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Summary

Registered Park, 19th century gardens around a house rebuilt in the mid 19th century, but also including a probable late Saxon centre, a medieval church and deer park, and some 20th century military and industrial structures

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Registered Park or Garden (II) 1000530: Aldermaston Court
• Conservation Area: Aldermaston

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 04130.00.000
  
• Heritage At Risk 2023 (Trend: Declining): Gen unsatisf, maj local probs Vulnerability: High
  Owner Type: Mixed, multiple owners
• National Monuments Record No.: SU 56 SE 29
  SU 5973 6455 - Registered Park
• National Monuments Record No.: SU 66 SW 77
  SU 605 640 - grid reference is for historic extent on Rocque's map

Monument Type(s):

• PARK (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD)
• DEER PARK (13th century to 18th century - 1202 AD to 1750 AD?)
• ORNAMENTAL GARDEN (19th century - 1801 AD to 1900 AD)

Full Description

Aldermaston Court is a Grade II Registered Park with the remnants of mid and late 19th century gardens within medieval parkland <1>. At its most extensive it covered 250ha, but in the 21st century the Registered Area covers c 70ha, due to the loss of the southern part of the designed landscape to 20th century development. The house named Aldermaston Court was built in c1636, although it was largely replaced by the present one in 1848-51 by P C Hardwick. The 19th century landscaping includes elaborate formal gardens, ponds and avenues of yew topiary. Aldermaston Court also has 17th century or earlier woodland with mature oaks, and yew and lime surviving from formal avenues.

The deer park dates from 1202 when royal permission was obtained by William Achard to impark his thicket <7>. Saxton depicted a park here <8> and as late as 1666 a buck from Aldermaston was presented to the Provost of an Oxford college. The manor remained with Achard descendants until the 18th century and the park was then used for ornamental purposes.

In 1843 the house was largely burnt out, and Daniel Burr who bought the estate in c1849, rebuilt it on a site 150m to the south, creating formal gardens around it. The estate passed to the Keyser family, and was then sold in 1939. Aldermaston Court was requisitioned during the Second World War when an airfield was constructed in the southern part of the park, and many huts and other buildings erected on the lawns. After the war the house was sold for corporate use, eventually being converted for use as a hotel and conference centre. The former airfield remains in defensive use as Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.

Much historical documentation was collated to be submitted in connection with a planning application in 2001 <15-20>.

The GIS polygon covers the area of designation although the park formerly extended much further south, into the area later occupied by Aldermaston Airfield and then AWE.

Evidence for the deer park at Aldermaston appears, by and large, non-existent within the site area. A Saxton map of 1610 shows the park with what appears to be a substantial pale around it, but no evidence for this boundary appears to survive into the present day with regard to the site area. The estate wall is intermittent and any surrounding bank and ditch would have had to have been slighted with uncommon efficiency during later park landscaping works. It is, of course, possible that the deer park itself was located entirely within the southern area of Aldermaston Park away from the manor house, church and putative Medieval village and that any associated earthworks were lost during large-scale earthmoving activity associated with the airfield and subsequent Atomic Weapons Establishment. No attempt has been made as part of this study to locate elements of the deer park associated with this southern area <26>.

Though Aldermaston has an ancient history the first available map of the area is Rocque's dated 1761 <9> and shows ‘Aldermaston Park’ with the C17th manor house sited close to the church on the outskirts of the main village. Buildings are marked at the northernmost edge of the park which indicates the presence of the North East Lodges which were built circa 1636. The park landscape is bounded by Church Road and Red Hill to the north and east, and Paices Hill to the west. To the south, there is an area of common land with a livestock soak and a stream running through it. On the map Aldermaston Court is a large area of open space bisected from east to west by a formally-planted avenue of trees. The northern half is crossed by three small tributaries which form slight valleys in the landscape; the southern half shows more dense woodland growth. The lake has not yet been created at this time <27>.

An aerial photograph of 1921 <28> shows the house, park and part of the lake.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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