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Summary

Unregistered park, documented as a deer park in 1319 and shown as ornamental in the 18th century; largely developed as a golf course in the late 20th century

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• National Monuments Record No.: SU 66 NE 13
  SU 6770 6554 - erroneously under Stratfield Mortimer parish

Monument Type(s):

• DEER PARK (14th century to 16th century - 1319 AD to 1600 AD?)
• LANDSCAPE PARK (18th century to Late 19th century - 1751 AD? to 1900 AD?)
• GOLF COURSE (Late 20th century - Present to Early 21st century - 1999 AD? to 2050 AD)

Full Description

The deer park at Wokefield is first mentioned in 1319 in a complaint by Roger Mortimer about intruders <1>. 'Oakfield House' (the former name for Wokefield) is shown within a designed landscape on Rocque's map <2>, with avenues, woodland and possibly water features. The Victoria County History <3> describes the 210 acres of Wokefield Park in 1907 as one of several Berkshire parks that are not deer-stocked but were well-timbered.

Wokefield Park was noted by the Thames & Chilterns 2003-2005 survey of parkland and wood pasture <4> as having a high number of veteran trees (c20), and a high potential for nature conservation significance.

The First Edition Ordnance Survey mapping of 1872 (covered in Hampshire sheets) <8> shows the mansion and associated buildings set within an area of parkland with many scattered trees. Drives approach the north facade of the house from the west and east, passing gate lodges. Another access point from the southwest passes an unnamed small building, removed by the end of the 19th century. To the south of the mansion is an area of water, back by Pond Wood. The pond or small lake seems likely to have been created About 100m to the east of the mansion is a courtyard complex, likely to be stabling or possibly agricultural buildings. By the 5th Epoch of 1970 <9> most of this courtyard had been demolished but further large yards had been created to the north and east and the area was labelled as St Benedict's Farm, taking its name from the school then using the Wokefield Park buildings.

A planning application in 1989 <13> was approved for a new 18 hole golf course, and this scheme would have largely re-landscaped all the parkland (then in agricultural use) to the east of the main buildings. However a further design which was submitted in 1995 <14> added holes on the north side of the park, and this appears to have been the course that was eventually completed by 1999.

To the west of the mansion in 1872 were further outbuildings, a walled garden, greenhouses and an icehouse. A path led round the outside of the walled garden through an area of enclosed woodland. This developed into a more formal area of planting, still visible during the time of St Benedict's School <9> when there were several greenhouses in the kitchen garden, as well as a swimming pool and gymnasium building to the north. At least some garden walls appear to have been retained in the early 21st century, although greenhouses and the ice house are no longer visible on maps.

A history of Wokefield Park <15> includes this information: The estate appears to have been refurbished in 1820, and the lake may have been created then. Drainage problems arising from the lake's construction meant that the grounds between the house and lake were continually waterlogged. In 1966 clay was taken from the then being constructed M4, and a raised sports pitch made.

An oblique aerial photograph from 1952 <16> shows the historic building and park. The Silchester Iron Age Environs Project <17> mapped many earthwork and cropmark features from a vertical image of this period <18>, including what might have been the deer park pale, some ridge and furrow and other boundaries within the parkland.

The GIS polygon for this park is approximate and has been created using the Historic Landscape Characterisation of designed landscape; a distinction has been made however between Wokefield Park and the parkland of Oakfield to the north, and Mortimer House to the south. However historically there may have been little separation, and what is named Wokefield Park by the end of the 19th century is labelled as Oakfield Park on the 1846 Sulhamstead Lower End <11> and the 1840 Stratfield Mortimer Tithe maps <12>. The Statfield Mortimer tithe map records all of the extent of the designed landscape around Wokefield Park House, though the Sulhamstead one only covers the eastern edges.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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