Monument Type(s):

• GARDEN (Early 19th century to Early 20th century (pre-war) - 1800 AD to 1913 AD)
• PARK (Early 19th century to Early 20th century (pre-war) - 1800 AD to 1913 AD)

Summary

Early to mid 19th century park and gardens around Acton Scott Hall (PRN 00169).

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA6493 - 1995 excavation, measured drawing and photographic record of the walled garden at Acton Scott Hall by SCCAS

Description

Acton Scott Hall (PRN 00169)is one of the county's earliest brick houses, a four-square, two-and-a-half storey building, probably of c. 1580 (cf. forthcoming survey and history in V.C.H. Shropshire, vols. 5 and 10). It lies 200m north-east of the village church, and it may be that when the hall was rebuilt c. 1580 the opportunity was also taken to resite the capital messuage in a new, and more private location.->

-> Before remodelling in the early 19th century the Hall's principal entrance was in the centre of the main, south [called thus for convenience; actually south-west] facing façade. In 1776, as probably since the late 16th century, that door led straight on to a square 40 x 40 m bowling green (called thus on 1776 map: Shrops. R.O. 3925/115/1 and accompanying survey in 3925, box 10) , which remains as a lawn. The walls around that were pierced by gates with tall brick and stone piers surmounted with urns. The piers appear to be of mid 18th-century date and thus temp. Edward Acton, the rebuilder of the Home Farm where again high quality brick and stone was used. The original situation of those gates is uncertain, some rearrangement having taken place in the early 19th century (see below). Today one piered gate lies at the north end of the west wall of the former bowling green, and a single pier midway along the west side. The associated gates and railings are early 19th-century. ->

-> East of the Bowling Green the ground falls away, giving long views across to Wenlock Edge two miles to the south-east. In 1776 a small building abutted the outside of the south-east corner of the Bowling Green and thus enjoyed this view, almost certainly this being the stone-built summerhouse demolished in 1811 (Stackhouse diary). A stone keystone carved with an open-jawed lion's head, perhaps mid 18th-century, recently found lying in a shrubbery, may well be from this building. It would have looked across the Hall Garden (so called on 1776 map), which extended c. 60 m northwards of it to the boundary wall leading off the north side of the Hall, and by c. 50 m to the south. In 1776 a 'kitchen garden' extended for c. 40 m to the immediate north of the Hall. ->

-> Edward Acton, lord of Acton Scott 1747-75, as well as being the rebuilder of the Home and other farms, was an enthusiastic grafter and planter of apple and pear trees. He also planted up the estate with fir, larch, Spanish Chestnut, elm, beech, walnut and lime, and in 1771 created a plantation of Scots firs on Oakwood common. His notebook (Shrops. R.O. 2563/35, p.27) further notes that in 1765 'I planted the trees in the form of a crescent upon the Castle Hill', that being the steep bluff above the main Church Stretton-Hereford road west of Acton Scott. On the of castle Hill are the remains of a stone seat or summer house, which may be this period rather than associated with the later Stackhouse Acton period improvements.->

-> The gardens and grounds of Acton Scott Hall, along with the rest of the estate, extensively altered and modernized in the 15 years after the arrival as lord of T.P. Stackhouse in 1807 (ct. V.C.H. Shropshire 10). The Hall itself was considerably modernized, in 1817 a heated conservatory (entered from the Hall) being built on to its west side facing on to the old Bowling Green. That conservatory, of three main bays and with a flat, downsloping roof with fishscale glass panes, survives largely intact, especially notable being its internal fittings, these being visible on a ? Mid 19th-century watercolour of the conservatory (reproduced in Sotheby's Catalogue of sale 17 & 24 May 1984, no. 116). Those fittings include a stone flagged floor with ornamental voids to allow the planting of specimens; a tall, stone-edged bed along the south, front, of the conservatory; and along the back, north, wall a low stone stage, the central portion of which originally comprised an ornamental rockery. Also surviving is much of the light wood decorative tracery, and a lead cistern. Alterations to the Hall, beginning in 1811, were to the plan of Joseph Bromfield, but whether his work included the conservatory is not known. ->

-> In 1818 (Stackhouse diary) a 'bath' was 'put up' in the 'room at the end of the greenhouse', heated by a furnace. The room, no longer extant, is believed to have lain at the opposite end of the conservatory to the Hall (inf. From Mr. A. Acton). The furnace does still survive, in one of the stone lean-to buildings built behind the back wall of the conservatory. ->

