Details
A late C19 terraced garden, extended in the early C20, surrounding the C17 Hatch House.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
During the C16, C17, and C18, Hatch House, then known as West Hatch Manor, was owned by the Hyde family. During the C17 it was the residence of Lawrence Hyde, whose son became Earl of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor in 1660. In 1771, after the death of Sir Henry Parker, grandnephew and heir of Robert Hyde, West Hatch Manor descended in several undivided moieties. Around this time the house was partly demolished (Cherry and Pevsner 1975). In 1841, Sir Hyde Parker Bt sold his moiety to John Bennett and the Manor, by then called Old Hatch House, became part of the adjacent Pythouse estate.
The ruinous remains of a walled terraced garden were still extant at Old Hatch House in 1814 (VCH 1987). In 1906, the resident of Hatch House, Lt-Col Bennett Stanford Fane commissioned the architect Detmar Blow to restore and extend the House. Subsequently, the design of the garden, including its walls and twin-arched loggia, has been attributed to him (Cherry and Pevsner 1975; Ottewill 1987). The OS map of 1901 and two late C19 watercolours indicate however that most of the gardens had already been laid out before Blow worked at Hatch House. In 1919, Country Life reported that the gardens at Old Hatch House had been restored in 'the taste introduced in the wake of William III and Queen Mary' by its owners Mr and Mrs Thomas Stanford, parents to Lt-Col Bennett Stanford Fane. By 1925 (OS) the gardens had been extended immediately to the north and north-east of the House.
Hatch House remains (2002) in private ownership.
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Hatch House, a site of c 15.5ha, lies in a rural area near the village of Newtown, c 8km to the south-west of Tisbury. To the west the site is bounded by Pythouse Park, to the south by Park House, and to the north and east by farmland.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The main entrance to Hatch House lies to the west, where a drive off the road between Newtown and Semley runs eastwards for c 200m to the south front of the House.
During the C18, Hatch House could also be approached via an avenue from the north but by the mid C19, after Hatch House had been bought by John Bennett, this approach had become the eastern approach to the neighbouring Pythouse estate.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Hatch House (listed grade II*) stands in the northern part of the site. The current house was first built in the C17 and was extensively restored and extended by Detmar Blow in 1906 (1867-1939). The two-storey house has a rectangular floor plan and is built of limestone with a tiled roof. The main front is the three-gabled west front, the seven windows of which overlook the terraced garden.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The gardens are laid out to the north, south, and west of the House. From the main drive to the south of the House, steps lead up to a garden which is laid to lawn with a planted border along the south elevation of the House. This lawn extends round to the west front where central steps flanked by square gate piers with ball finials lead west from the lawn through a grass bank. This gives access to a square walled garden (listed grade II), laid out on two levels (OS 1901). The walls are constructed of English bond brick with flat stone copings which sweep up to the sides. The lower level of the garden is laid to lawn and surrounded by a planted border against the retaining wall. From the lawn, a flight of semicircular central steps cut into the west retaining wall lead to the second, higher level of the garden, and to a loggia (listed grade II) set in the west retaining wall of the garden (OS 1901). The loggia has two round-arched openings with chamfered rustication and a hipped tiled roof with ball finials. Inside, its west wall is lined with an ornamental carved wooden seat, inscribed with the date 1658. The higher level of the garden is also laid to lawn and lined with planted borders against its retaining walls. From this part of the garden is a fine view of the west front of the House, and extensive views of the rural landscape to the south-east of the site, with the hills beyond it.
North of the House is a narrow strip of lawn which rises into two c 50m long grassed terraces. A series of stone steps situated c 5m to the north-west of the House, flanked by four piers, leads up the terraces (as shown on a photograph of c 1900). To the north-west and north lie two rectangular lawns, enclosed by clipped mature yew hedges (first shown on OS 1925). To the east the terraces are lined by a row of mature yew trees, with a retaining wall beyond.
PARK
The park, which lies to the south, slopes gently down from the main drive in front of the House in a south-westerly direction. It is bounded by a thin belt of trees and planted with single mature specimen trees. An avenue of chestnuts, planted by 1925 (OS), extends from the main drive into the park for c 200m in south-westerly direction.
KITCHEN GARDEN
By 1901 (OS) there was a walled kitchen garden with greenhouses situated to the north-east of the House, with an L-shaped stable block and outbuildings attached to its south, surrounded by an orchard. By 1925 (OS) the kitchen garden, including the stable block and outbuildings, had been altered and extended. Only the stable block and outbuildings now remain and in the area formerly occupied by the orchard, in the north-east corner of the site, stand a few mature fruit trees. To the east the orchard area is bounded by a series of rectangular ponds (OS 1901, 1925).
REFERENCES
Country Life, 45 (10 May 1919), pp 526-7
Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire XIII, (1987), pp 210-11
D Ottewill, The Edwardian Garden (1989), p 120
P M Slocombe (ed), Architects and building craftsmen with work in Wiltshire (1996), pp 19-20
Maps
OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1901
2nd edition published 1925
Archival items
Watercolour of the gardens, looking from the east, dated 20 July 1897 and signed with the initials HF or MF (private collection)
P Wyndham, watercolour of the gardens, looking from north-west corner in a south-easterly direction towards the house, 1898/1902 (private collection)
Black and white photograph showing part of the gardens and the west front of the house before the extension by Detmar Blow, c 1900 (private collection)
Three photographs of Hatch House and garden, 1986 (WILTM: P25161-3), (Wiltshire Reference Library, Trowbridge)
Description written: October 2002
Amended: November 2002
Register Inspector: FDM
Edited: November 2004
