wall running roughly east-west.

The Pump House site viewed from the entrance gate at the north east of the site: Pump House building to extreme right of image; gateway through to outbuildings to rear of house on extreme left of image.

View of Pump House site from “Stour Valley Way” footpath (the drive to right of image) leading west through open parkland to the historic Terrace Drive route. The field gate to the left of the image is the current entrance to the Pump House site (it lies on roughly on the same line as the original route (north-south) which linked the drive shown to the right of the image with the rear service area of the house, via the surviving segmental-headed entranceway through the screen wall).

View of site from the west (close to Obelisk): the Pump House remains screened by the mature trees shown to centre of image, as would originally have been intended. The west elevation of Stourhead House is seen to right of image.

Description of Pump House building

The Pump House lies within a clearly defined site to the northwest of Stourhead House, well- screened by trees and shrubs to the west and south, and fenced off to the north and east (remains of metal hurdle fencing also survive within the northwest area of the site). A footpath route (the “Stour Valley Way”) leading through the rear parkland onto the route of the historic Terrace Drive, runs roughly east-west at the northern edge of the Pump House site. The Pump House site is currently accessed via a field gate adjacent to this drive.

Exterior:

The Pump House building is faced in local stone under slate roofs, with lead sheet to the ridge and hips. The building shows two distinct phases: the earliest, to the south, is the original well house on the site (first marked as such on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901 (1:2500 scale). This building has a more classical and symmetrical design than its later addition, with coursed stone walls and polite architectural detailing. There is a finely dressed high quality stone cornice at eaves level and similar dressings to the door and window openings. The panelled painted timber entrance door is located centrally on the east elevation of the well house; there is a corresponding blind doorway to the west elevation. The hipped roof is of shallow gradient, capped with a central ventilation opening.

Above left: East elevation of original well house with original entrance door (disused). Above right: West elevation of well house with blind doorway, and cast iron (overflow?) pipe protruding.

Left: Oblique view of south elevation (original well house building).

The later engine house addition, attached to the north, was designed to be functional rather than architectural. The walls are faced in local rubble stone, with a slate damp proof course. There are red brick dressings to the window openings and sills of moulded bricks (which show varying degrees of damage and loss). The building is entered through large boarded timber ledged and braced double doors at the northern end of the east elevation; these show evidence of repair and replacement of lower portions. The roof of this later phase of the building is hipped to its southern end (the junction with the earlier well house building, with valley gutter); however, the north elevation has a gable end, with a brick-dressed owl hole/ventilation opening. Rainwater goods throughout both phases are currently of black PVC.

Above: East elevation of early twentieth-century engine house addition.

Above left: North gable end of twentieth-century phase, with owl/ventilation hole. Above right: West elevation of twentieth-century building.

Windows throughout are painted with black gloss paint. There is a single window to the south elevation of the earlier phase, with timber framing and horizontal emphasis. Each of the four windows—two to the east and two to the west elevation of the twentieth-century phase—is segmental-headed, with metal frame, divided into twelve small panes, with a single small top-hung opening light with metal stay.

Left: Metal window to twentieth-century portion of building, with red brick dressings and moulded sill bricks. Right: Window to south elevation of original well house building, with finely dressed stone surround and keystone detail.

The two phases of the building are clearly and pleasingly representative of the different dates of their construction (the eighteenth/nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries respectively).

Interior:

Access to (and photography of) the interior of the building was limited by the current use as storage (particularly within the original well house).

The internal faces of the original well house walls are coursed stone (and brick?—currently painted). The single storey internal space is open to the underside of the hipped roof structure, which has two tie beams running north-south, angle ties to the corners, and timber boarding above the rafters. The roof covering would appear to have been removed and replaced previously, with salvaged original timber boarding reused to the underside (there is some replacement boarding, while some original boards show paler lines where they were previously protected by rafters from the dirt and staining that would have been produced by the oil engine, which then operated in the building).

Above: Interior view of hipped roof of original well house (facing south).