-> By the time the conservatory was added the Hall's surrounds had been transformed (for what follows unless otherwise noted see Stackhouse diary). In 1807 shrubberies began to be planted, it perhaps also being then that the 'old, tumbledown' walls around the Bowling Green were demolished (Stackhouse Acton Reminiscences, 1812). A 'good, dry walk' was made from the hall to the church (Shrops. R.O. 1066/71, f. 42). More work on the shrubberies and walls followed in 1808, and in 1809 Stackhouse sent to Scotland for 10,000 two-year old larch and 5,000 Scotch firs for planting around the estate. Also in 1809 hedges were removed to improve the views to Hatton and to Wenlock Edge, and an old pigeon house (further Edward Acton work of the 1760s?) was demolished. In 1811 Coalbrookdale railings were purchased for the 'plantations', presumably the shrubberies which by 1820 (Shrops.R.O. 3925/115/2) extended along the east side of the road between the Hall and the church, around the north and east sides of the hall, along the west side of the main drive, and around the crossroads 400 m north-west of the Hall. In 1810 Thomas Cole was hired as gardener. Over the next two years he replaced the old apple and cherry trees (many of them perhaps lanted in the mid 18th century by Edward Acton: V.C.H. Shropshire 10) with new ones from London, widened the flower borders, planted 'American plants' in 'bog earth' (peat was locally available as the diaries show), levelled the ground at the d of the Bowling Green and made a sunken fence there, and 'destroyed the grass walk', the last perhaps being defined in 1776 by a short ?avenue leading the small court on the north of the Hall to Henley Lane. Large scale planting continued generally on the estate, 20,000 seedlings being ordered from London in course of the year, those including firs, Canadian poplar, and larch (Shrops. .2563150, garden accounts). In 1813 (Shrops. R.O. 2563/50) the considerable of E14 195. 3d. Was spent on repairing the greenhouse and shed. In 1817 the ling Green gate' was pulled down to make way for the new conservatory, the being re-erected in 1820 where it stood in 1994 at the end of a walk (probably created in 1807: see above) leading via the shrubbery to the public road opposite the church. Also probably removed in 1817 was the old public road Wolverton, which until then had run east from the church and across the end of the Hall Garden. It was replaced by a new road c. 1/4 mile to the south. Also moved, in this case north to its present alignment, was the road to Hatton. At some stage before 1820 a new main drive was contrived, which left the public road 300 m south of the church and looped around the eastern edge of the grounds and the Hall Garden to the remodelled north side of the Hall (Shrops. R.O. 3925, box 10, Map of farms at Acton Scott 1820). Between 1820 and 1839 an old quarry in the shrubbery west of the main drive 250 m south-west of the Hall had been turned into the Rock, or Quarry, garden (Shrops. R.O. 3925/115/2 and survey in 3925, box 10; P4/T/1/1). ->

-> The changes wrought by Stackhouse had the effect of creating extensive private grounds north, and especially south of the Hall, in which vast numbers of evergreen shrubs were used both to create that privacy as well as in their own right as specimens. Around the Hall itself were flower beds, a conservatory, and large numbers of cast iron urns for flowers, many of them spaced along terrace walls. No designer seems to have been employed, presumably because none was felt necessary. Stackhouse himself came from a family well versed in the natural sciences and by 1812 (Shrops. R.O. 2563/50) was a member of the Horticultural Society of London (from 1861 Royal H.S), while his wife was the eldest daughter of Thomas Andrew Knight, F.A.S. (1759-1838) of Downton Castle (Herefs.), the celebrated botanist, horticulturist and from 1811 President of the Horticultural Society, and niece of Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824), proponent of the Picturesque. By 1812 (Shrops. R.O. 2563/50) a gardener, Thomas Cole, was employed at Acton Scott at a salary of £35. ->

