Building record 3320/3/7 - Terraced Gardens to North & East of House, Castle Ashby

Completed 1864 to designs by W.B. Thomas, for 3rd Marquis of Northampton.

{1} Terraced gardens dated 1864; part of important registered parkland with Listed Buildings & structures; terracotta balustrade.

{2} Garden features. Completed 1864 to designs by W.B. Thomas, for 3rd Marquis of Northampton. Brick and limestone and Blashfield's terracotta, about two years later. The building and ornamentation supervised by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. Four linked terraced gardens to east and north of Castle Ashby (q.v.) between house and park. Balustrades are of terracotta, those to outer retaining wall with continuous lettering to match parapets of house. Beginning at north-west corner they read: THE GRASS WITHERETH AND THE FLOWER FADETH BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOR EVER, then CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD HOW THEY GROW THEY TOIL NOT NEITHER DO THEY SPIN AND YET I SAY UNTO YOU THAT SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE. They end with an abbreviated Latin dedicatory inscription which reads, in translation, "To Theodosia, sweetest of wives, Charles Douglas Northampton erected this, begun in hope, finished in despair 1865" (The 3rd Marchioness had died in the previous November). The balustrading is approximately 1.5 metres high and is punctuated by piers bearing urns, with taller more elaborate piers every 3 or four bays with volutes and garlands and garlanded urns. "Bastion" to north-east outer corner has ornamental terracotta well and wrought-iron well-head. Flights of steps connect the various levels and lead out into the park. At north end of outer terrace is a pair of limestone piers and gates at foot of walk leading down from water tower (q.v.). Piers have moulded plinths and cornices and small pineapple finials on moulded tapering plinth fine wrought-iron gates. Terraces formerly had elaborate "parterres de broderie". Terrace to north-east has large central ornamental terracotta urn. Middle terrace to east of house has pair of terracotta fountains. Lower terrace to east of house has larger central formal pond with terracotta kerb and large marble tazza fountain bowl. (Castle Ashby park and gardens are included in HBMC Register of Parks and Gardens for Northamptonshire at Grade I) (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: 1973, p144)

{5} Terraced gardens, 1864, to north and east of Castle Ashby House. Designed by W.B.Thomas with decorated Blashfield terracotta balustrading and other features. Balustrade partly dismantled, unstable. Accelerated weathering tests ongoing. Terraces set in landscape developed from C16th, with mid C18th park by Lancelot Brown. Park generally in good condition and incorporating thiry Listed buildings and structures.

{6} The main gardens (elements listed grade II*), known collectively as The Terraces, lie south and especially east of the Castle, below a broad terraced walk around the building. Prodigious amounts of Blashfield’s buff-coloured terracotta are employed, in urns, basins, gate piers, seats and especially balustrading. The balustrading around the exterior of the garden incorporates lettered biblical inscriptions 0.75m tall, which echo those around the parapet of the house. One of them says ‘The grass withereth and the flowers fadeth but the word of God endureth for ever’, the other ‘Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them’. Bounding the south side of the east garden is a terraced walk which runs c 100m east from the north-east corner of the south forecourt, terminating in an apsidal bastion. From this there are views back across the gardens to the house, and east, through a framework of mature trees, across the park and Park Pond. Immediately south of the bastion is the church of St Mary Magdalen, which is an important visual component of the garden complex.
To the north of this terraced walk, east of the house, are two formal compartments with parterre beds, the eastern terraced slightly below the western. The eastern compartment has a central fountain basin and box-edged beds with lavender, and at its north-east corner is a further apsidal bastion overlooking the park. The main architectural elements of the western compartment are two fountains. A third compartment lies north of the western one; a gravel and grass parterre is laid out around a central urn. This third compartment lies at the east end of the north lawn, access to which is gained from the terrace along the front of the house by splaying flights of steps. At the west side of the lawn a tall beech hedge screens a broad path which leads, via the tunnel arch beneath the water tower, from the service yard to the park. Immediately west of the beech-hedged path is a hard tennis court.
Lancelot Brown (1716 83) is believed (Stroud 1975, 107 9) to have greatly simplified the existing (ie post medieval) layout in the 1760s, flattening and grassing over the formal gardens. The present gardens were developed from 1862 by the third Marquess, who engaged W B Thomas (who later worked at Sandringham) to design the new terraces and walls. The design of the flower work within the parterres was provided by Joseph Newton of Oxford Terrace, who employed his new ‘shading’ principle. Many of the architectural elements were designed by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (d 1877), the terracotta employed therein being manufactured at John M Blashfield’s works at Stamford which began to supply the terracotta parapet in 1864.

{7} Balustrade in very poor state and has largely been dismantled or lost. Large sections of replacement with Jesmonite artificial replica. End bastion section and fountains still intact.

{9} Undated photo;

<1> 1998, Buildings At Risk Survey, p.47 (checked) (Report). SNN43352.

<2> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/17 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<3> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F12 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<4> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.144 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<5> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2008, Heritage at Risk Register, 2008, p.39 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN106096.

<6> English Heritage, 1994, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1994, Northamptonshire), (unchecked) (Report). SNN1324.

<7> Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk: East Midlands Register 2016, p. 54 (Report). SNN110747.

<8> Historic England, 2017, Heritage at Risk: East Midlands Register 2017, p. 61 (Report). SNN111090.

<8> Historic England, 2018, Heritage at Risk: East Midlands Register 2018, p. 61 (Report). SNN111434.

<9> Photographs of buildings in Castle Ashby (Photographs). SNN111838.

Record last edited

Dec 16 2024 12:08PM