There is surviving machinery within the well house (see images below), relating to the provision of a private water supply to Stourhead House and estate (from the period prior to the supply of mains water to the house and village in 1960). A maker’s plate on the pumping equipment over the well (at the east side of the building, directly behind the original entrance door) reveals that it was produced by J Warner and Sons, Hydraulic Engineers of Cripplegate, London. Further equipment survives against the west wall. All would appear to relate to the late-nineteenth/early twentieth-century schemes for improved provision of water to the house and to the reservoir at Alfreds Tower (constructed in the aftermath of the 1902 fire at the house to ensure a more reliable supply of water) (see Jones 2007).

As this machinery is a significant survival, it is proposed that the original well house will not be adapted to form part of the new biomass boiler house (which will be located in the later engine house only), enabling the continued preservation of this machinery in situ.

Above: Surviving water pumping machinery made by J Warner and Sons of London (located to eastern extent of well house building).

Above: Part of surviving equipment against west wall of well house interior (relating to cast iron pipe emerging externally: probable overflow).

The original well house was necessarily altered when the building was extended in the early twentieth century: the north wall was largely removed and beams inserted over the new opening, leaving little separation between the two ground floor portions of the building. The level of the (brick?) floor in the well house is slightly higher than that of the engine house addition.

Above: Interior of Pump House looking south into original well house, showing beam over opening between twentieth-century engine house addition and well house.

The interior walls of the twentieth-century building are faced in brickwork, currently painted white. The ceiling here is lath and plaster, the laths visible where losses have occurred (see image below). Two tie beams, similar to those within the well house, are visible below the ceiling, running east-west across the building. Flooring is a mixture of surviving quarry tiles and concrete.

Above left: interior of twentieth-century engine house addition (looking north). Above right: lath and plaster ceiling of early twentieth-century engine house.

Development: Map evidence

An estate map of 1722 (detail above) shows the layout of the wider site around the time of construction of the Hoare family’s new house at Stourhead. The house may be seen to the top right of the image with forecourt and oval lawn to the east front, formal walled gardens to the south front, and the surviving stable courtyard from the earlier house close by to the southeast. The site of the Pump House (to the northwest of the house) is at this time undeveloped, and likewise the landscape gardens and lakes to the southwest of the house have not yet been begun.

Plan of the Manor of Stourton, 1785, shows Stourhead House before the addition of the Picture Gallery and Library wings to the north and south respectively. To the southeast of the house is the stables courtyard, while to the northeast is a farm later demolished. The map does appear to show a small building approximately on the site of the original well house. [Image above: courtesy of Wiltshire Record Office, ref: 135/04]

The estate survey volume entitled “Terrae Hoareanae,” 1829 shows a simplified, representative site layout. It does not detail any buildings on the Pump House site, which sits within the wider area numbered 245, and named in the survey as “The Lawn.” [Image above: courtesy of Wiltshire Record Office, ref: 383/106]

The Tithe Map of 1839 [image above: courtesy of Wiltshire Record Office] is, as would be expected, a representative rather than fully accurate map. It does not show any buildings on the site of the Pump House, but does show this area covered with trees and shrubs. The curved rear access drive and flanking buildings indicated in outline, immediately northwest of the house, correspond to surviving buildings beyond the segmental-headed gateway in the screen wall north of the house.

Map of the Estates of Sir Henry A Hoare in Kilmington, Stourton, Penselwood and Pen, Wiltshire and Somerset,” 1875, omits to detail the Pump House building, but indicates the layout and boundaries of the site at this time. [Image above: Wiltshire Record Office, ref: 3117/12]

The first edition Ordnance Survey map (1:2500) of 1887 (sketch layout above, based on original OS map) shows the small original well house building only (the southern portion of the current Pump House building, circled red). This was accessed on its east elevation, via a short drive from the east (which connected into the route running approximately north- south from the parkland to serve the rear outbuildings of Stourhead House). The well house building is shown standing within an area with its own defined boundary, separated from the house and from the wider parkland. There is also a small, roughly circular enclosure marked adjacent to the south elevation of the building: this no longer exists, and the area is now largely covered with laurel planting. Trees and shrubs marked on the map suggest the building was fairly well screened from the house at the time.

