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Summary

In the early 14th century, a chase of about 90 acres was enclosed in North Wood, being extended to the east several times to create a complex park of approximately 315 acres. At its greatest extent there were two wooded chases, a semi-wooded coursing park at the east end, and two open pastures. Sections of the park including the coursing park were disparked by 1500. The coursing park was reinstated as an ornamental deer park with additional woodlands and a pleasure house in the late 18th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020553: Hilltop enclosure and woodbanks in Chacegrove Wood, 540m north west of Dartington Hall
• Listed Building (II) 1108358: QUAY ON RIVER DART ABOUT 1000 METRES NORTH NORTH EAST OF DARTINGTON HALL AT NGR 802 636
• Scheduled Monument 1020870: Deer park north and north west of Dartington Hall
• Listed Building (II) 1219783: DARTINGTON HALL DEER PARK WALLS
• Registered Park or Garden (II*) 1000453: DARTINGTON HALL
• Scheduled Monument 1020381: Hilltop enclosures in North Wood, 780m NNW of Old Parsonage Farm

Other References/Statuses

• Devon Record Office: Z15/1/1
• Devon Record Office: Z15/1/3
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX76SE/47
• Old SAM Ref: 33785
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX76SE 20

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• DEER PARK (XIV to XV - 1301 AD to 1500 AD (Between))

Full description

Shirley, E. P., 1867, Some Account of English Deerparks, 92 (Monograph). SDV314505.

Leland, J., 1907, Leland's Itinerary 1535-45, 219 (Monograph). SDV343373.

Elmhirst, L. K., 1959, Presidential Address: Some Aspects of the History of Dartington Hall, 20 (Article in Serial). SDV177335.

In 1340 there is mention of a nine foot stone deer park wall, much of which still stands.

Emery, A., 1970, Dartington Hall, 12,17,19,20 (Monograph). SDV343368.

Known to have been enclosed and stocked with deer by 1325. In May 1326, it was estimated that the deer park covered 100 acres. The present stone wall, which is devoid of dateable features, encloses 66 acres. Thought to be the work of the Martin family, who held the manor between the early 12th and mid 14th century. Other details: Photo, plan.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977 - 1980, SX76SE20 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV343374.

North of Bidwell Brook are significant names containing the element 'Buckham Park'. Also names containing 'Park' and 'Warren', and 'Chase' in Chasegrove'.

Gallant, L., 1986, Deer Parks and Paddocks of England (Un-published). SDV656.

Deer park belonging to Dartington Hall was enclosed and stocked by 1325 covering circa 100 acres.

Waterhouse, R., 2000, Notes on the development of Dartington Deer Park (Un-published). SDV352042.

North Wood was enclosed as a hunting chase by 1325 and the walled coursing park for hunting on foot by circa 1400. The rectangular building within and enclosed area at the west end of the coursing park was probably a standing or lodge from which to view the hunt. The area between the two was subsequently also enclosed, possibly by 1413. Staverton Bridge dates from 1413 and it is suggested that the old road to Staverton Ford was closed and the bridge built to replace it with a new road from Huxham's Cross.
Sections of the park were disparked by 1550. A document of that date referring to 'lately disparked' suggests this took place in perhaps the 1540s. There is evidence for the demoliton of the pale around the coursing park and also possibly the north boundary of the infill extension. North Park, however, remained emparked.
By the 17th century the road to Staverton Ford had been rerouted along Park Lane and aound the south-west side of the coursing park. Staverton Bridge is recorded as being in decay in the 17th century, so it appears that the ford had been reinstated as a river corssing.
The coursing park was reinstated as an ornamental deer park in the later 18th century with a limestone wall with a parapet around it. Thistlepark Plandation, Park Copse and Staverton Ford Plantation were created, all enclosed by low stone-faced banks with a ha-ha. A stone pleasure house with a pyramidal slate roof was constructed which is shown in Revd John Swete's painting of the park of 1801. It is suggested that the re-emparking was the work of Arthur Champernowne who lived at Dartington in the late 18th to early 19th century and had an interest in landscape gardening.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2002, Deer Park North and North-west of Dartington Hall (Schedule Document). SDV343369.

