Shrubland Hall

Details

An extensive mid C19 Italianate garden by Charles Barry with later alterations by William Robinson which sits in a C17 park, greatly expanded in the late C18 and early C19, for which Humphry Repton produced a Red Book in 1789 and William Woods prepared proposals in 1808.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The Shrubland estate is thought to have originated with the building of the Old Hall by the Booth family in the early C16 (HLM 1996). By the early C17 it had passed by marriage into the Bacon family and a map dated 1668 by Edward Clarke shows the lands of the Old Hall, of which a pond and a section of wall remain. In the 1770s John Bacon commissioned the architect James Paine (1717-89) to design a new hall on a new site. The new Georgian building still forms the core of the present hall and occupies a dramatic site at the top of a steep escarpment. Sir William Middleton purchased Shrubland in 1788 and the same year commissioned Humphry Repton (1752-1818) to suggest improvements, some of which were carried out. In 1808 William Woods, a landscape designer, was asked to help modify the grounds although it remains unclear how many of his suggestions were implemented. Sir William Fowle Fowle Middleton inherited the estate from his father in 1830 and had the Hall extensively remodelled by the architect J P Gandy-Deering. In association with his nationally renowned head gardener Donald Beaton (who remained in charge at Shrubland until 1852), Sir William developed an elaborate and complex collection of gardens both by the Hall and at the foot of the escarpment. Many of these gardens were used as testing grounds for Beaton's theories on bedding out and colour work. In the late 1840s (possibly 1848) Sir William and Lady Middleton commissioned Charles Barry (1795-1860) to turn their ideas for an Italianate house and garden into reality. Alexander Roos has also been identified as an Italianising influence at Shrubland, his involvement predated that of Barry and may have laid the stylistic groundwork for Barry’s major Italianate remodelling. After Sir William’s death in 1860 his cousin, Sir George Nathaniel Broke Middleton, took over the estate which in 1882 passed to his niece and her husband James St Vincent, fourth Baron de Saumarez. During their period William Robinson was consulted on modernising some of the planting, some of the results of which still survive. The Hall was used as a convalescent home during the First World War and the Old Hall as a brigade HQ during the Second World War. In 1965 a health clinic was established in the Hall by the sixth Baron and on his death the estate passed to the seventh Baron. The Saumarez family put the site on the market in 2006 and it has since been separated into several different ownerships.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Shrubland Park lies c 11km west of Ipswich on the north side of the Gipping valley. The 175ha registered park is triangular in shape: the old Norwich road runs north/south along the western boundary whilst Sandy Lane between Barham and Coddenham forms the eastern edge. The pleasure grounds cover c 25ha and lie to the west of the central part of the park. The Hall enjoys a dramatic position on top of a steep escarpment (for Suffolk) which runs south-east to north-west through the site, giving views south and west across the Gipping valley towards an undulating agricultural landscape of small fields, hedges and woodland. Landform and planting encloses the view east but to the north and north-west contrived views through woodland remain along The Vista and to a prospect tower in the northern plantations.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The Hall is served by three major drives and one minor one. To the south the Barham or South Lodge (Grade II), designed by A Roos and built in 1841 in the Italianate style, marks the main drive, along which also stands the Russian Lodge. The main drive was moved eastwards to this position in the early C19 when the drive laid out by Repton was abandoned (Tithe map 1840). From the north-west the Needham Lodge (Grade II) marks the beginning of the drive through the Long Covert, both lodge and drive being in place by 1820 (OS drawings). The Needham Lodge was extensively remodelled in the Italianate style by Barry in the 1860s. Coddenham Lodge (Grade II) at the north-east corner of the park was erected 1848-9 to mark a new drive through the park from Coddenham to the Hall. A minor drive from the Wheelwrights Lodge on the west boundary marks the position of an old lane which lay outside the park until it was extended in the early C19.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Shrubland Hall (Grade II*) sits to the south-east of centre of the registered site on top of the escarpment. It is a three-storey, Italianate-style building of gault brick with limestone and stucco dressings. The west, garden front has a central five-bay block with giant Ionic pilasters, flanked on either side by three further bays. To the west is a service range (c 1851) and to the east a massive Italianate tower (c 1850). The whole is decorated with balustrading and urns. The east, entrance front has a great baroque entrance leading to the staircase hall, flanked by single-storey, three-bay wings attached to semi-elliptical screen walls with gateways at each end. To the south is a large conservatory, added c 1830. The Hall was originally designed in the Georgian style by the architect James Paine (1770-2) and was remodelled by J P Gandy-Deering (1830-2) who added the pilasters, the new entrance and the conservatory. Further remodelling in the Italianate style took place in the late 1840s and early 1850s at the hand of Sir Charles Barry who added balustrades and a belvedere on the south-west tower, although his proposals for a balancing north tower and a central bell tower were rejected by the Middletons.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
Shrubland Hall lies on high ground and its gardens fall away to the south and west of the house in a series of terraces. They retain much of the mid C19 Italianate layout in the form of the hard landscaping from the Barry period. Immediately on the west front lies the Gun Terrace (Grade II*). The Brownslow Terrace runs north in a wide arc from a reconstituted stone bench flanked by a pair of statues of the Jennings Dog on the Gun Terrace to the northern boundary of the gardens where it is terminated by a statue of Diana (Grade II). It is lined by ancient sweet chestnuts which date from c 1600 and predate the building of the new Hall. They were retained and incorporated in the layout of the grounds and are now a particular feature of the garden. Below the Gun Terrace is the Balcony Terrace (Grade II*), linked by flights of steps and decorated with balustrading, basins and urns (Grade II). The complex Victorian parterres laid out on this level have been replaced by grass and herbaceous planting around the perimeter. The Balcony Terrace and the gardens below it are linked by a Grand Descent (Grade II*) of 115 ornamented and balustraded steps contained by box hedging, topped by a covered pavilion on the upper level and falling in five flights to the Panel Garden below. The final flight divides into two curved stairs with a rustic grotto and pool beneath. The vista from the Balcony Terrace is completed by a covered Italianate Loggia (Grade II*) at the end of the Panel Garden (70m from the base of the Descent) overlooking woodland to the west. The escarpment either side of the Grand Descent is densely planted with evergreen trees and shrubs and contains paths which correlate closely with those proposed by Repton in his Red Book. This escarpment planting also contains the Bamboo Walk (100m north of the Descent), the planting of which was proposed by William Robinson and discussed in his book The English Garden (1906). The Bamboo Walk terminates at a statue of a shepherd boy, made of reconstituted stone, and a pair of Grade II listed wrought iron gates.

