Extract of the survey on Orchard Wyndham, Williton
Few houses stay within the same family for 800 hundred years, but Orchard Wyndham is one of them, having been handed down for generations, not always down the male line, but always in the family.
The house and garden of Orchard Wyndham are tucked into a ring of low hills inland from the sea at Watchet, with a stream, called Willett, running through the estate. Beyond lie the Brendon Hills, the Quantocks and Exmoor. So well hidden is Orchard Wyndham that it escaped the notice, not only of the marauding Vikings, but the Domesday survey. By that time the land round the present house was well settled, sheltered from the north by a steep bank; on Blackdown, a hill to the south of the house, there are signs of Bronze Age settlement and remains of a Roman fortification. The remains of a Saxon drainage system, hollowed out oak trees rammed together, were found under the Great Hall in the 1960s.
Little is known of the history of the garden in the early years, but the land is sheltered and fertile and there is water from the hills; a lake, to the east of the house has an outlet to a stock pond beside the house which is now an attractive feature of the garden. A 13th century garden lay inside a wall south east of the house.
The earliest dated record, 1287, shows that the land was owned by the Orchard, or de Horcherd, family who lived there until the 15th century. When the male line came to an end, an Orchard daughter, Joan, married Richard Popham of Alfoxton, and their daughter, Joan, married John Sydenham of Combe, in 1448. The house then became known as Orchard Sydenham.
At this time the house was greatly extended and took on the form of two inner courtyards, divided by the great hall of an earlier building, enclosed by new ranges to the north and west. The new building included a larger Great Hall which is still the principal room in the house. A painting by Robert Griffier in the mid 18th century shows further ranges which are thought to have been built at the same time but which have long since been demolished.
When, in 1528, the male line again failed, the daughter Elizabeth Sydenham married John Wyndham from Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, the house became known as Orchard Wyndham, and has been in the Wyndham family ever since - a family who, over the centuries, have served their county and country in many and various ways, often with great distinction.
In addition to the baronetcy conferred by James I (one of the earliest), in 1661 William Wyndham was given a baronetcy by Oliver Cromwell, confirmed by Charles II in 1661, but it seems that it was the 3rd baronet, also Sir William, who made many changes at Orchard Wyndham. He had been a prominent figure in London, and had become Queen Anne’s Chancellor in 1713, but was arrested as one of the chief Jacobite leaders in the West Country. He managed to escape arrest, but later gave himself up and was held prisoner in Tower of London until 1716. He was then released on condition that he stayed at home at Orchard Wyndham. It was then that he set to work on alterations and improvements to the house and grounds.
Between 1701 and 1703 severe gales had devastated many trees on the estate and much work was needed to re-stock and landscape it. The park was extended, old woods were re-shaped and new woods planted, avenues criss-crossed the park and up to Blackdown, which was approached by Down Walk. The walk is planted with holm oaks and rhododendrons. Blackdown Wood on the hill extended to 47 acres and was planted in the 1740s with native trees - oaks, sweet chestnut, Scots pine and many others - divided by wide walks and vistas; white iron seats furnished a belvedere. The wood was again badly devastated by gales in 1987. A ring of beeches which had been planted round the hill in the 19th century survived the storm, but the centre of the wood was devastated, apart from a few surviving specimens. The wood has since been replanted with the same mix of trees.
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At the foot of the hill a woodland path to the right, called Lady Anne’s Walk, leads up past the upper pond; now, beside the path there are Chilean beech, oak, ash, holm oak, beech, horse chestnut, yew, holly, laurel and lime trees. A path to the left leads towards the main lawn in front of the house through what had been planted as a Wild Garden. An ancient holm oak dominates, surrounded by cyclamen, but amongst other trees and shrubs are arbutus, liriodendron, ginko, variegated ilex and viburnum. Standing sentinel at an iron gate into the main garden are two large laurels - the story goes that the four maiden sisters of Mr William Wyndham who lived in the house in the early 20th century, used to seek shade and ‘take tea’ within them!
Sir William retained the old upper and stock ponds, which are still there, and built a new circular fountain pond in front of his drawing room, fed by a rill (partly underground) from the stock pond. Part of the round pond is a circle paved with grey lias containing ammonites and other fossils and would have been a shallow mirror pond. This pond is still there, but has been surrounded by a much larger stonewall-walled pond, with central fountain spout on a cone of stones; both are unused and overgrown, but it is hoped that, with the help of a grant from the Somerset Gardens Trust, the pond will be restored to its former glory.
Sir William also built an ice house close to the northern corner of the house, against the steep bank which protects the house from the north winds.
In 1725 a new garden was developed half a mile from the house, to the west of it - a walled garden for growing fruit and vegetables, with a south facing slope towards the stream which runs across the park, and sheltered by a long brick wall. At the centre of the northwest wall is a small house with a pyramid roof where the head gardener lived. The Griffier painting in the Great Hall shows a wall along the south side of the new garden, but it is no longer there.