This monument, which falls into two separate areas of protection, includes the enclosing earthworks of a medieval deer park located on the undulating ground between two spurs overlooking a broad curve in the River Dart to the north. In the early 14th century, a chase of about 90 acres (about 36 hectares) was enclosed in North Wood, being extended to the east several times to create a complex park of approximately 315 acres (about 127 hectares). At its greatest extent there were two wooded chases, a semi-wooded coursing park at the east end, and two open pastures. Parts of the park were disparked shortly before 1550. Earthwork enclosures in North Wood and Chacegrove Wood form the subject of separate schedulings. The enclosing earthwork or park pale varies in design, but mostly consists of a heavy earth bank measuring between 3 metres and 3.5 metres wide and up to 1.7 metres high, with a steep inner face, falling into an inner ditch from 2 metres to 4 metres wide and up to 1.5 metres deep. Occasionally, an upcast bank runs inside this, measuring 1.5 metres wide and up to 0.3 metres high. An outer ditch is sometimes present, measuring up to 3 metres wide and up to 0.3 metres deep. On the south-west side of Newground Plantation, the bank is 7 metres wide, surviving 1 metre high with a flat berm 3 metres wide outside it, followed by an outer ditch 5 metres wide and up to 0.6 metres deep. An upcast bank outside this is 3 metres wide and 0.3 metres high. Several entrances to the park exist, but the only early ones are in the southern pale, 250 metres south-east of Chacegrove Wood, and at the north end of Warren Lane. In Thistlepark Plantation, a strip of ground inside the pale measures 25 metres wide and at least 200 metres long. It has an inner medieval woodbank 5 metres wide and 1.5 metres high, closely followed by a post-medieval woodbank 5 metres wide, rising gently 0.6 metres and falling vertically 1 metre into a ditch 2 metres wide and 0.3 metres deep. This side is faced with limestone rubble. A tapering medieval fishpond at the east end of Stillpool Coppice is 75 metres long and 15 metres wide at its north end. Two phases of dams at its north end include a heavy earth bank alongside the river, 8 metres wide, 2 metres high and surviving up to 25 metres long. This was replaced by a clay dam 5 metres to its south, faced with limestone rubble, 2 metres wide and surviving 1.5 metres high. Three medieval fishponds survive on a north-east to south-west alignment north of the Old Postern. The upper pond is of trapezoidal shape and lies inside Newground Plantation, using the park pale as its dam. It measures 40 metres wide, tapering to 20 metres; it is 45 metres long and 0.5 metres deep. The middle pond is 35 metres wide, 50 metres long and 0.3 metres deep. Its dam is 3 metres wide and has been remodelled in the 19th century as a rustic waterfall within a garden, of horseshoe layout, 1.5 metres high. The lower pond is of tapering form, 75 metres long, 30 metres wide at its south end and 1.5 metres deep. A 19th century rustic butter well has been inserted into its west side. The dam is an earthwork 3.5 metres wide and 1.2 metres high. All three ponds are generally dry, although water collects in the upper and lower ones in the winter. In Staverton Ford Plantation, there is a circular earthwork enclosure containing a medieval hunting lodge which measures 73 metres across its visible earthworks. The enclosure rises 1.7 metres above the surrounding land and contains an earthwork of a rectangular stone building, aligned east to west and measuring 13 metres wide and 20 metres long. Its walls are from 1 metre to 3 metres wide and survive up to 0.7 metres high. Short lengths of wall on its south side create small additional rooms against earthworks of an ovoid stone curtain wall which measures 29 metres from east to west and 41 metres from north to south. The wall is from 2 metres to 3.5 metres thick and rises between 0.6 metres and 1 metre from the interior, falling up to 1.5 metres outside. An entrance 3 metres wide in the east side has inturns from the curtain wall 2 metres long, while on the north side, an entrance 2 metres wide has traces of a stone abutment for a timber bridge across the outer ditch. Outside the curtain wall, a sloping berm between 4 metres and 6 metres wide, falls 0.4 metres to the lip of an outer ditch 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep. An upcast bank is 6 metres wide and from 0.2 metres to 0.5 metres high. In the post-medieval period, two stone faced woodbanks 2 metres wide and 1 metres high were built up to the north and south sides of the enclosure, and limestone facing built against its south-east side, forming two projecting horns, with woodland within. In 1738, Thomas Serell of Staverton was contracted to build a stone wall around the eastern park. This wall, which is Listed Grade II, is of mortared limestone rubble, 2 metres high and 0.4 metres wide was built along the outside of the medieval pale, with gates at its north east corner and west side, where a carriage drive along the river bank from Totnes, passed through it. A pedestrian gate 1.1 metres wide cuts the wall beside the river at the park's north east corner, while a deer leap 100 metres west of Warren Lane is marked by a lowering in the wall's height to 1.3 metres for a distance of 10 metres. Pedestrian stiles 0.8 metres wide, reached by flights of steps, cut the wall 80 metres west of this leap and 50 metres south of the river at the north-east corner. Beside the River Dart east of Stillpool Coppice, a heavy earthwork bank 15 metres wide and from 0.5 metres to 1.2 metres high runs alongside the river. This is a flood defence bank of post-medieval date. At intervals along the river bank, limestone rubble piers project out into the river at an angle of about 30 degrees. These were used as groynes to reduce erosion and measure from 3.5 metres to 5 metres wide, up to 2 metres high and vary from 15 metres to 30 metres long. One of these piers, outside the scheduling, bears the date 1783. Other details: Map.

Morrison, I., 2002, Deer Park Walls, Dartington Hall, Devon (Correspondence). SDV347967.

Following a site meeting it was observed that the Dartington deer park wall was in need of repair. It recommended that a management plan should be initiated. This would consist of a brief historical assessment of the origins and development of the wall, a detailed work programmed for its repair and maintenance and a vegetation/tree management regime.

English Heritage, 2003, Deer Park North and North-west of Dartington Hall (Correspondence). SDV346624.

Notification affirming the scheduling of the monument following a review.

Emery, A., 2008, Dartington Hall: A Mirror of the Nobility in Late Medieval Devon, 242-248 (Article in Serial). SDV361760.

Landscape setting. The Deerpark is seen as a less ordered backdrop in the view from Dartington Hall.

Baines, C., 2009, Dartington Deer Park (Personal Comment). SDV343371.

A document dated 15th June 1550, in the Devon Record Office, refers to "the Park of Dartyngton lately disparked called Southefelde, alias Dartyngton Parke". Another dated 1559 refers to "Dertington Chase, otherwise Northwode". Other details: DRO/Z15/1/1 & 3.

English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009: South West, 107 (Report - non-specific). SDV342694.

Generally satisfactory condition, but with significant localised problems.

English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010: South West, 100 (Report - non-specific). SDV344777.

English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011: South West, 104 (Report - non-specific). SDV355280.

Generally satisfactory condition, but with significant localised problems. Stable.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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