Monument Type(s):

• PARK (16th century to Mid 18th century - 1567 AD? to 1750 AD?)
• GARDEN (16th century to Unknown - 1590 AD?)

Summary

Much of the garden layout depicted in a map of 1635 survives, and represents one of the most significant Early Modern landscapes in the county.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA8331 - 1994 DBA at Manor Farm, Shifnal by Tempus Reparatum

Description

-> A map of 1635 (Arundel Castle MS. P513 [copy in S.R.O. 5328/1]) shows the Manor at that date with a sophisticated garden on its south side. Much of that garden layout - argued below to date, from the 1590s - survives, and represents one of the most significant early modern landscapes to survive in the county. It covers c. 2 ha. Of the house itself only one portion survives, a tall north-south range in red sandstone (Listed Grade II [although surely dated too late]: 0380/517), whose south, gable end overlooks the main walled garden.->

-> The maps show that adjoining the house, and abutting each other, were two walled gardens. The smaller, the sandstone and brick walls of which survived in 1994 (partly Listed Grade II: 0380/5/11), lay on the south-west side of the house. It was c. 20 m square, and Occupied by an elaborate circular parterre, at the centre of which was apparently a circular pool or basin. A door, extant in 1994, in the south wall gave access to the box-hedged walks around the main walled garden. The larger walled garden ran due south from the house to the edge of the spur on which it was constructed, being c. 47 m long and c. 30 m wide. At its north end are iron gates and railings of the early 19th century (Listed Grade II: 0380/5/9) Again, the garden walls survive, as does, in the centre of its south wall, an octagonal, two- storeyed summer-house, its lower storey of sandstone and its upper of brick with sandstone dressings and with an ogee roof. The 1635 map shows this roof as blue, and thus presumably of slate or lead, where s when painted in 1846 (Shrews. Local Studies Libr., J.H. Smith watercolour) it was, as in 1994, tiled. The ground floor of the summer-house is entered from a door on its west side below and outside the walled garden. Inside is a fireplace in the east wall, and several wall niches, perhaps for lights. A single two-light window pierces the central, south side wall. On the first floor of the summer-house, to the south, are three sets of two- light windows, originally overlooking the further gardens in that direction. In the later 19th century it was said to be internally panelled to the roof, with cupboards let in to the wainscot, while 'over the door is a stone let in, which has upon it in relief the figure of some quadruped, we fancy of a deer, but it was so high, so worn, and so obscured by ivy that we could not clearly make it out' (J. Randall, Shifnal and its surroundings (1879), 29-30). These features survived in 1994, although the overall condition of the building inside and out was little better than watertight. Midway between the summer-house and the corners of the garden the map indicates that its walls, which are red sandstone topped with brick (standing up to 3 m high to the south and west, and slightly less to the east where the facing stones of the northern section have collapsed) were pierced by windows. Those windows could not be seen in 1994, which may suggest that the south wall of the garden once stood a half metre higher than it does today. Within the walled garden, and arranged about a central axis running from the summer-house to a chimney on the south range of the Manor, was a large, quartered parterre. North of that, and filling an irregular angle between the south and east ranges of the house, were three small garden beds. In 1994 the area was grassed, with a central circular flower bed surrounded by a turning circle for the drive. The potential for the below-ground survival of the mapped garden seems high.->

-> The gardens which lay outside the main walled garden, principally to its south and west, mirrored its wall lines. This area is today completely wild and bramble covered. The map shows that a path, bounded by a hedge, ran around the three outer sides of the garden, with single trees or bushes at the south-west and south- east corners. The line of that hedge was followed by a second, further out, planted along which were regularly spaced trees or bushes. Astonishingly sections of that box hedge survive, notably along the south side and around the summer-house, but also along the east side. What was perhaps the centrepiece of the design lay on the main central axis lay south of the centre of the south hedge, and directly overlooked by the summer-house. That was a heart-shaped pool, with further parterre work filling up the remainder of the hill spur to either side of it. Not shown on the map, although an integral part of the design is a flight of sandstone steps leading from the base of the summerhouse to the pond.->