The second edition Ordnance Survey map (1:2500) of 1901 again shows the original well house only, with circular enclosure to the south. The building appears to remain screened from the main house and parkland by trees. The access route to the east elevation is no longer shown (this does not necessarily indicate disuse, as some more minor paths within gardens were omitted from Ordnance Survey maps after the 1880s). [Composite image (sheets LXII & LVI) above: courtesy of Wilshire Record Office]

The Ordnance survey map (1:2500) of 1924 shows the original well house now extended to the north, allowing this extension to be dated quite precisely to the period between 1901 and 1924. The building continues to be labelled as “Well House.” The circular enclosure to the south of the building is no longer shown. Another smaller detached building is also shown at the western extent of the Pump House site during this period, likewise constructed in the period since the 1887 map. Its intended function is unknown, and the building no longer stands. The tree planting on the site is now shown to include conifers: it would appear that the building was intended to be well-screened at this time, both from the house and from the parkland. [Composite image (sheets LXII & LVI) above: courtesy of Wiltshire Record Office]

The Ordnance Survey map (1:10560) of 1962 (image above) shows the Pump House building and surrounding site much as they currently survive. The building is still marked as “Well House” at this time. Some screening from trees is shown to remain to the north, but views of the site from the rear of the house would appear to be relatively open by this time.

The Ordnance Survey map (1:2500) of 1981, likewise shows that most of the trees that formerly provided screening between the Pump House and Stourhead House have been lost, leaving the site considerably more open and visible from the house than was originally the case.

Summary of map evidence:

The earliest record that appears to show any building occupying the site of the existing Pump House building is the estate map of 1785. However, later (nineteenth-century) maps do not show any buildings on the site, and so it is unclear exactly how closely the building of 1785 relates to the existing building.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1887 (1:2500) shows the original small well house building. This map records more detail of the site layout than the subsequent (early twentieth-century) Ordnance Survey maps at the same scale: it clearly shows the access route to the building’s entrance (east elevation), which ran east-west (and was a branch off a drive running north-south serving the outbuildings at the rear of Stourhead House).

The early twentieth-century Ordnance Survey maps (1:2500) provide firm evidence of the approximate date of extension of the original well house building: the map of 1901 shows only the small original building, while that of 1927 also shows the larger extension to the north.

Historical use and development

While the date of construction of the original well house building remains unclear from the available map evidence, stylistically it would appear likely that it dates originally from around the early nineteenth century (possibly as early as the eighteenth century, which would accord with the building shown on Richard Colt Hoare’s estate map of 1785). As is the case with many buildings of its small scale, modest type and subsidiary status, there are relatively few documentary records for the Pump House, and no original plans of the building have been found to date.

There are, however, estate and other records and maps available, which do enable an outline history of the development of the site and building to be traced. Unpublished notes, produced for the National Trust, outline the history of the domestic water supply to Stourhead House: these suggest that the well on this site to the north-west of the house was sunk during the period between 1724 and 1795 (Jones 2007.)

The Stourhead Estate is also fortunate to possess unusually detailed written records of works undertaken on the estate, in the form of the “Stourhead Annals”, volumes of records begun in 1792 by Richard Colt Hoare and continued by his descendants. These records enable us to trace some elements of the development of this site, and to shed light on its role and significance within the wider estate, and it relationship with Stourhead House.

The Annals detail how, in the year between July 1897 and July 1898: “In consequence of the rain being insufficient to supply the Stables and Gardens, Stourton and Coldcot Farms; a new turbine water wheel was erected at the back of the drinking place adjacent to the Rock Arch, and water was laid on to this from a spring from the Grotto, and pumped to the amount of 10,000 gallons a day; and was connected with the various existing systems at the House, Stables, gardens, Stourton and Coldcot Farms [. . .].” [“Stourhead Annals”.] The system referred to “at the House” is the Pump House site: from 1897/8 onwards this was being served by the new water supply from the Lower Pump House “at the back of the drinking place adjacent to the Rock Arch.” This Lower Pump House also still survives and is located on the margins of the landscape gardens. It is individually listed at Grade 2 (primarily on account of the earlier drinking trough to which it was appended), and was recently restored by the National Trust (See “Heritage, Design and Access Statement”, St Ann’s Gate Architects 2014).

