Monument record 1826/1/24 - Formal Gardens at Drayton House

{1} The gardens are ranged around the north-west and north-east sides of the House. They are largely contained within walls, generally of limestone, and up to 4m tall (listed grade II). The main garden is the East Parterre, now a simple lawn, c 60m square and occupying the whole of the north-east front. Towards the far side of the lawn is a fountain of 1846 by W A Nesfield (1793 1881), while at the two outer corners are substantial limestone ashlar pavilions or banqueting houses of c 1650 attributed to John Webb (1611 72), linked by balustrading possibly of earlier date (all listed grade II*). To the south of the more southerly banqueting house are iron gates of c 1700, moved here in 1916. A gap in the balustrading and steps lead up to a 30m wide outer compartment with central demi-lune which runs behind the banqueting houses, and leading from the outer corners of which, outside the ha-ha, is the first section of the Lime Avenue. On a plinth in the centre of the outer compartment is a statue of Samson and the Philistine by John Van Nost, one of several which remain about the gardens. South-east of the East Parterre, and beyond a low stone wall, is the 40m square, stone-lined fishpond (listed grade II), created or remodelled c 1700. South-east of this and extending up to the south-east wall, is a lawn. There is a gate close to the south-east end of the north-east wall, and a clairvoie at the south-west end of the south-east wall.
Immediately north-west of the House is a short lime avenue, probably part of the layout of c 1700 and carrying the main axial line south-west. Within the garden the line is continued down the north side of the East Parterre with a double row of limes planted in the late C20. North-west of the short lime avenue, and occupying the rest of the western part of the garden, is a lawn with specimen trees. In the early C18 this area was the wilderness, visible on the Bucks’ view of 1729 (reproduced in guidebook 1990) and probably that described by Morton. The 3m tall wall down the south-west side of this (whose line is continued across the line of the lime avenue by a hedge) is pierced towards its centre by an ex-situ doorway with carved surround of c 1580, while at the south-east end of the hedge is an iron clairvoie. North-east of the wilderness area the central and eastern parts of the north garden are divided up by a cruciform arrangement of beech and hornbeam hedges. Of the four compartments so created, those to the south-east are lawns with central urns (listed grade II), while in those to the north-west is the kitchen garden. Set along the north-east wall of the garden at the end of the south-west to north-east cruciform path is a red-brick orangery of c 1700 (listed, with the walls, grade II). Immediately north-west of this is a swimming pool. At the north-east end of the north-west wall are iron gates dated 1699 but possibly incorporating earlier panels. The greater part of the ironwork around the garden seems likely to be by Tijou, and all is included within the listing descriptions.
The basic garden layout was established in the 1580s for the third Lord Mordaunt, and although rebuilt in the 1650s the two banqueting houses date from that time. About 1700 Sir John Germain had the parterre laid out in the Dutch fashion by the gardener Tilleman Bobart (d 1724), who also worked at Hampton Court and Blenheim. The parterre statuary, with figures of Bacchus and Flora, was supplied by John Van Nost (d 1729) in 1718 with directions that it was to be ‘painted twice over with a white stone colour’. Also undertaken was the planting of limes, in the garden as well as the park, by Henry Wise (d 1738), the royal gardener, bills from whom covering 1700 to 1703 survive in the estate archives. As remade in the early C18 the gardens appear in a view of Drayton by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck published in 1729 (guidebook 1990). John Morton (1712) mentions ‘a very fine wilderness of flowering shrubs’, while in 1763 Horace Walpole recorded ‘The garden is just as Sir John Germaine (sic) brought it from Holland: pyramidal yews, treillages, and square cradle walks with windows clipped in them’ (CL 1965, 1219). In 1846 a parterre was laid east of the House by William Andrews Nesfield. This was abandoned c 1945, and the area returned to lawn. Other than the absence of topiary, the east garden again looks much as it did in 1729 although yews were replanted in 1998.

<1> English Heritage, 1984, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1984, Northamptonshire), (checked) (Report). SNN46781.

Record last edited

May 25 2023 4:02PM