Monument Type(s):

• GARDEN (Mid 18th century to 21st century - 1728 AD to 2099 AD)
• PARK (Early 19th century - 1800 AD to 1837 AD)

Summary

By the early 19th century the grounds around Burford House (PRN 10753), built 1728, were quite extensive, and the gardens included a summerhouse (PRN 10754) of the same period as the house. In the 1950s the house was purchased by the Treasure brothers, who extensively replanted the gardens, and opened them to the public.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events: None recorded

Description

Burford House (Listed Grade II*: 825/31/3) is a plain, six-bay, red brick house completed in 1728 for William Bowles, proprietor of the Vauxhall glass works. It lies on the county's southern border, overlooking the confluence of the Ledwych Brook and a tributary of the River Teme. Bowles had bought the house shortly before from George Legh of High Legh (Chesh.), who had married the daughter and heir of Sir Francis Cornwall of Burford. Bowles purchased Burford on the understanding that the estate included a deer park; six years' litigation followed his discovery that it did not (for this and what follows, unless otherwise referenced, see P. Stamper, A Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire (1993), 14-17).->

-> Retained from the old house was the northern arm of its moat, and about the same time that the house was rebuilt Bowles had built at the west end of the moat a summer-house or seat to give a view of the main, north, front of the house. The summerhouse (Listed Grade II*: 825/31/4), in good condition in 1994, has a portico of four slender Tuscan columns, with in the triangular pediment a handsome wrought iron grille incorporating Bowles's arms. The bench seat within the summer-house backs against the semi-circular rear wall, which is of brick. Perhaps also planted at that time was the avenue which ran due north from either end of the moat for 350 m, up to the Ludlow road. In 1827 the ground crossed by the avenue was shown as parkland on the Greenwoods' map (C.& J. Greenwood, Map of Salop.).That avenue survived until the earlier 20th century. It was later echoed by a much shorter avenue of ?Rowan, planted north of the moat in the early 1990s. ->

-> From the 1860s Burford was the home of George Bowles, Lord Northwick d. 1887) (Kelly's Directories; Treasures: A Guided Tour of Burford House Gardens with John Treasure (guidebook, n.d.)). During his time the house was greatly extended by the addition of east and west wings (demolished in the 1950s), and the surviving documentation indicates a similar campaign on the gardens. From 1865 large numbers of trees, both ornamentals and for fruit, were introduced, . Principally from Northwick but also by purchase from nurseries (Shrops. R.O. 1497/14-15. See also /16, for a notebook of 1868 giving the location of each apple and pear tree, its 'leaden label' number [a number of these leaden labels are on display in the small museum at Burford House], the variety, and remarks on its cultivation). From 1866 Northwick was making gifts of trees from Burford in quite large numbers to his fellow country gentry, such as Colonel Hill. That activity, and the number of fruit trees and bushed introduced, suggests that the walled kitchen gardens too, which lay along the north bank of the Ledwych Brook west of the summerhouse, may have been enlarged at that time. By 1994 this area had been largely subsumed into the Burford House Garden Centre, although still extant was the mid 19th-century gardener's cottage at the east end of the garden and the main tall north wall of the garden running westwards from it. It may well be that some of the mature specimen conifers which still survived at Burford in the 1990s, including a Wellingtonia and an Austrian pine, were planted at this time. ->

-> In 1954 Burford was purchased by the Treasures, and between then and his death in 1993 John Treasure turned Burford from a garden that was entirely overgrown into one of the most highly regarded plantsman's gardens in the region (Independent, 23 Dec. 1993, p.14). In terms of long term alterations the east and west wings of the house were demolished, as were many of the service buildings north-east and east of the house, although stretches of walling 2-3 m high were left standing east of the house to serve as new garden walls. Little was done in the way of making additions to the gardens, the one notable addition being a canal pool before the north front of the house.<2>

Oblique aerial photographs of the gardens at Burford House held by the HER. <3>

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.