Jones (2007) offers some details of the pipes and machinery laid on in 1897/8, including “a new 2in rising main [. . .] laid from the pumping set up to the Pump House at the Mansion.” Jones also notes that the well at the Pump House is up to 120 feet deep, and 8 feet in diameter, “with, at the top of the well, a disused three-throw crank drive unit with drive rods down to the pump [. . .]. A 4in delivery pipe from the pump leaves the building and extends to a service reservoir near Alfreds Tower” (the latter pipe dating from c.1903/4). The works at this time were clearly intended to offer a significant improvement in the quantity and reliability of the water supply, not only for Stourhead House, but also for the wider estate.

Perhaps the most notable record from the “Stourhead Annals” concerning the Pump House, dates from the period July 1903-July 1904, and demonstrates that the building was at that time converted to a new use: namely the provision of electric light for the house. This technological advance was installed as part of the works to restore Stourhead House after the devastating fire of 1902, which had destroyed interiors in the original Palladian portion of the house. The Annals state: “The electric light was installed by Messrs Edmondson and an oil engine put in the Well House to drive the pump and dynamo.” [“Stourhead Annals”]

Electric light was being enthusiastically embraced by the owners of country houses in this period: Palmer and West (2013) note that by 1905, only twenty-five years after the invention of electric light, at least 400 country houses in England had their own plant to provide electricity.

While the primary use of the Pump House site changed from the supply of water to the supply of power, the well remained a valuable back-up. More than twenty years later, the “Stourhead Annals” for July 1926 to July 1927 record that “the [C]rankshaft of the lower water supply pumps at Rock Arch broke down, necessitating pumping daily from the well in the Engine House for over a fortnight.”

These surviving estate records clearly demonstrate the ongoing relationship between the Pump House site and Stourhead House, with the Pump House playing a consistently important and evolving role in supplying the needs of the house.

Summary and Statement of Significance

Stourhead House and Gardens are internationally significant examples of important types in the history of house and garden design. The mansion house is a rare survival of an early eighteenth-century Palladian design by Colen Campbell, with later additions dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as internal restorations following the fire of 1902. Henry Hoare II’s landscape garden is a word-famous example of the eighteenth- century English school of landscape design, featuring individually significant garden buildings (many designed by Flitcroft) as visual events in the garden circuit. The Grade 1- registered parkland is similarly of high significance as a survival of a designed and managed landscape within an important country estate. It contains many individually significant (and designated) examples of built, landscape and archaeological heritage.

The Pump House building, while of more modest scale and design, is nonetheless potentially of national significance, being an unusual survival of a building designed to serve the practical needs of an important country house, and adapted over time as those needs changed and increased. The building also has evidential value in terms of tracing the history of advances in country house technology during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not least because of the survival of original machinery produced by J Warner and Sons for the provision of water to Stourhead House.

The two phases of the building relate respectively to the original well house on the site (later adapted to house a powered pump for the water supply) and the early twentieth-century engine house addition, which was presumably intended to offer increased capacity for generation of power after the installation of electric lighting to the house. These two building phases offer good evidence of changing building styles and materials in the local area during the eighteenth/nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

While not individually designated, the Pump House is well worthy of preservation in its own right. The proposed adaptive reuse relating to the provision of a biomass boiler will not only secure its future conservation, but also respect its functional, industrial heritage (building recording should be carried out before work commences). The choice of this relatively secluded site and building—partly screened by trees and away from the most formal and high status areas—will, in conjunction with thoughtful design, equally respect the significance of the house, gardens and wider parkland and estate.

Sources Consulted

Primary Sources:

Estate map, 1722.

“Terrae Hoareanae,” 1829. Wiltshire Record Office, ref: 383/106.

Tithe Map, 1839.

“Map of the Estates of Sir Henry A Hoare in Kilmington, Stourton, Penselwood and Pen, Wiltshire and Somerset,” 1875. Wiltshire Record Office ref: 3117/12.

Ordnance Survey Map (1:2500 scale), 1887.

Ordnance Survey Map (1:2500 scale), 1901.

Ordnance Survey Map (1:2500 scale), 1924.

Ordnance Survey Map (1:10,000 scale), 1962.

Ordnance Survey Map (1:2500 scale), 1981.

“Stourhead Annals” (Hoare family/estate records) 1792-1945.

Secondary Sources:

Cherry, Bridget, and Nikolaus Pevsner. The Buildings of England: Wiltshire. Rev ed. Penguin, 1975.