William Brown was the first head gardener and responsible for creating the garden which would have provided a large variety of produce for the House. Later, it was used to grow fruit and on a commercial scale. Accounts dated 1837 show that large quantities of cabbage, broccoli and pea seeds were bought, as were 159 old and 84 young black currant , 87 old and 73 young red currant, 38 old and 27 young white currant bushes, 400 gibbles of different lines for grafting, 170 young grafted apple trees, 5 walnuts, 17 young cherry trees and 17 dwarf grafted cherry trees and 77 cherry stocks, 148 gooseberry bushes, 5 raspberry and 51 strawberry beds. The following year more vegetable seeds, in a greater variety, to the value of £3.0.4d were bought.
It may have been at this time that the run of the stream was altered to include 15 small weirs to add interest to those walking up to the walled garden.
Sir William’s son, Sir Charles, through his father’s marriage to Catherine Seymour, inherited titles including that of the Earl of Egremont. Although he lived mainly at Petworth in Sussex, he maintained an interest in Orchard Wyndham and built the Giant’s Cave on Blackdown, an artificial grotto, for his son, the 3rd earl who was born in 1751.
The 4th Earl of Egremont inherited the title from his uncle and came to live at Orchard Wyndham, where he found the estate in rather a poor state. He, George Wyndham, had served his country at both the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo. He made many changes in the house and in the garden. He added a gazebo on top of the ice house and built a conservatory on the southwest side of the Sydenham range of buildings. This was blown down in 1987 and a new glass house built, but retaining the old piping and window fittings and the central dipping pond. Rather more importantly, it is home to a dark red camellia, one of the earliest camellias to be brought to this country. The variety of camellia is not known but it produces a profuse number of flowers every year from November onwards.
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It was the 4th Earl who built the drive to Williton, which is the principal drive in use today. On its way through the park it is lined with limes and walnuts with two large oaks. At one time it had been planted with Chilean oaks which did not survive. The drive to Lower Stream is also still in use; beside it are some magnificent oriental planes. Nine young trees have been propagated from them and are growing well beside the old trees. The avenue towards Watchet, which was the original access is now just a path with a bridge over the stream and up towards the 18th century garden. This old drive is shown in pictures as having been an avenue, as it still is, now flanked by poplar trees which were planted about in 1940 with a grant from Bryant & May, the match makers. It was not until the 1950s that a service drive was re-made, behind the orchard of the Bailiff’s House.
Between the drive and the lawn is an extensive shrubbery with several mature trees. Planting includes eucalyptus, liquidamber, sorbus, arbutus, malus, aseculus, a weeping pine and many other trees and shrubs. A fine lime tree was blown down in 2006. Nearer the house, by a circular carriage drive with a central rose bed, are small shrub beds one with some lovely acers and a flowering prunus. Against the wall of the north wing of the house is a magnificent Magnolia grandiflora.
The early part of the 20th century saw large lawns to the south of the house made into a huge rose garden, with beds in a geometric pattern separated by grass paths. Four small beds close to the drawing room are all that remain of this high-maintenance delight. There is now another long rose bed along the east side of the lawn, planted also with daffodils and alternate round and cuboid clipped box shrubs; one of the original Egremont tea roses survives in this bed by the stock pond and the oldest rose is said to be a standard Omar Khayyam. On the main lawn were two huge lime trees - neither is there now. In the lawn, near the stock pond are now a magnolia, a davidia and a walnut. To the north of the pond is a small laurel maze, somewhat overgrown, and, beside it towards an arch into the stable yard, is a gravelled herb garden, with a vine on the wall.
The early stone-walled garden, between the two ponds, with a rill from the top pond running through, is now no longer cultivated. It had been a vegetable garden for many years, with peach and apricots grown against the sun facing walls; two flourishing fig trees survive, as does a yellow plum, which grew itself from the marker post of a nursery bed of acorns. The glasshouses on the north side are in very poor condition. These form the lower boundary of a large group of brick and stone out buildings which include stables, potting shed, root store, pigsties, kennels, dovecot and a coach house. Early paintings show a pigeon house with conical roof built nearby in what is now called Pigeon Field; it is no longer there.
To the northeast of the house is the Bailiff’s House, and, behind that, an orchard was planted in the 1950s with soft fruit and fruit trees which still grow there: Sturmer pippin, Worcester pearmain, Cox, Egremont Russet. Crawley Beauty, Orleans Reinette and Victoria plum, with an apricot and peach against the back wall. Outside the wall, where a borehole was sunk in 1985 as the water supply coming from Aller was considered too high in nitrates, are a walnut tree and three large robinias.
Orchard Wyndham is a house which has evolved over the centuries, changing with the needs of successive generations of the Wyndham family. In the same way the grounds round the garden have altered to fit the needs of the family and the modes of the times. The last fifty years have necessarily seen great simplification of the gardens, and, with only one gardener at present, the garden may have to become simpler still. However, just as the house has a compelling interest to those who visit it, the garden has a charm and interest which nothing will take away.
Orchard Wyndham is open to the public on several days in the summer months, and to small specialist groups or society groups by prior arrangement at other times of the year. Please enquire for further details at The Estate Office - 01984 632309
[Priscilla Boddington, on behalf of Sarah Day, Rosemary Freemantle and Rosemary Taylor - 2010]
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