Monument record MDO32968 - Park and gardens around Stafford House, formerly known as Frome House, West Stafford

The park and gardens around Stafford House, formerly known as Frome House.

According to the RCHME Inventory description, the greater part of the present house is seventeenth century, incorporating a sixteenth-century wing ‘… which may itself have been an addition to a still earlier house, for in 1530 William Long took a lease of the ‘chyffe mansion’ in Frome Billet.’ (of which Frome House was the manor house). Referring to Pouncy’s Dorsetshire Photographically Illustrated of 1857, the RCHME description says that the house was enlarged to a double pile in 1848-50 following earlier advice given by Humphry Repton. (1). It is to be supposed that the present house is on or very close to the site of an earlier medieval house, as there appear to be few alternative sites within the very small manor of Frome Billet. No traces of any possible sixteenth-century or earlier medieval gardens can be discerned. However, there may be some survival of earlier features below the present lawns, for example. In his book Historic Gardens of Dorset (2) Timothy Mowl says that Humphry Repton was consulted on Stafford House in 1805, though his ‘Red Book’ for the consultation does not survive. Some information about the scheme for the house survives in Repton’s book Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, published in 1816, which according to Mowl ‘… reveals a Brownian landscape in headlong retreat. Repton rejects with scorn the technique of ‘lawning a hundred good acres of wheat’ to produce a ‘bald naked park, dotted with starving trees, or belted and clumped with spruce firs, and larches and Lombardy poplars’. In its raw first state his illustration presents a view looking south-east from the house with a barn, a manure heap, hens, cows and ill-drained fields. When the overlay is pulled back, a Brownian process of draining has created a trimly banked stream, the winterbourne, with a gravelled walk alongside and two wooden bridges. The barn has gone, the cattle are removed to the far side of the stream, and a three-arched bridge leads to a drive heading in the direction of the picturesque church and village. But to satisfy the flower bed enthusiasts an ornamental fence fringes the stream in the foreground, and roses, with peonies or some showy red flowers, are set in neat little beds beside the path’. Mowl goes on to say that ‘… this compromise scheme seems to have got no further than the design stage; though later a riverside walk was laid out, not along the winterbourne as he had urged, but along the larger River Frome’; elements of this design, presumably carried out not much later, can be seen in the present landscape around the house. The river Frome curves around the western and northern sides, and the landscaping appears to have been conceived to revolve around the river as a ‘serpentine’. There are hints of deliberate landscaping. Features noted by the Dorset Gardens Trust include paths running from the side of the house to the river, the remains of a summerhouse/gazebo on the northern side of the river, and the remains of a laurel and box walk on both sides of the river. A footbridge leads to the summerhouse, and all is very overgrown. The remains of the summerhouse/gazebo, observed by the Dorset Gardens Trust in 2007, are little more than foundations. The Trust’s surveyor reports that the foundations are of brick, and appear to be relatively modern. The footbridge leading from the walk to the summerhouse is modern, but it appears to be in a location in keeping with the overall design, and is presumed to be on the site of an original bridge. A weir to the east, though fulfilling a practical purpose, would also appear to be in keeping with the ‘concept’ of the design. The Grove family commissioned Benjamin Ferrey to add the new front to the house in 1848-1850, and it appears that a lot of money was spent on general improvements. It would not be surprising if work had been done on the gardens at the same time. There is little documentary evidence to throw any light on this, but the style of the beds/paths between the house and the river suggests that they are of this date, and the laurel and box walk may also be early Victorian. It remains difficult, therefore, to determine to what extent there was landscaping here in the early nineteenth-century. Mowl’s view is that the landscaping was carried out mid-century, and harks back to advice given by Repton earlier in the century; this is convincing, in view of the fact that the changes to the house made mid-century appear also to have been based on Repton’s advice. The general lack of documentary or other evidence means that the question remains open. Setting West Stafford House is situated next to the river Frome, and the landscaping appears both to take advantage of the course of the river and to contain and manage it to create an effect. The primary role of the various artificial channels running through and around the gardens appears to be as part of a watermeadow system. Though visible for some distance around, owing to the flatness of the valley bottom, the small park and gardens cannot be overlooked. The landscape design appears to have been intended to allow views from the gardens along the river to the west and east in particular, but this is now very overgrown and obscured. A gravel pit has been created to the west. Context Humphry Repton (1752-1818) created natural landscaping in a picturesque style, with an emphasis on the use of water to improve the outlook. A particular characteristic of his work is the introduction of more formal gardens in the vicinity of the house. This combination of natural landscaping with formal gardens can be seen at West Stafford House. With the possible exception of Merley, there are no other examples of his work in Dorset. Significance The chief significance of the gardens at West Stafford House comes from the possible association with Humphry Repton. It seems very probable that the connection was tenuous, and that much of the landscaping was done in the later nineteenth century, though harking back to a concept sketched by Repton. Even if it were in due course possible, through documentary research or archaeological exploration, to demonstrate that the landscaping here was early nineteenth-century in date and that Repton had direct involvement, the park and gardens are small scale and of limited impact when compared with known examples of the work of Repton and his followers. Nevertheless, they are a noteworthy example of the application of Repton’s style to a relatively modest park by landed gentry, and unique in Dorset.

Record last edited

Jan 29 2015 5:29PM