Jones, Howard N. “Outline Story of Domestic Water Supply for Stourhead House 1717- 1960.” National Trust, 2007.

Mayes, Ian. Archaeological Landscape Survey: Stourhead Estate. National Trust, 1995.

National Trust. Stourhead Guidebooks. 1968, 1981, 1985, 2000, 2014.

Palmer, Marilyn, and Ian West. “Nineteenth-Century Technical Innovations in British Country Houses and their Estates.” Engineering History and Heritage Vol 116: issue EH1, 2013. 36-44.

St Ann’s Gate Architects. “The Lower Pump House, Stourhead: Heritage, Design and Access Statement.” Rev. Aug 2014. [Available on Wiltshire Council website, accessed January 2016]

Woodbridge, Kenneth. Landscape and Antiquity. Oxford, 1970.

---. The Stourhead Landscape. London, 1971.

Appendix:

Listed Building entries: Stourhead House & Stourhead Garden and Park

STOURHEAD HOUSE List Entry Summary This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest. Name: STOURHEAD HOUSE List entry Number: 1131104

Location STOURHEAD HOUSE The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. County: District: Wiltshire District Type: Unitary Authority Parish: Stourton with Gasper National Park: Not applicable to this List entry. Grade: I Date first listed: 06-Jan-1966 Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system. Legacy System: LBS UID: 321262

Asset Groupings This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description Summary of Building Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Reasons for Designation Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. History Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Details STOURTON WITH GASPER STOURHEAD PARK ST 73 SE (south side) 6/156 Stourhead House 6.1.66 GV I Country house. 1721-24 for Henry Hoare by Colen Campbell, library and picture gallery pavilions added 1796-1800 for Colt Hoare, east portico added 1840, 1902-06 rebuilding of central block by Doran Webb and Sir Aston Webb, following 1902 fire. Limestone ashlar, Lakeland slate hipped roofs, ashlar stacks. Central C18 range with added wings and pavilions, service court on north side.

Two-storey over basements, 5-window. Tetrastyle portico added 1840, from Campbell's C18 design, Composite columns to modillioned cornice and pediment with lead statue, from the Temple of Apollo (q.v.), chamfered rusticated basement with 6- pane sashes, balustraded steps up to portico flanked by large urns on plinths. Principal floor has double half-glazed doors flanked by cross windows within portico, casement with pediment either side. First floor has 3 blind windows in moulded architraves with 2-light casement in eared and shouldered architrave either side, modillioned cornice to balustraded parapet with corner urns, attic block above pediment also with statues from Temple of Apollo. Flanking one-bay wings and 3-bay pavilions over rusticated basement, tall casements with cornices, small casements to attic, all front windows of library are blind, balustraded parapets with ball finials added c1904 by D, Webb. Right and left returns of main block of ten bays; principal floors have Venetian windows and cross windows, all in Gibbs surrounds, first floors have ten cross windows in moulded architraves, good lead rainwater heads dated 1722. Library south pavilion has French windows with lunette over to left return, 12- pane and 6-pane sashes to rear, picture gallery to north has blind windows to side and to rear, linking wings have 12-pane sashes. Rear of main block has recessed distyle in antis first floor portico with pediment and projecting 2-bay wings, all by D. Webb; wing casements in Gibbs surrounds to principal floor, central round-arched French windows to rusticated recessed entrance, balustraded steps over basement and balustrade to portico added by Sir Aston Webb. Service wing on west side of north court with 4- panelled door, casements and sashes, the first floor billiard room over added by D. Webb, diagonally- set outbuilding, possibly game larder on west side. Interior dates from after 1902 fire, rebuilt using photographs of pre-fire interior, plasterwork by Agostini of Bristol, staircase redesigned with two arms instead of one, fireplaces in Saloon and Italian Room brought from Wavendon 1912. Library of c1800 survived fire and retains Colt- Hoare's fittings; shallow-barrel vaulted ceiling, stained glass in west lunette by F. Eginton, painted lunette to east by S. Woodforde, fireplace from Wavendon, oval niches over doors with Rysbrack busts. Picture gallery also intact: white marble fireplace with classical frieze, modillioned ceiling cornice, woodwork and fine contemporary furnishings here and in library specially designed by Chippendale. Other fittings include mahogany doors c1905. Despite the 1902 fire, this house is important as a Palladian villa in England, set in landscaped parkland and with the fine Stourhead Gardens to the west. The London banking family of Hoares acquired the estate in 1714, the old Stourton House was demolished c1720 and Stourhead built slightly to the north west. Sir Henry Colt Arthur Hoare gave the greater part of the estate to the National Trust in 1946. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 1975; J. Lees-Milne, Stourhead, 1964; Rebuilding Stourhead, 1902-06; National Trust Studies, 1979)

