Summary
Cain Hill Monument on the site of Cain Hill House, built by Thomas Archer in 1710. Both are thought to replace an earlier building which was referred to during the construction of Cain Hill House.
Reasons for Designation
Cain Hill Monument, Wrest Park is designated for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: the monument and earthworks surviving on the site represent a palimpsest of significant phases of landscape development from at least the early C18;
* Potential: Cain Hill House has been integral to the wider context of Wrest Park designed landscape since its inception and is representative of the most significant phase in the development of Wrest Park. It is also witness to the change and continuity in fashions of landscape design; and the place they held in the wider landscape of Wrest Park;
* Documentation: the depth and detail of the historical documentation provide an important backdrop to the archaeological deposits and their interpretation;
* Group Value: the significance of the site is enhanced further by its association with the numerous listed buildings and structures within, and around, the Grade I Registered Park and Garden and its association with the Scheduled Gardens.
History
Wrest had been in the ownership of the Grey family since the mid C13 but the fortunes of the Greys rose when Edmund Grey was appointed Lord High Treasurer in 1463 and Earl of Kent in 1465. In 1651 on the death of Henry, the 10th Earl of Kent, the house stood in what remained essentially a medieval landscape, with a deer park to the north, a warren immediately to the south skirted by fishponds, and a mill pond (if not a mill) to the south-east. In 1642 Amabel, Henry's widow, purchased the manor of Clophill and Cainho and the land immediately to the north where the present Wrest Park House stands. Part of the warren was converted into a bowling green (and remains in use as such). Her son, Anthony (the 11th Earl) married Mary the daughter of Baron Lucas of Crudwell in 1662. When Mary inherited her father's wealth in 1671 the couple, assisted by Amabel, embarked on the embellishment of the house and the formalisation of the gardens. A new and extended classical façade was built on the north side of the house, regularising its appearance, as shown in an engraving by Kip and Knyff dated 1705, and a garden termed 'The Great Court' was created on this side to provide an impressive approach.
The account books of the period refer to the making of the Great Garden to the south of the house, which had previously been of only secondary importance to the northern park landscape. The long canal became the main feature of the garden. The Great Garden comprised parterres with symmetrical wildernesses beyond. The account books also mention the Chapel Garden, at the east end of the house and the Orange Garden.
The property passed to Henry de Grey in 1702 who, by 1710, had become the Duke of Kent. Henry was determined to improve the status of Wrest. At this time the gardens to the south were enlarged, alterations made to the water courses, and a number of garden buildings were constructed. A summer house was placed by the mill pond and a greenhouse was added to the Orange Garden. The architect Thomas Archer was responsible for many of these structures including the Pavilion (Grade I) which marked the southern limit of the garden as defined by the Old Brook. The alignment of the Old Brook is still maintained as the boundary between the parishes of Silsoe and Gravenhurst. Cain Hill was incorporated into the landscape as an eye catcher, its presence emphasised by the geometric axis which, eventually, led east from the house and north-east from the Archer Pavilion, partly in the form of avenues.
Cain Hill House by Thomas Archer was completed in 1710 but work began as early as 1703 when accounts recall the removal of an 'old' house on Cain Hill. The house had been used for 'light refreshments' and as a viewpoint from which to look out. In 1706 an arbour gave shelter at the end of a long walk and in the same year reference is made to the laying of foundations for a 'little barn' on 'Cano Hill'. In 1830, a commemorative column was placed on the site of Cain Hill House. It is the remains of the column which are visible on the surface today but remains of all phases will be represented in the buried archaeological deposits.
Archer's Cain Hill House is said to have been modelled on a Maison de Campagne, found in Antoine Le Pautre's Oeuvre's de Architecture. In common with the Archer Pavilion within the gardens, each façade faced a different avenue and closed a vista within the wider landscape. Certainly by 1719 the entire Cain Hill was planted up as a series of concentric rings of trees with avenues cut through these.
Numerous documents and illustrations make reference to Cain Hill House which describe it as a complex, many sided, two-storey building with large, prominent windows at both levels. Stairs led to the second storey and presumably the roof. A survey of 1735 by Rocque shows Cain Hill House with a flat balustraded roof which was clearly designed for access and viewing. On the outside were a series of carvings of people, numerous 'ragged staves' (the family emblem) and flowers. Accounts of 1710 record that a Mr Davis was paid for carving 12 ragged staves on lower keystones and six flowers on the door cases.
The final view of the house is dated to 1829 and shows the windows shuttered and the alcoves as blank. The same illustration shows the proposed column on the site of the house. The column was iron on a stone pedestal raised on three steps on a mound. The remains of the pedestal and the mound are the most prominent features of the site today. The column is evidence of a change in emphasis on the site from a viewing position to a place to walk to or to be seen from a distance. The Column could be seen from the Broad Walk within the Great Garden and commemorates Amabel de Grey, the Great Grand Daughter of the Duke of Kent.
Cain Hill can be understood as an extension to the C18 Great Gardens of the original Wrest Park House, it formed a vital element of the pattern of vistas and viewpoints with Cain Hill House reflecting views back towards the house, Archer Pavilion and an obelisk to the west of Wrest Park House, and into the wider landscape.
Details
The monument includes the standing, earthwork and buried remains of Cain Hill House and column and the equivalent remains of earlier and subsequent buildings and structures documented on the site. The site is situated in a small clearing, within an otherwise wooded, natural mound, c.700m south east of the current Wrest Park House. Cain Hill has been integral to the overall landscape design of Wrest Park House since at least the early C18.
The monument is visible on the surface as a ruinous, pedestal, raised on three steps with the whole sitting on a circular earthwork mound measuring approximately 30m in diameter. Brick and rubble, from earlier structures, protrude from the earthwork in various places. The pedestal is brick built and rendered, has a tapered base above which square rebated panels, for the insertion of engraved commemorative slabs, are evident on each face. Two of the slabs have become detached and lie on the ground, a third is still attached.
The area of scheduling is drawn as a circular area c.30m in diameter from the central point of the standing pedestal (Grid Reference TL0980035397). This includes a 5m margin of protection around the monument which was thought necessary for its support and preservation. There are no exclusions from the scheduling.