-> Around the east and south-east sides of the spur is a stream, the Wesley brook, while to the south-west was a broad canal (traceable in 1994 as an earthwork), crossed by a bridge or causeway at its northern end. West of the latter, on rising ground between it and the stream, was a simple wilderness, perhaps with a summer-house or bower at its southern extremity. Beyond, on high level ground to the west, was a large orchard, in 1994 pasture. Along the east side of this in 1994 was a terraced boundary.->

-> Certainly this garden was enjoyed by Anne Dacre, Dowager Countess of Arundel, who was living at Shifnal Manor at the time of her death in 1630. She moved there at some stage after 1616, when Gilbert, 7th earl of Shrewsbury died and was succeeded by his daughter Alathea (d. 1654), wife of Anne's son Thomas Howard (d. 1646), who had been restored as Earl of Arundel and Surrey in 1604, and who was to be created earl of Norfolk in 1644 (J.M. Robinson, The Dukes of Norfolk: A Quincentennial History (1982), genealogical table II). Whether it was created especially for her, or whether - as seems more likely - it had been laid out in the twenty years or so before her arrival is unknown. From about 1594 a programme of repairs and improvements had been set in train by the Earl of Shrewsbury at Shifnal, apparently to make it comfortable in the most fashionable manner. A dining chamber was enlarged c. 1594 (Lambeth Palace Libr., MS. 700, f. 111), perhaps this being the room whose ceiling was raised to 21 feet high and which had a great end window, said by the steward to be 'the stateliest window of timber which ever I did see' (ibid., f. 69). The earl's parlour (which had a cellar beneath) was paved, and the newel stair to his great chamber widened from 3 ft. 6 ins. To almost 5 ft., although there was some debate about how wise it was to also widen the stair up to the lodging above the great chamber in view of the 'great timber' which would have to be cut out to accommodate this. The chief carpenter was Thomas Clay (or Clays), 'as skilful a man as this country yields' (ibid., MS. 694, f. 107). The work was probably complete by the autumn of 1604, when Robert Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, the son of the 1st earl of Dorset, stayed there with the permission of the earl of Shrewsbury for at least several weeks (ibid., MS. 708, f. 227; D.N.B., s.v. Sackville).->

-> That improvements went hand-in-hand with the work on the house, as well as being inherently likely, is suggested very strongly by one element of the garden design, the heart-shaped pond. In the early 1590s the earl of Shrewsbury was said to be surrounded by 'notorious papists and dangerous recusants (Cal. S.P. Dam. 1591-4, p. 174, quoted in GEC., Complete Peeraae, S.V. Shrewsbury), and in this context it is legitimate to see the pond as an allegory, specifically the sacre coeur. While there is no need whatsoever to look outside the country for sources for such a sophisticated and complex garden it can be noted in passing that in 1596 the earl did travel to the continent as Ambassador to Henry IV of France (Complete Peerage, S.V. Shrewsbury).->

-> In the later 16th and 17th centuries there was a park associated with the Manor. In 1597 (Lambeth Palace Libr., MS 704,'f.88) the earl's steward reported 'the deer die in this park at this present and so soon as they be dead the poor folks [of Shifnal] carry them to the town and eat them for very need of meat as this bearer can witness'. In 1604 times were still difficult in the park, and for the steward. The stock then comprised about 210 beasts. In the previous year eleven animals had been accounted for in hunting - legitimate or otherwise - but five times this number from lack of feed. The steward sought to excuse this, explaining it had arisen because 'the best part' of the park had been turned over to tillage, and the hay grounds disparked. Parts of the pale were missing, and his endeavours to manage the park honestly were frustrated not only by 'enemies to the game' among the local population but also by corrupt officials in the earl's own household. The park had been disparked by the mid 18th century (not on J. Rocque, Map of Shropshire (1752)). Its location is indicated by field names to have lain east of the manor, on the southern edge of Shifnal (Shrops. R.O., Shifnal field name map), and it is possible that the stream on which the Manor lay formed the western boundary of the park, Speed's county map of 1611 actually showing the manor to lie within the pale.->

-> Recommendations
That a full survey of the landscape be undertaken by the RCHM. <2>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2007 and 2009. <3><4><5>

Traces of the gardens were identified on the eastern and southern slopes of the promontory during field survey in 1994 - not described in any detail. <6>

Sources

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