Listing NGR: ST7775434347 Selected Sources Books and journals Stourhead Park, (1979) Milne, J L, Stourhead, (1964) Milne, J L, Rebuilding Stourhead 1902-06 Pevsner, N , The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, (1975) Other Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 46 Wiltshire,

National Grid Reference: ST 77754 34347

STOURHEAD List Entry Summary

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 English Heritage for its special historic interest.

Name: STOURHEAD List entry Number: 1000471

Location The garden or other land may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. County: District: Wiltshire District Type: Unitary Authority Parish: Stourton with Gasper County: Somerset District: South Somerset District Type: District Authority Parish: Brewham National Park: Not applicable to this List entry. Grade: I Date first registered: 01-Sep-1987 Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system. Legacy System: Parks and Gardens UID: 1440

Asset Groupings This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description Summary of Garden Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Reasons for Designation Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. History Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Details

Stourhead contains an extensive and complex landscape garden and park. Its main phases of development date from the C18, C19, and C20. This includes mid to late C18 works by Henry Hoare II, Henry Flitcroft, and William Privet of Chilmark, late C18 and early C19 works by Richard Colt Hoare, and C20 conservation and restoration work by the National Trust.

NOTE

This entry is a summary. Because of the complexity of this site, the standard Register entry format would convey neither an adequate description nor a satisfactory account of the development of the landscape. The user is advised to consult the references given below for more detailed accounts. Many Listed Buildings exist within the site, not all of which have been here referred to. Descriptions of these are to be found in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest produced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

There was a park at Stourton during the C15 and C16, which was created by the Stourton family who owned the estate from before the Norman Conquest. In 1717 the Stourton family sold their estate to Henry Hoare I (1677-1725), a wealthy banker from London. Henry Hoare replaced the Stourton home with a Palladian-style country house designed by Colen Campbell c 1721-4. To the east of the new house was a railed forecourt with an oval lawn, and walled gardens were laid out to its south.

In 1725, Henry's son, Henry Hoare II (1705-85) inherited Stourhead. In c 1733 he began to extend his father's gardens with a formal terrace walk of Scotch firs to the west of the house. After his return from Italy in 1741, he started to lay out an extensive landscape garden influenced by what he had seen during his travels. He created a lake from two existing ponds situated in a valley to the west of the house, which formed the foreground to the new gardens looked down upon from the hillside near the house. A single-span wooden bridge crossed the north-west arm of the new lake, and a circuit walk led through the pleasure ground, passing several garden buildings mostly designed by his friend the architect Henry Flitcroft. The various buildings and features included the Temple of Flora, the Pantheon, the Grotto, the Temple of Apollo, the Hermitage, the Bristol High Cross, and the Obelisk. After 1765 other features were added, amongst which were the Palladian Bridge, the Gothick Greenhouse, and the Turkish Tent. Henry Hoare II also undertook an extensive planting scheme, the main purpose of which was to create pictorial effects and contrasts between dark and light. In the late 1770s he completed Alfred's Tower, the focal point for a formal ride around the park and surrounding woods, which had already been conceived in 1762. C W Bampfylde recorded the landscape gardens created by Henry Hoare II in a series of detailed drawings of c 1770 (reproduced in Woodbridge 1971).

Not long before his death, Henry Hoare handed Stourhead over to his grandson, Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838). Between 1791 and 1815, Richard added two wings to the existing house, remade the boundaries and the ha-ha between the garden and surrounding meadow, moved the main approach drive and castellated gateway to its current position, and extended the park and built new lodges. In the garden around the

26 lake he removed various garden buildings or their remains, including the Gothick Greenhouse, the Turkish Tent, and the bridge over the lake. New features were added including the gothick porch and seat to Watch Cottage, and Terrace Lodge. He also laid gravel paths, including new ones to the north-west corner of the lake, removed some of his grandfather's planting, and introduced new varieties of ornamental trees and shrubs, including Rhododendron ponticum and laurel, planted around the lake during the early C19.

