Reasons for Designation
Post-medieval formal gardens are garden arrangements dating between the early
16th and mid-18th centuries, their most characteristic feature being a core of
geometric layout, typically located and orientated in relation to the major
residences of which they formed the settings. Garden designs of this period
are numerous and varied, although most contain a number of recognisable
components. For the 16th and 17th centuries, the most common features are
flat-topped banks or terraces (actually raised walkways), waterways, closely
set ponds and multi-walled enclosures. Late 17th and 18th century gardens
often reflect the development of these ideas and contain multiple terraces and
extensive water features, as well as rigidly geometrical arrangements of
embankments. Other features fashionable across the period include: earthen
mounds (or mounts) used as vantage points to view the house and gardens, or as
the sites of ornate structures; `moats' surrounding areas of planting; walled
closes of stone or brick (sometimes serving as the forecourt of the main
house); and garden buildings such as banqueting houses and pavilions. Planted
areas were commonly arranged in geometric beds, or parterres, in patterns
which incorporated hedges, paths and sometimes ponds, fountains and statuary.
By contrast, other areas were sometimes set aside as romantic wildernesses.
Formal gardens were created throughout the period by the royal court, the
aristocracy and county gentry, as a routine accompaniment of the country seats
of the landed elite. Formal gardens of all sizes were once therefore
commonplace, and their numbers may have comfortably exceeded 2000. The radical
redesign of many gardens to match later fashions has dramatically reduced this
total, and little more than 250 examples are currently known in England.
Although one of many post-medieval monument types, formal gardens have a
particular importance reflecting the social expectations and aspirations of
the period. They represent a significant and illuminating aspect of the
architectural and artistic tastes of the time, and illustrate the skills which
developed to realise the ambitions of their owners. Surviving evidence may
take many forms, including standing structures, earthworks and buried remains;
the latter may include details of the planting patterns, and even
environmental material from which to identify the species employed.
Examples of formal gardens will normally be considered to be of national
importance, where the principal features remain visible, or where significant
buried remains survive; of these, parts of whole garden no longer in use will
be considered for scheduling.
Many early houses had gardens associated with them. The creation of gardens
has an early history in England, the earliest examples known being associated
with Roman villas. During the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, herb gardens
were planted; particularly in monasteries where the herbs were used for
medicinal purposes. However the major development in gardening took place in
the late medieval and early post-medieval periods when the idea of the garden
as a `pleasure ground' developed. Early gardens take a variety of forms. Some
involved significant water-management works to create elaborate water-gardens
which could include a series of ponds and even ornamental canal systems. At
other sites flower gardens were favoured , with planting in elaborately shaped
and often geometrically laid out beds. Planting arrangements were often
complemented with urns, statues and other garden furniture. Such sites were
often provided with raised walkways or prospect mounds to provide vantage
points from which the garden layout could be seen and fully appreciated.
Whilst gardens were probably a common accompaniment to high status houses of
the late medieval to early post -medieval period, continued occupation and
subsequent remodelling of gardens in response to changing fashions means that
early garden designs rarely survive undisturbed. Gardens provide a valuable
insight into contemporary aesthetics and views about how the landscape could
be modified to enhance the surroundings. Their design often mirrors elements
of the design of the associated house; particularly following the symmetry of
the buildings. In view of their rarity, great variety of form, and importance
for understanding high status houses and their occupants, all surviving
examples of an early date will be identified to be of national importance.
The 17th century garden earthworks at Risby are well preserved and a fine
example of Jacobean garden design. Their importance is enhanced by the early
18th century print depicting the gardens and mid-18th century description by
Arthur Young. The earthwork survival of the hall's predecessor at Cellar
Heads, along with fragments of the deer park boundary and medieval village,
also add to the importance of the monument.
Details
The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of the 17th century
gardens laid out around Risby Hall together with the site of the hall itself.
It also includes the earthworks of part of the medieval settlement of Risby.
The rest of the settlement has been levelled by ploughing, with parts now
lying below the modern farm. These areas are not included in the scheduling.
The ornamental lakes, the brick built folly and other features to the east of
the monument relate to the extension to the gardens in the late 18th century
which are also not included in the scheduling , nor is the site of the range
of buildings to the west of the hall site demolished in the 1980s. The
medieval moated site centred 500m to the NNW at Cellar Heads is the subject of
a separate scheduling.
The settlement of Risby was recorded in the Domesday Book as having been sold
to the Archbishop of York and then granted to Beverley Minster. The manor
passed into the hands of the Ellerker family in 1401 and Sir Ralph Ellerker is
known to have entertained Henry VIII and his court at Risby in 1540. In c.1550
a deer park was created at Risby by enclosing some of the settlement's open
fields and this was enlarged several times up to the late 17th century. Risby
passed to Sir James Bradshaw following the death of the last male Ellerker in
1655. He built Risby Hall and laid out the surrounding gardens in the mid-
1680s to replace the moated manor house at Cellar Heads to the north. An early
18th century print shows the southern elevation of this house along with the
terraced gardens spread down the hillside to the north. In 1742 the estate was
inherited by Easton Mainwaring Ellerker who entertained Arthur Young at Risby
in 1769. In Young's 1770 `Tour through the North of England' a series of
improvements to the grounds of Risby Hall are described, but these were halted
by the death of EM Ellerker in 1771 and that of his son four years later. The
hall was destroyed by fire in the late 1770s, rebuilt and burnt to the ground
a second time in the early 1780s. A range of buildings with a 1760 date stone
to the west of the hall site are thought to have included the library, range
of offices and two lodges described in 1787. This range, still shown on
Ordnance Survey maps, was demolished and the site levelled in the 1980s.
The site of the 1680s hall lies just to the east of Yewtree Plantation and is
chiefly marked by the depressions left by the house's cellars. The earthworks
of the gardens shown in the early 18th century print extend SSE from a raised
walkway alongside this house site, as a series of four level terraces down the
hillside. The earthworks are well defined with slopes between terraces
typically being both straight sided and at about 45 degrees to the vertical.
The print shows other features that are readily identified as earthworks,
including the ornamental pond in the bottom of the shallow valley, the
building platforms of a pair of pavilions flanking the upper two terraces, a
carriageway running around the western side of the terraces and the platform
of a third larger outbuilding beyond. The carriageway can be traced south
eastwards, following a hollow way up the opposite hillside heading towards the
modern farm which truncates it. To the north of this hollow way there is a
group of small building platforms which are interpreted as part of the
medieval village of Risby. To the south west of this area and the hollow way
there is a pair of narrow terraces and a broad bank running along the hillside
which are identified as further remains of the formal garden. To the south
of the broad bank there is a narrower bank which continues as a bank and
external ditch north westwards. This is interpreted as the garden boundary. To
the east and north of the hall site, lying within Blackdike and Yewtree
Plantations, there is a set of water garden features including two canals,
long straight ponds flanked by raised walkways, and an area of smaller, now
mainly silted ponds. At the north end of the longer of the two canals there is
a bank and ditch forming the remains of a deer leap. This is a surviving
section of the boundary around the deer park at Risby. It now marks the
northern boundary of Blackday Ice Plantation.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are all modern
fences and walls, all stiles and gates, water troughs and the platforms that
they stand on, and telegraph poles, although the ground beneath all these
features is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