The Panel Garden retains a simplified parterre and scrolls of yew, together with a central circular fountain pond. To the west beside the Loggia, steps lead down to a stone bridge (Grade II) and an area of wild garden, the framework of which existed before William Robinson proposed additions to its planting in the 1880s (Williamson 1997). As well as being on the principal axis from the Hall, the Panel Garden forms the focus of two cross axes made up by the Green Terrace to the south-east which crosses the Panel Garden and runs north-west along The Vista avenue out into the park for c 400m where it terminates at the Grade II listed vista steps; and by a third vista which runs from the Balcony Seat in the south-west corner of the Panel Garden to the north-east.

The Green Terrace consists of a walk of some 250m terminated by mid C19 wrought-iron gates (Grade II). Along the length of this Terrace, principally on the west side, a series of theme gardens were strung in the mid C19. Some of these remain, most notably the Fountain or Hot Wall Garden with its semicircular heated ornamental wall c 60m in length and its steps and balustrading (all Grade II); a Rose Garden; the Witches Circle (Grade II); and the box maze planted by Donald Beaton (40m west from the end of the Green Terrace). Along the east side of the Terrace the land rises up to rolling lawns which run up to the south front of the Hall. The lawns contain a modern (late C20) tennis court, next to which is a small ‘Chinese’-style pavilion, and a swimming pool. Beyond the lawns, near the southern end of the Green Terrace, lies the Swiss Cottage (Grade II) and Rock Garden, the former dating from the early C19 (Tithe map 1840) and the latter from the early years of the C20.

Beyond the Green Terrace gardens to the west lies open lawn dotted with mature trees and bounded by a perimeter tree belt, on the inner edge of which sits the Algerian Summer House (170m west of the Green Terrace), a rustic wooden building dating from the early C19. This originally stood elsewhere in the garden and was moved in 1852 to make way for the Grand Descent.