Richard Colt Hoare was succeeded by his half-brother Henry Hugh Hoare, and subsequently by the latter's son Hugh Richard Hoare. Eventually, in 1857, Stourhead passed to the latter's nephew, Henry Ainslie Hoare. In the early 1860s he added a portico to the house in accordance with Colen Campbell's original design, rebuilt the obelisk, erected an iron bridge across the south-west arm of the lake, and introduced new ornamental planting.

After Henry Ainslie Hoare's death in 1894, his cousin Henry Hoare succeeded him. The latter increased the variety of ornamental trees and shrubs around the lake, created a pinetum to the north-west of the lake, and after a fire in 1902, extended and altered the west front of the house. In 1946, Henry Hoare gave the house and most of the grounds to the National Trust, who initially mainly tidied up the grounds and cleared overgrown areas. During this period the Temple of Apollo was reroofed. In the mid 1950s and 1960s the emphasis of the management of the garden was on the plant collection which was rearranged and further developed. Some historic vistas were opened up, and the dams near the lake and various garden buildings were repaired. In 1973 the National Trust appointed a committee to prepare a policy and restoration plan aimed at the long-term preservation of the C18 landscape at Stourhead, taking into account subsequent developments (National Trust 1978).

Most of the site remains (2003) in the ownership of the National Trust, with one area in private ownership.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Stourhead, a site of c 331ha, lies north of the A303 between Wincanton and Mere in a rural area. The ground at Stourhead is generally undulating and in parts hilly. The small village of Stourton lies immediately to its south-east, with farmland beyond it. Further to the south lies the village of Bonham and to the south-west the village of Gasper. Immediately to the south-west lies Top Lane Farm with its surrounding land enclosed by Castle Wood. To the north-west the site is bounded by mature woodland called The Convent. The northern boundary is formed by the road between the villages of Hardway and Kilmington. To the north-east and south-east the site is enclosed by farmland, while the eastern boundary is formed by the B3092.

There are fine views down to the landscape garden to the north-east from the public footpaths through Top Lane and Top Wood to the south-west of the site.

The existing approaches to Stourhead House were introduced by Richard Colt Hoare in the late C18. The main approach is from the south-west along Stourton High Street, where c 250m south-east of the House stands the Clock Tower Gateway and Clock Tower Lodge (both listed grade II). The House can also be approached from the north-

27 west via Terrace Lodge (now known as Terrace Cottage, listed grade II), and formerly also via Drove Lodge (listed grade II) 400m to the east-north-east. Stourhead House (listed grade I) stands in the centre of the park which occupies the eastern part of the site. A mid to late C18 stable yard (including various buildings listed at grade II) is situated c 150m to the south-east, with a rectangular walled kitchen garden built of brick attached to the south. This is laid out on a slope and contains three terraces separated by internal walls.

The landscape garden lies to the south and west of the House, its central feature being the series of informal lakes and ponds. It is laid out around a main circuit walk that leads from the lawn south of the House into the garden around the main triangular lake situated in the valley below. The walk, called The Shades, meanders along the eastern slope of the lake, where it passes the site of the Turkish Tent. The path continues down to the lakeside and then turns in a north-westerly direction on the eastern shore of the lake, running parallel to the formal Fir Walk situated above it to its east, with at its far north-west end The Obelisk (listed grade I). At the northern tip of the lake, at Six Wells Bottom, the path turns to continue along the west side of the lake. Here it passes the Grotto (listed grade I) introduced in the mid C18 to a design by William Privet of Chilmark. Further along the walk stands the C18 Gothic Cottage (listed grade I) from where there is a fine view of the late C18 Palladian Bridge (listed grade I) crossing the far eastern tip of the lake. The path continues southwards from the Gothic Cottage and passes the Pantheon (listed grade I) designed by Henry Flitcroft in the mid C18. Beyond the Pantheon the path continues over the Iron Bridge (listed grade II) of 1860, which replaces an earlier bridge of c 1840, crossing the south-west tip of the lake. The path then runs along the south side of the lake, passing the smaller Turner's Paddock Lane to its south-west. Further east, the late C18 rustic Rockwork Bridge (listed grade I), which crosses Stourton High Street, carries the path up the southern slope above the lake towards the late C18 Temple of Apollo (Henry Flitcroft, listed grade I). East of the Temple the path continues down the slope again to a late C18 tunnel under Stourton High Street, called the Grotto Underpass (listed grade II). The path then leads to the far eastern tip of the lake where the medieval Bristol High Cross (listed grade I), introduced into the garden in the late C18, stands. Beyond this lies the village and church of Stourton, which were seen as important features within the designed landscape from the 1760s (Batey and Lambert 1990). The main circuit walk ends on the south-east side of the lake at the mid C18 Temple of Flora (Henry Flitcroft, listed grade I), with c 70m to its north a late C18 boathouse (listed grade II) on the lakeside. There are very fine surprise views between the key garden buildings, including the village and church. The garden with its various features also contains a complex programme of historical and political iconography and symbolism, reflecting the Hoare family¿s place and role in C18 society.