-> Stackhouse died in 1835 and changes to the grounds in the mid 19th century, or at least their visual aspects, were probably largely the responsibility of his widow Frances who lived at the Hall until her death in 1881. Three lodges were built: two on the main drive up from the Church Stretton-Hereford road, and a third (once the Gardener's lodge, now Wenlock lodge) on the Hatton road. After 1839 (Shrops.R.O. P4rr/1/1), but perhaps within a few years, the old Hall Garden was modified and terraced, the main terrace, the Archery Ground, being overlooked by covered seat (no longer extant 1994) near the site of the old summerhouse. In 28 the north-east end of the Archery Ground was extended and a grass tennis court made. (Estate Ledger c.1925-61 , at Acton Scott Hall 1994). Probably at the e time that the Hall Garden was done away with new kitchen gardens with a vinery were created 100 m north-east of the Hall, with tall, stone capped brick walls three sides, the garden being bounded on the south-east by a hedge. On top of e ha-ha. In Quarry Garden (which had a grotto like entrance on the south-east a winding passage entrance with a niche for a bust on the north, and had a cascade, pools, and winding flights of steps) two chalets (one built pre-1867: Shropshire R.O. OR 2244/6; photos at Acton Scott Hall and Beds. R.O.) were built Swiss style, one on the north-west lip of the garden and overlooking it and her near its centre. It was probably also Mrs. Acton who installed hypocaust which she excavated from the Roman villa site 300 m north-east of Acton Hall, into the eastern part of the rock garden. ->

-> Changes to the gardens in the 20th century, some of which are noted above, were very few and mostly minor in character. In 1937, for instance, a section of the flower garden wall was lowered to improve the outlook from the servants' hall, and in 1947 the conservatory was repaired at a cost of £47.
By 1827 the fields east of the hall were deemed parkland (C. & J. Greenwood, Map of Salop.), by 1891 this extending to Hatton Wood (O.S. 6", LXIV.NW). <2>

Within the walled kitchen garden gravel and pea-grit path surfaces have been excavated, some edged with stone roof-slates, one including "Chelsea" tiles. Just outside the walled garden, the remains of a ha-ha were also excavated, formed from a bank of redeposited natural and topsoil, with a revetment dry-stone wall on the eastern edge. On the western side, the remains of a brick structure were terraced into the hillside. This brick structure can be identified as one shown on both the 1st and 2nd edition 1:2500 OS plans, on the latter of which it is shown as a glass-house. The ha-ha was probably a continuation of the one running outside the north side of the walled garden and linking this to the stone wall beneath the holly hedge which forms the southern side of the garden. Traces of the stone wall revetting were also seen further south. A number of similar sized oak and ash trees were growing out of the top of the bank. Several of these had recently been cut down - a count of the rings on one of the stumps gave an approximate age of c. 60 years at time of felling. <3>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2007 and 2008. <4>-<10>

Shropshire's Historic Landscape Characterisation Project noted an ornamental carriage drive extending to thewest of the main parkland area, and marked on 2nd edition Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping. The GIS polygon was extended on this basis. <12><13><14>

<01> Stamper Paul A, 1993, A Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire, p436-437 (Field survey report). SSA10241.

<02> Stamper Paul A, 1996, Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire - A Compendium of Site Reports Compiled 1994 - 1997, Site Reports for Historic Environment Team (Field survey report). SSA10287.

<03> Hannaford Hugh R & Stamper Paul A, 1995, An archaeological and historical study of the walled kitched garden, Acton Scott Hall, Acton Scott, Shropshire (Archaeological fieldwork report). SSA23698.

<04> Shropshire Council, 2007-Sep-7, SA0708_140 to SA0708_143 (4 photos) Flight: 07_SA_08 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA26941.

<05> Shropshire Council, 2008-Jan-30, SA0802_052 to SA0802_056 and SA0802_059 (6 photos) Flight: 08_SA_02 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA26958.

<06> Shropshire Council, 2007-Sep-7, SA0708_057 (1 photo) Flight: 07_SA_08 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA25071.

<07> Shropshire Council, 2008-Jan-30, SA0802_002 (1 photo) Flight: 08_SA_02 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA25240.

<08> Shropshire Council, 2008-Jan-30, SA0802_060 (1 photo) Flight: 08_SA_02 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA25447.

<09> Shropshire Council, 2008-Jun-8, SA0804_002 to SA0804_005 (4 photos) Flight: 08_SA_04 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA25724.

<10> Shropshire Council, 2008-Jun-8, SA0804_006 to SA0804_010 (5 photos) Flight: 08_SA_04 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA25725.

<11> Musson Chris R, 1999-Jul-26, CPAT 99/C/0670 (Oblique aerial photograph). SSA27653.

<12> Wigley Andy, 2002/ 2004, Comments made by Historic Landscape Characterisation Officer to SMR (VERBAL COMMUNICATION). SSA20741.

<13> Ordnance Survey, c1899-1903, OS County Series 1:2500 maps (2nd edition) - digital dataset (Map). SSA20952.

<14> Carey Giles, 2014 onwards, Comments by Giles Carey, HER compiler in HER database, 18/12/2015 (HER comment). SSA26784.

Sources

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