Monument record 7080 - Upton Hall Park

Upton Hall Park is roughly square and about 600m across. The Hall and its pleasure grounds, including the walled garden, occupy its northern third. The pleasure grounds provide a setting for the Hall and stables, walled kitchen garden and church of St Michael. The grounds are crossed by the main approach from the east to the Hall. Terraces and formal ponds near the Hall, including a probable canal, would appear to be associated with the mid eighteenth century house. The walled garden is a large, red-brick -walled compartment. It has a single entrance at the south west corner. The walled garden is largely occupied by sports pitches laid out in 1990 but five nineteenth century structures stand in the western part of the compartment where a glasshouse stood in the late nineteenth century. map evidence suggests the park was laid out in the mid eighteenth century at the time the Hall was refronted.

{3} Sir Thomas Samwell owned the park.

{4} Old enclosure of 960 acres; the whole belongs to T.S.W. Samwell. A manor house with embellished grounds. Deer were kept until the mid 1750s. William Samwell bought the manor in 1600 from Valentine Knightley.

{5} Part of the lordship is old inclousre and the other part hath been inclosed within these few years. Sir Thomas Samwell Lord of Manor hath an elegant seat here. Place of his residence. Also owned lands at Coton and Guilsborough?

{6} The Samwells bought Upton in 1600 from the Knightley family.

{7} T.S.W. Samwell greatly improved the mansion house and contiguous grounds.

{8} The village was deserted after circa 1700. The drop in population pre 1524 was possibly due to the acquisition of the manor in 1420 by Richard Knightley of Fawsley. C.1729 mention of some recent enclosure which may have caused the drop in population. Now just a church and hall in parkland.

{9} Mr Goldby was the Head Gardener. Record of greenhouse.

{10} Post medieval landscape park of Upton Hall. Probably created in the late C17th-early C18th. This probably involved further depopulation of the village.

{11} Assessment as part of The Upton Survey, 1989.

{14} CONTEXT
The request to consider the park of Upton Hall, Northants, for inclusion on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens was internally generated by the East Midlands Region of English Heritage. The site, lying close to Northampton's western edge, was first brought to English Heritage's attention by the county gardens trust. The request for designation assessment was precipitated by a then current planning application to allow a large-scale planning application in the walled garden which would, inter alia, entail the removal of several listed structures which stand within.

The walled garden is largely occupied by sports pitches (and associated pavilion) laid out in 1990, belonging to Quinton House School, which has occupied the Hall and its grounds since 1947.

HISTORY
Upton Hall (not listed; now Quinton House School) is the chief house of the Upton estate, bought in 1600 by the Samwells from the Knightleys of Fawsley. It stands west of St. Michael's church (listed grade I); the associated village (which had some 25 houses in the fifteenth century) had been deserted by the early eighteenth century Its earthwork remains (county SAM 165; mapped by RCHM) extend southward from the stable block for c.200m. The core of the Knightley's early sixteenth century house survives although the Hall's present appearance is largely the result of extensions made in the seventeenth century and in the mid eighteenth century, when it was refronted. Internal reworking and redecoration took place in the nineteenth century. A stable block (now the school's junior department) stands 200m south-east of the Hall.

Although some accounts apparently suggest a large seventeenth century park at Upton, none is shown on Speed's county map of 1610, nor on Jansson's of 1659. Morden's late seventeenth century mapping is ambiguous. A park of apparently identical extent to that shown on the C19 OS appears on the Eyre/Jefferys county map of 1791, and again on Bryant's of 1824-6. The most likely scenario is therefore that the present park was laid out in the mid eighteenth century at the time the Hall was refronted.

DESCRIPTION
The park is roughly square, and about 600m across. The Hall and its pleasure grounds, including the walled garden, occupy its northern third. Map evidence suggests a light tree cover over the main parkland.