The main park at Stourhead dates from the late C18 and surrounds the House to the north, east, and west. It is edged by a thin belt of mature trees to the north and east, with a thicker plantation called Sand Walk to the south-west. The park contains a scattering of mature single trees and small clumps. To the north-west the park is linked to a ride called The Terrace, which runs along the north-east boundary, and is screened to its south-west by Sunny Hanging, a mature belt of trees with Six Wells Bottom beyond it. The Terrace ride runs for c 1.4km in a north-westerly direction, before turning south-westwards where it runs along the northern boundary for 1.5km to Alfred's Tower (listed grade I). This triangular tower, introduced in the late C18

28 and designed by Henry Flitcroft, stands at the far north-west tip of the site, on Kingsettle Hill. It was built on the spot where King Alfred raised his standard after emerging from hiding on the Isle of Athelney, and it commemorates the accession of George III in 1760 and the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. From the tower are spectacular views of the park and the surrounding countryside.

The south-west and north-west parts of the site are covered in dense mature woodland, including Shady Hanging, Park Hill, and Tucking Mill Hanging to the south-west, and Little Combe, Great Combe, and Convent Bottom to the north-west. The latter woodland is named after The Convent (listed grade I), situated c 1.2km to the south- east of Alfred's Tower. This is a rustic folly in Gothic style introduced in 1765 by Henry Hoare II to adorn one of the various rides he created in the woodland. During the C20 it was significantly altered and converted to a cottage and has since been in use as a private dwelling.

REFERENCES

Note. There is a wealth of published material about this site. The key references are listed below.

Country Life, 9 (6 April 1901), pp 432-9; 57 (18 April 1925), pp 592-4; 83 (11 June 1938), pp 608-14; no 24 (8 June 2000), pp 200-02 K Woodbridge, Landscape and Antiquity: Aspects of English Culture at Stourhead 1718 to 1838 (1970) K Woodbridge, The Stourhead Landscape (NT guidebook 1971, revised 1982) B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (2nd edn 1975), pp 494-500 The conservation of the garden at Stourhead and parts of the park relating to it, (National Trust 1978) J Warburg and Courtauld Institutes XLVI, (1983), pp 133-43 J Garden History IX, no 2 (1989), pp 71-7 M Batey and D Lambert, English Garden Tour (1990), pp 190-4 I Mayes, Restoration Plan for the Stourhead Grade I Listed Landscape, (report for National Trust 1997) Stourhead Landscape Garden, guidebook, (National Trust 2000) C Thacker, Building Towers, Forming Gardens (2002)

Maps Andrews and Drury, Map of Wiltshire, 1773 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office) Plan of the Manor of Stourton for Richard Colt Hoare, 1785 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office) C Greenwood, Map of Wiltshire, 1820 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office) Tithe map for Stourton parish, 1839 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1889 1926 edition Illustrations C W Bamfylde, drawings of Stourhead landscape, c 1770 (see Woodbridge 1971)

Description written: April 2003 Amended: April 2003 Register Inspector: FDM Edited: November 2004 Selected Sources Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details National Grid Reference: ST 76395 34825