Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Distinctiveness Assessment and Evaluation

Step 1: Identify the asset

Name of asset being assessed: Gardens associated with Whiteford, Stoke Climsland

NHLE refs None for the landscape. Whiteford Temple, walled garden and farm are each listed at Grade II.

CSHER (if included) Several references to features within the former gardens, and for the now demolished house: 10077.02, 171646, 10077.50, 10077.40, 10077.10, 10077, 10077.30, 171645, 75173

GRID REF or POSTCODE if not on CSHER ………SX354735

Please include a representative photo or photos, a brief description of the asset (eg 50-100 words) and a location plan

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Whiteford in the late C19 (1880s OS 1:2500), screen shot from Oldmaps.com

In this summary ’Whiteford’ refers to the landscape associated with Whiteford House, demolished in 1913, as defined by the 1880s OS map (1:2500). It is the remains, along with Whiteford Farm and its walled garden, and folly (the latter in the ownership of the Landmark Trust) of the estate of Sir John Call, who bought the estate in 1763. The house was built in 1775 by his son, also John, who had returned from working with the East India Company. In 1889 the garden was described as ‘a spacious park, with a bridge and artificial cascades’.

Nikolaus Pevsner, writing in the first Buildings of England volume, for Cornwall in 1951, clearly saw more of the remains of the house than survives today: ‘WHITEFORD NR STOKE CLIMSLAND Of Sir William Cale’s mansion of 1775 little survives. The house of the Agent of the Home Farm close by incorporates some fragments: a Tuscan Doric porch and several tripartitie windows. The appearance of the house before it was pulled down in 1912 is known from engravings. All that can still be seen in situ is an insignificant outbuilding now divided into cottages, the Stables with pretty cupola and projecting wings, a ghost of the layout of the grounds, a bridge close to the main Callington road, and a neglected garden temple (now a cattle byre) with figure reliefs in Coade stone’. (p.219).

No mention is made of the landscape, but it is clear from HER records and a 2003 Historic Report compiled by CCHES (mainly Pete Dudley) that the landscape was an intrinsic part of the development, and indeed showcasing, of the estate. The Statement of Importance from this report is appended, with the distinctiveness of the landscape highlighted.

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Step 2 : Identify which of the distinctiveness themes relate to the asset

Use the prompts to briefly note down which parts or features of the asset relate to each theme and why. This might include: materials, design details, associations, function, use, relationship to surroundings and so on.

Physical distinctiveness

The field boundaries within the park appear indistinct compared to the solid Cornish hedges indicated outside. It is possible that wooden paling fences were used within the park (possibly from chestnut from the estate), as a 26 March 1812 reference in William Call’s journal mentions the ‘railing by the Temple’ (CRO, FS/2/1238/1). Certainly paling fences appear to be indicated by the house in the background of the Stockdale print in 1824 and in a photograph of 1896. A 1910 photograph taken from the field called Entrance appears to show these alongside the drive too (SCA).

Whilst the built structures (former mansion, the farm and folly) are not included in this assessment it is noted that local craftsmen were used to build them, using granite from Kit Hill quarry, not far away. Many of the garden structures are made from granite, including the boundary walls and walls to the walled garden.

The topography of the landscape would have influenced the design of the parkland.

Economic distinctiveness

Call was appointed as a commissioner to inquire into the management of Crown Lands in 1782 and from 1784 represented Callington in parliament. He also became a partner in a London bank at this time, was an East India Company stockholder and had interests in copper smelting and plate glass manufacture.

The family and farm would also have had a strong influence on agriculture on the estate, and there are connections to the Duchy of Cornwall (it was sold to the Prince of Wales in 1879 and used as an office for the Duchy), and the establishment of Duchy College.

Spiritual folkloric and artistic distinctiveness

Influenced by Capability Brown.

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

The Calls had seven children, six of whom were depicted by Francis Alleyne in 1784.

Linguistic distinctiveness

Whiteford relates to its proximity to the watercourses that run nearby, meaning ‘white’ or ‘wide’ ford. The name itself is profoundly English.

Natural distinctiveness

Whilst many of the trees that survive in the parkland are native (fantastic veteran oak at SX354732), it is probable that exotic plants were brought from India and specimen trees for the Whiteford grounds. As a landscape with semi- improved grassland, parkland trees and waterside habits ponds it has high ecological value.

Cultural connections and resonance beyond Cornwall

John Call the younger was chief engineer to the East India Company, including service for Robert Clive. Elected Sherriff of Cornwall in 1771

A distinguished and respected Cornish family, although their roots were Saxon and from Scotland.

In March 1772, he married Philadelphia Battie, the third daughter and co-heiress of Dr William Battie of Kingston on Thames. The marriage brought him important connections in Cornwall and beyond as Philadelphia’s sisters had married John Rashleigh esquire and Sir George Young.

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Step 3: how does the asset’s distinctiveness inform and contribute to the historic, evidential, aesthetic, and communal heritage values of the asset?

Please use the tables within the ‘themes’ document to identify the relationship between each established heritage value and the asset’s expression of Cornish Cultural Distinctiveness.

Historic value

Historic value connects contemporary places to past people, events and aspects of life and can be illustrative or associative

Connection with the Call family, and their association with the East India Company. Also connection with the Duchy of Cornwall in the late C19. Inspiration of Capability Brown.

Evidential

The evidential value of a place lies in its potential to provide evidence of past activity.

Potential for archaeological remains from the house and its associated drives and garden structures (e.g. terracing). Survival of other garden features, including veteran and specimen trees.

