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Summary

Landscaped park associated with a predecessor of Arlington House. Possibly with 16th century origin.

Location

Protected Status

• Registered Park or Garden (II*) 1000687: ARLINGTON COURT
• SHINE: Earthworks, including building platforms/terraces and below-ground archaeological remains on site of former Manor at Arlington Court

Other References/Statuses

• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PARK (XVI to XVIII - 1501 AD to 1800 AD (Between))

Full description

Lovie, J., 2009, Arlington Court, Devon: Conservation Statement Prepared by Johnathan Lovie for the National Trust, 12 (Report - non-specific). SDV352139.

The principal source of evidence for the layout of the landscape associated with the manor house which preceded Colonel Chichester’s 1790 house is the survey produced by Charles Hassall in 1776 . This shows that the house stood to the south of the parish church, with a group of four or six garden enclosures arranged in a rectangular configuration to the south of the house. The gardens were bounded to the east by the Southern Grove Wood. A corresponding block of plantation, the Northern Grove Wood, is shown to the east of the house and to the north of a drive which extends from east to west, separating the house from the gardens. To the south-west of the group of six gardens, a further rectangular enclosure is shown; perhaps the kitchen garden, the south-western corner of the enclosure is adjoined by a group of buildings which may be stables.
Hassall indicates that the area known today as the Wilderness was, in 1776, a series of five orchard enclosures descending the valley. The upper enclosure, Horner Orchard, is shown containing two rectangular ponds. A further pond is shown in Lower Culvercombe Orchard; this area is also identified as the ‘potato plot’.
The gardens and orchards delineated by Hassall are shown surrounded by agricultural land, rather than parkland. To the south of the house and gardens a single large enclosure, Great Gratton is shown, with a drive or track forming its western boundary. This appears to have been an approach to the old house, but it should be noted that it passed to the east of the Wilderness valley.
At first sight the Hassall survey (1776) appears to show a typically prosperous Devon manor barton with productive gardens and orchards; an essentially vernacular landscape with few designed elements and little if any overall aesthetic plan. However, what is shown may equally be the representation of a more sophisticated 16th-, 17th- or early 18th century garden in decline.
The arrangement of the group of six gardens south of the house is interesting in that it appears to relate to the facade of the house; while the walk shown running north to south through the garden enclosures may have accentuated an axial relationship between the gardens and the building, suggesting a degree of aesthetic sophistication.
Similarly, the use of the names Northern and Southern Grove Wood is interesting. In the 17th century, a ‘grove’ signified a regular ornamental plantation, usually with the trees arranged in straight lines. Straight walks (or later, in the early 18th century, serpentine walks) would be cut through the plantation. Groves were often arranged symmetrically within the garden plan, divided, as here at Arlington, by an axial walk. It has been plausibly suggested that the mature sweet chestnut surviving at the north-eastern corner of the present paddock is a remnant of one of the Grove Woods; the use of such a species would be appropriate in an ornamental grove.
While it might be assumed that the orchards in the valley to the west of the house were purely utilitarian features, it is important to remember that in the 16th- and 17th century garden the orchard was seen as an extension of the ornamental garden. The arrangement of fruit trees along the sides of the valley with ponds and the stream below again suggests a degree of ornamental purpose combined with the practical.
On the basis of the map evidence, it appears that the pre-1790 house was set in a series of gardens with a symmetrical pair of ornamental groves to the east. The gardens may have been terraced from east to west, descending to a series of partly ornamental orchards and fish ponds in the valley to the west of the house. On stylistic grounds, it would be reasonable to date this layout to the early 17th century; it is possible that it is earlier.
In considering the early gardens at Arlington, the family’s recusant status may be significant. Other recusants elsewhere in England created significant gardens at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century. There is no evidence to suggest that the Chichesters created anything as ambitious or extensive as the gardens laid out by Thomas Tresham at Lyveden, from 1594; but there are elements in common such as the use of orchards in association with water, as well as terraces and groves. It has been suggested that for a 16th century Catholic, an orchard could have a symbolic reference to the Garden of Gethsemane . It is also potentially significant that some of the Catholic priests active in England in the late 16th- and early 17th century adopted the disguise of a gardener: one such, Hugh Hall, was employed by the non-recusant Sir Christopher Hatton, and designed the gardens at Holdenby House, Northamptonshire.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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