The pleasure grounds provide a setting for the Hall and stables, walled kitchen garden, and church of St. Michael. The grounds are crossed by the main approach from the east to the Hall. Terraces and formal ponds in the vicinity of the Hall, including a probable canal aligned on its south front, are surmised to be associated with the gardens of the mid eighteenth century house.

The walled garden stands 100m east of the Hall, immediately east of St. Michael's church. It is a relatively large, red-brick-walled compartment, 190 m east-west and 100m north-south, and roughly triangular in plan. It has a single entrance at its south-west corner. Its unusual 'footprint' suggests it was dropped in to occupy the north-east corner of the park, with the walled garden's southern boundary being aligned the straight, formal, approach to the Hall, an approach probably laid out when the Hall was refronted c.1737. A consultant's report by BroadwayMalyan (2005) suggests an early to mid nineteenth century date for the walled compartment. In the late nineteenth century glasshouses stood in the western part of the compartment; these (or successors) were demolished between 1978 and 1993.

Five listed structures stand in the western third of the compartment:
#An early nineteenth century cruciform wrought iron arbour
#An early nineteenth century wrought iron ogee arch
#A small, crenellated, brick summerhouse with gothic doorway, attached to which is the frame of a wrought-iron aviary - all early/mid nineteenth century
#A second wrought iron aviary, again early/mid nineteenth century

Not all of these structures necessarily stand in their original location.

ASSESSMENT
The relevant criteria for inclusion on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens for a site of this date (later eighteenth century and earlier nineteenth century) state that it should retain enough of its landscaping to reflect the original design. Certainly the broad outlines of the modest park laid out around Upton survive, but there is nothing to suggest that it was ever, to begin with, a landscape of national significance. It has also apparently seen considerable degradation, as for instance with the turning over of the walled garden to sports facilities. The site fails to meet the criteria for registration.

In terms of listing, with walled gardens of this date more than the walls themselves is generally expected to survive if they are to be added to the statutory list: internal glasshouses, external sheds, and perhaps a gardener's house all add to the likelihood that listing will take place. Accordingly, Upton's walled garden would not normally be considered listable.

Nevertheless, Upton is clearly a place with great time-depth and interest. Setting aside below-ground archaeology (indicated by HER records) it has a Norman and later church, extensive medieval settlement remains marking the village of Upton, a country house complex including elements of perhaps seventeenth century formal gardens, and features surviving from its later park and pleasure grounds. Associated with the last is the large walled garden with various ornamental garden structures of the earlier nineteenth century. Many controls already apply through exiting designations, notably the listing of many of the structures there and the scheduling of the village remains. These should be sufficient to ensure that any change is managed appropriately and with due sensitivity to individual buildings and monuments and to the local historic environment in general.

<2> , 1950, Ordnance Survey 2.5 Inch Series, SP76 (unchecked) (Map). SNN60365.

<3> Eyre T. (Revised by Jefferys T.), 1779, Map of the County of Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Map). SNN1852.

<4> Baker G., 1830, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.221 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77327.

<5> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.538 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<6> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<7> Evans J.; Britton J., 1810, The Beauties of England and Wales (Northamptonshire), (unchecked) (Book). SNN1351.

<8> Allison K.J.; Beresford M.W.; Hurst J.G. et al, 1966, The Deserted Villages of Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN39628.

<9> BURT J., Note, (checked) (Notes). SNN47689.

<10> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1985, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.408/Site 6 (checked) (Series). SNN77383.

<11> Shaw M., 1990, Archaeological Evaluation At Upton, Northampton (South West District), (checked) (Report). SNN102374.

<12> Beamish H., 2003, Proposed Link Road at Land North of Weedon Road Upton South West Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN103242.

<13> Foard-Colby A.; Walker C., 2007, Archaeological Excavation at Quinton House School, Upton, Northampton, January - February 2007, (unchecked) (Report). SNN105992.

<14> English Heritage Alternative Action Report (Report). SNN113037.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:10PM