Aesthetic

The ways in which people draw sensory and intellectual stimulation from a place through its designed or fortuitous appearance

Again, the association with the inspiration of Capability Brown, and the desire to create ‘Arcadia’. Also, landscape value in the setting of the garden, with manipulated views both within the designed landscape, and from the surrounding area with Whiteford Temple acting as an eyecatcher.

Communal

The value of a place through its social and collective meanings and place in memory – particularly where this value is expressed in terms of commemoration, symbolism, social identity or spiritual understanding.

The history and importance of the Call family has a strong social significance, reflected in their construction of the house, farm and parkland. The association with the Duchy of Cornwall from the late C19 continues, and the parkland *could* provide an opportunity to increase both access for Duchy College and the public.

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Step 4 – This stage should record your conclusions, specifically noting how distinctiveness should inform future management of the site’s significance and identifying opportunities for this distinctiveness to inform place making.

Current management:

Protection

Is the site’s distinctiveness appropriately recognised within the designation system and associated records? Y

Risk identification and management.

Is the asset’s contribution to cultural distinctiveness at risk? Y

Why? Lack of informed (?) management; the Management Plan does not appear to have been used (?)

Opportunities (where yes please describe)

Enhances the setting of other heritage assets Y

Provides the setting for Whiteford Temple, farm and other surviving structures.

Adaptive reuse Y

Opportunities to link with Duchy College and its activities.

Conservation and maintenance Y

Use of traditional skills to reinstate garden features

Development N

………………………….

On site interpretation Y

Particularly if increased public access made possible. The Temple probably has its own potted history for guests, and this will refer to the parkland, one imagines.

Natural environmental growth or energy conservation Y / N

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

Potential to link to environmental courses at Duchy College. Use of ground source heat etc for holiday cottage.

Education Y

Again, the link with Duchy College could provide opportunities for students to learn about historic landscape design. There may be the oportunty to connect with the Ancient Tree Forum and provide opportunities for training to record the parkland trees (a lime on the north boundary has been recorded as veteran).

Community Projects Y

An ideal opportunity to include the Stoke Climsland and surrounding community, which has a strong local history group and active primary school.

Skills Training Y

Use of traditional skills to reinstate garden features. Woodland and tree management. Ecological surveys?

Tourism Y

The estate already has a tourism reach with the Temple being a holiday cottage owned by the Landmark Trust. There may be other opportunities to include the estate in open days with guided tours etc.

Further research Y

The 2003 report is extensive and excellent. There are always be opportunites for further research!

Other (record below)

Excerpt from Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Service/P. Dudley ‘Whiteford Park, Stoke Climsland, Cornwall: Historic Landscape Survey and Management Plan’ (2004)

Statements of Importance, Section 2.4:

‘The following are summary statements of the importance of key elements of the Whiteford Park historic landscape abstracted from the following report:

• Whiteford is a small and fairly simple landscape park of c1775 laid out for and probably designed by Sir John Call, an engineer newly returned to Cornwall from a colonial career in India. It is typical of such modest parks in terms of its main design elements: a park with scattered trees and clumps framed by plantations and looked over from a country house and a ‘temple’, and with a lake at its furthest, lowest point. The whole was laid

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17

out to take advantage of a broad valley (Luckett River) with a great rounded hill (Kit Hill) to one side and the distant hills of Dartmoor ahead in the distance. It is of the family of landscape parks influenced but not designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and is thus an example of Britain’s great contribution to world art, the landscape park designed to simulate Arcadia.

• The majority of the structural elements of this small parkland remain with a number of important parkland trees survive. These features distinguish the landscape from its purely agricultural surroundings. These structural elements form the framework upon which a number of parkland features can be re-instated. The two central foci of the park, the site of Whiteford House and the Temple remain in private ownership and any scheme should involve an input from these owners

• The parkland’s development was as fast as its fall: The parkland should be thought of as the physical embodiment of Sir John Call, an important local figure in the late 18th century, the parkland complimenting his other works in Cornwall including his tomb/folly on Kit Hill and Bodmin Gaol.

• The influence of Whiteford and the Call family went far beyond the bounds of the parkland. By 1841 Sir William Pratt Call owned 2,500 acres of Stoke Climsland parish, enabling him and the Call family to manipulate the landscape on a massive scale. The two most visible examples of this are the Whiteford and Holmbush plantations. The built environment was also influenced as many of the farms and houses that were owned by the Call family were updated.

• The plantations further distinguished the parkland from the surrounding agricultural landscape. These would have been important in the control of the visual landscape and enabled people to interpret Whiteford as a designed landscape. The parkland trees together with the plantations record the manipulation of views and the transient nature of the parkland. Every angle and feature of the parkland was part of a series of controlled views and without the surrounding plantations, paths and rides the built features sit dislocated within the landscape.

• The semi-improved grassland, parkland trees and waterside habitats make Whiteford Park an important area of ecological value; a landscape which is linked to other areas such as Kit Hill and the Tamar Valley. Any schemes should seek to improve the ecological value of the agricultural landscape.

• The Whiteford landscape, if partially re-instated would provide a stunning setting for events and courses of the Duchy College. It would add a further dimension to equestrian events, significantly enhance the aesthetics of the golfing range, and provide a more balanced landscape within which all the activities and interested groups of the college could participate – a parkland combining both pleasure with a working agricultural estate; an ideal that would sit happily with the ethos of Sir John Call. College students could be involved in aspects of the proposed restoration and 12 the rationale for its components should be transmitted to the students through the courses, newsletters, etc.

• Whiteford House, its parkland and the Call family have had a considerable impact on the landscape and community of Stoke Climsland parish past and present. Any landscaping works should seek to enhance the parkland for local, interested groups and should be tied in with enhanced access arrangements.’

Assessment and Evaluation Template v2.1 (DJR) 14/06/17