PARK
Shrubland Park extends to c 175ha. The eastern section of the landscape is predominantly open parkland laid out in the early C19, with a good spread of trees of mixed species and ages in clumps and as individuals. There are small areas of arable land in the north-east corner. The central part of the site contains the Old Hall and the new Hall; both sit on the high ground above the escarpment. The Old Hall (Grade II) lies 500m north-north-east of the new Hall. The oldest trees in the park are concentrated in this central section, which includes the site of the C17 deer park, and ancient trees survive particularly near the new Hall which was built around the C17 sweet chestnut grove known as The Warren.

The long western arm of the park is covered with woodland plantations, cut through by drives which lead out to the Needham Lodge on the western tip. They pass Shrubland Vista, a mid C20 single-storey dwelling 350m west of the Old Hall, and the hexagonal Prospect Tower (called ‘Tower Cottage’, Grade II), erected in the 1770s some 700m north-west of the new Hall as an eyecatcher which at the time lay outside the park boundary. The planting of the escarpment and the western plantations was carried out between 1790 and 1840 when the park was greatly expanded to the north-west, south and east, following advice from Humphry Repton in 1789 and William Woods in 1808. Repton also proposed a new south drive which was laid out but later moved further east, and a broad walk to link the new Hall with the kitchen garden. This walk was partially carried out in the form of the Brownslow Terrace which incorporated some of The Warren's sweet chestnuts to line its eastern edge. There have been few significant changes to the park landscape since the late C19.

KITCHEN GARDEN
The kitchen garden, which has red-brick walls, lies 300m south-east of the Hall. It is attached to a coach-house range and gateway all of which was constructed during the 1830s (Grade II). The coach house and workshops are mainly gault brick under tiled roofs and contain a wrought-iron gate with a fan design bearing the date 1841. Within the kitchen garden one glass range remains on the south wall.


This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 5 December 2022 to amend the description and remove superfluous source details from text.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

1052

Legacy System:

Parks and Gardens

Sources

Books and journals
Jones, B, Follies and Grottoes, (1974)
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Bettley, James, The Buildings of England: Suffolk: East, (2015)
Brooke, EA, The Gardens of England, (1857)
Robinson, W, The English Flower Garden, (1906 (10th edn.)), 22, 300, 303
Shrubland Park, Ipswich, the seat of Baron De Saumarez in Country Life, Vol. 10, (2 November 1901), 560-567
An Italian Garden in England: Shrubland Park, Suffolk, the Home of Mr JVB Saumarez in Country Life, Vol. 114, (24 September 1953), 948-951
Shrubland Park, Suffolk in Country Life, Vol. 114, (19 November 1953), 1654-1657
Shrubland Park, Suffolk in Country Life, Vol. 114, (26 November 1953), 1734-1738
Garnier, R, Alexander Roos (circa 1810-1881) in Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XV, (2006), 11-68
Shrubland Park in Cottage Gardener, Vol. 10, (29 September 1853), 495-497
Shrubland Park in Cottage Gardener, Vol. 16, (23 September 1856), 452-454
Shrubland Park in Cottage Gardener, Vol. 17, (21 October 1856), 39
Shrubland Park in Cottage Gardener, Vol. 19, (13 October 1857), 17-20
Garden Memoranda in Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, (26 October 1867), 1099-1100
Garden Memoranda in Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, (2 November 1867), 1123
Garden Memoranda in Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, (16 November 1867), 1170-1172
Shrubland Park in Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette,, (22 September 1888), 328-329
Hardy Bamboos in Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, (6 September 1890), 278
The Gardens of England. Shrubland in The Garden, Vol. 1, (9 March 1872), 350-351
The Garden Guide: Suffolk, Shrubland Park in The Garden, Vol. 3, (31 May 1873), 412

Other
OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1889
OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1905
OS 6" to 1 mile: 3rd edition published 1928
OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1884
OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1905
OS 25" to 1 mile: 3rd edition published 1928
Account books, family papers, maps, plans and illustrations for Shrubland are held in Suffolk Record Office.
Archival items Humphry Repton, Red Book for Shrubland, 1789 (private collection).
Edward Clarke, Estate plan, 1668 (private collection)
J Pennington, A map shewing the extent of the parish of Coddenham with the hamlet of Crowfield, 1785 (private collection)
OS surveyor's draft drawings, c 1820 (British Library maps)
Shrubland Estate Heritage Landscape Management Plan, vols 1 and 5, (Historic Landscape Management 1996)
Tithe map for Barham, 1840 (East Suffolk Record Office)
Tithe map for Coddenham, 1839 (East Suffolk Record Office)
Tom Williamson, The Landscape of Shrubland Park. A Short History (1997)

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