Monument record MDO37623 - Landscape park and gardens at Came House, Winterborne Came

The park and gardens around Came House built between 1754 and 1762, with nineteenth-century additions and alterations. The overall layout of the park is modest and essentially eighteenth-century in style. There are gardens in a later style nearer the house, and there is a particularly fine early nineteenth-century conservatory attached to the house.

In the late eighteenth-century a landscaped park, believed to be in the style of ‘Capability’ Brown, was created around Came House. It is not suggested that Brown himself was directly responsible, but that his all-pervasive influence is clear. Brown’s style exhibits: rolling green slopes and lawns running up to the house; a perimeter belt of trees, and trees dotted about singly or in clumps in the park; a boundary drive; a lake of natural appearance in the middle ground. These are present at Came, but it is interesting to consider to what extent this style has been created deliberately, and to what extent it simply coincides with the setting; there is no known documentary evidence on this point. Came House was built for John Damer by Francis Cartwright of Blandford, who acted as architect and contractor, in 1754, though the interior was not completed until 1762. The house has changed little, with minor additions and alterations being made in the nineteenth century - a new entrance was created around 1840 and a notable conservatory attached to the west side. <1> In his book Historic Gardens of Dorset Timothy Mowl says that ‘… John Damer … built his perfect Palladian villa, Came House, cosily within the existing village and churchyard of Winterborne Came, disturbing nothing. The house has a conventional park. All the broad Brownian sweep, that such a villa of 1754 required, is spread harmlessly with its fine beeches over both sides of the valley of the Winterborne.’ Mowl notes that the conservatory was added by Colonel George Dawson-Damer, who succeeded to Came in 1829, and his description gives some impression of the effect of the conservatory. The conservatory was still as described and in use in 2008. <2> It is not clear (to the HER at the time of writing) to what extent traces of the eighteenth-century landscaping survive. Though the Dorset Gardens Trust describe the Came as a ‘… fine surviving 18th and early 19th century park’ designed by Francis Cartwright, they go on to say that ‘The boundary plantations and woodland plantings remain virtually unchanged from the 19th century’ and do not identify any elements which might be ascribed to the earlier landscaping, the overall effect of which would have been (presumably) uncomplicated and natural. According to the Dorset Gardens Trust (in discussions with the HER) a shelter belt is more typically eighteenth-century in date. <3> It is not clear to what extent any surviving planting survives. The boundary plantations (North Plantation, South Plantation, Home Wood and Cole Hill Wood) appear to consist of relatively immature woodland. No trees of an age consistent with the earliest proposed landscaping have been observed. The keepers’ cottages in the park are thought to be of eighteenth-century date, though much altered <1>. The extent to which their style and location formed part of the original landscaping concept is not clear. At the front (north side) of the house is a brick terrace wall with stone balustrade. The style suggests that these are early nineteenth century, and it seems likely that they are contemporary with, and indeed part of the scheme for, the new entrance created around 1840. Aerial photographs <4> suggest that there may be a ditch running along the northern side of the terrace, and continuing beyond it to the east. This may simply be a result of the construction of the terrace, but its appearance on the photographs hints at a ‘ha-ha’-type feature, and it is tempting to think that this may perhaps be earlier than the wall and balustrade; this feature has not been seen ‘on the ground’. Mowl <2> wrote that ‘Over the last four years [recent owner] has laid out a formal garden with a gravel path and round bushes leading up to the old, south entrance front and replaced the tennis court with a Kitchen Garden and a raised potager.’ This largely late twentieth-century garden takes the form of an L-shaped parterre. Recent aerial photographs <4> reveal what appear to be traces of an earlier garden in the lawn immediately south of the house, and between the house and the more elaborate parts of the modern formal garden referred to by Mowl. These traces are generally circular, around a surviving circular bed, and give the impression of a ‘daisy’ parterre; a style which, according to Stephen Desmond, dates to 1820 <5>. There is no documentary evidence (known to the HER at the time of writing this description) or archaeological evidence to substantiate this interpretation. The newly-created Kitchen Garden referred to by Mowl should not be confused with earlier walled gardens to the north east of the house; these are substantial, enclosed by brick walls, and are assumed to be contemporary with the house, though this has not been verified by a site visit. There is no documentary evidence (known to the HER at the time of writing this description) to clarify the dating of the walled garden. There would appear (from aerial photographs) to be numerous sub-divisions and structures within the walled garden, but their nature is not understood. Setting: Came sits in a shallow valley to the south of Dorchester, and separated from the county town by a slight ridge, and with the main Dorchester to Wareham road to the east. The main drive to the house comes from this road. There are plantations, generally rather linear in style, around the edges of the park which, as well as providing shelter, create a rural (albeit rather enclosed) effect. The river Winterborne and a minor road run along the valley bottom. Views out from the park are very limited. Significance: Though on a comparatively modest scale, a surviving eighteenth-century landscaped park would be of considerable significance in terms of Dorset’s garden history. However, the degree to which any eighteenth-century elements of the landscaping survive at Came is not clear. The Dorset Gardens Trust (in discussions with the HER) suggest that a shelter belt is more typically eighteenth-century in date, but the boundary plantations appear to consist of relatively immature woodland, and no trees of an age consistent with the earliest proposed landscaping have been observed. A detailed survey has not been carried out, and there appears to be a very limited amount of (accessible) documentary evidence pertaining to the creation of the park and its subsequent management and modification. There appears to be considerable potential for survival of eighteenth-century landscaping at Came. The walled gardens to the north of the house are thought on present, limited evidence to be contemporary with the house; they appear to be substantial and complex, and could be significant. The early nineteenth-century conservatory is an important survival, and the possibility that apparently broadly contemporary flower beds survive as below-ground archaeology near the house adds considerable interest. Further survey and research are needed to clarify these points.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2017 4:41PM