Burton Agnes Hall

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE

Estate owners

Since the 1170s, when the manor of Burton Agnes was held by Roger de Stutville, it has never been sold. It descended by marriage to the Griffith family, whose principal estate was in Staffordshire. In 1599 Henry Griffith was appointed to the Council of the North at York, providing the impetus to rebuild the old manor house on his Yorkshire estate at Burton Agnes. The present house was built between 1601 and 1610. Henry's son, Sir Henry Griffith, died without heirs in 1654, and the estate passed to a nephew, Sir Francis Boynton of Barmston. The manor descended in the Boynton family until 1899 when it passed from Sir Henry Somerville Boynton to his daughter Cycely, who the same year married Thomas Lamplough Wickham, afterwards Wickham-Boynton. He died in 1942 and the estate passed to his second son Marcus. Marcus Wickham-Boynton died without issue in 1989, have established the Burton Agnes Hall Preservation Trust, and settled the Burton Agnes estate on Simon Cunliffe-Lister, who was descended from a branch of the Boynton family. (Allison (ed.) VCH Yorks ER II, 107-8; Neave & Neave, ‘Burton Agnes', 37-9; Imrie, Manor Houses of Burton Agnes, 110-111)

The owners chiefly responsible for laying out or altering the gardens were:

Henry Griffith (d. 1620), who built Burton Agnes Hall 1601-10

Sir Griffith Boynton, 3rd Bart., owner 1695-1730

Sir Griffith Boynton, 6th Bart., owner 1761-1778

From the 1960s some formal elements were re-introduced by Marcus Wickham-Boynton. From 1990 Susan Cunliffe-Lister, on behalf of her son Simon Cunliffe-Lister, has undertaken a major redevelopment of the gardens.

Early history of the site

There has been a manor house at Burton Agnes since at least the late 12th century. No evidence for a medieval deer park has been found.

Chronological history of the designed landscape

17th century

Burton Agnes Hall was built during the first decade of the 17th century, and a formal garden commensurate in status with the new manor house would almost certainly have been laid out at this time.

Celia Fiennes, who was distantly related to the Boyntons, commented on the gardens at Burton Agnes when she visited the house during her tour of parts of northern England on horseback in 1697. (Griffiths, Diary of Celia Fiennes, 71-2)

We enter under a Gate house built with 4 large towers to a Court, which is large, in the middle is a Bowling green palisado'd round, and the Coaches runns round it to the Entrance which is by 10 stepps up to a Tarress, and thence a pav'd walke to the house, cut box and filleroy and lawrell about the Court...the Gardens are large and are capable of being made very fine, they now remaine in the old fashion. There is gravell walks and grass and Close walks, there is one walke all the length of the Garden called the Crooked Walke, of grass well cutt and rowled, it is indented in and out in corners, and so is the wall, which makes you thinke you are at the end off the walke severall tymes before you are, by means of the Codling hedge that is on the other side. This leads you to a Summer house that also opens to a large gravell walke that runns the breadth of the Garden to the house ward.

A section of the formal gardens in front on the hall are shown on Samuel Buck's sketch of around 1720.

18th and 19th centuries

The formal gardens, described by Celia Fiennes in 1697 as still ‘in the old fashion', may have been replanned by Sir Griffith Boynton, 3rd Bart, who perhaps created a small park to the east; he was said in 1722 to have recently enclosed 85 a. of open field (28 a. from Middle Field, and 57 a. from East Field). (Allison, VCH Yorks ER II, 113)

Further improvements were probably the work of Sir Griffith Boynton, 6th Bart, who inherited in 1761. In 1766 the old road from the village to Rudston, which ran along the eastern boundary of the gardens, was diverted. A sunken ha-ha took its place along the stretch east of the hall, presumably to prevent stock straying from the parkland into the pleasure gardens. A painting by William Marlow shows the east view of the hall from the park shortly after the ha-ha or retaining wall had replaced the sunken road. Further east ‘New Lane' as it was still known in the 19th century (now Back Lane) was also part of the 18th- century changes to the landscape. (Allison, VCH Yorks ER II,106; Neave & Neave, ‘Burton Agnes Estate', 41)

The woodland gardens north of the hall, formerly known as the Grove, were also part of the 18th-century improvements. A woodland walk, about a mile in length, was also laid out, in part along the route of the old sunken road to Rudston. (Neave & Neave, ‘Burton Agnes Estate', 410)

In 1802 a visitor to Burton Agnes Hall, Dorothy Richardson, wrote an account of the gardens. (JRL, English MS 1126) From the top of the gatehouse she described the view ‘of the noble house to the north, on the opposite side of a very large square court with a background of a lawn richly adorned with wood..... The court is very large having a wall to the west, with trees planted on the inside; and to the east (except near the house where it is seperated from a lawn by a railing) a brick wall enclosing the inner garden which descends towards the south in steps with a coping & corbels, & has a flower border under it. In the center of the court there is a large circular grass plat, with a small plot of gravel in the middle, upon which on a pedestal stands a stone statue of a gladiator. A broad carriage road surrounds the grass, & from thence a straight road with a grass plat on each side leads up to the House, before which there is a broad grass walk.'

Describing the view from the east and north fronts of the hall, she wrote that these ‘open upon a beautiful & extensive lawn, with many fine timber trees scattered upon it, particularly oak; & at some distance from the north front a grass terrace extends east & west with a background of trees, & from the center of it a grass walk leads north to a small temple, with an open front to the south.'

19th century

Teesdale's map of Yorkshire, based on a survey of 1817-18 with some corrections before publication in 1828, suggests the parkland to the east may have been extended by this date. However, the mid-19th century OS plan, surveyed just before the enclosure of the rest of the open field land, shows the area of old enclosures (around 130 acres) to the east of the formal gardens and woodland walk subdivided into fields or paddocks, rather than as open parkland. Later maps suggest the field boundary running east from the southern end of the narrow strip of woodland called the Walks to the Thornholme boundary represents the northern limit of what may be considered parkland.

The first plan to show the layout of the gardens in any detail is the OS plan published 1890. A formal avenue of trees runs from the gatehouse to the hall, with a statue about a third of the way along. A central path cuts across, providing access to the stables and other outbuildings located south-west of the hall. The kitchen gardens lie to the east. A small aviary is marked close to the kitchen garden boundary wall, with a larger aviary shown in gardens behind the hall, built by the 11th baronet. This aviary was created by the 11th baronet in the late-19th century to house the birds in ‘luxurious captivity'. (Imrie, Manor Houses of Burton Agnes, 98)

The gardens east of the hall are shown as subdivided into four lawned areas by rectangular paths, with trees planted in rows either side of the paths along three sides. Further north, behind the hall, the area east of the larger aviary is planted with trees; this planting continues beyond the boundary where a mixed plantation is also divided by paths. A less regular path runs from the kitchen garden area up to this area of woodland, leading into the long strip of woodland called ‘The Walks'. The temple referred to in 1801 is not marked.

The area between the hall gardens/woodland walk, and New Lane, divided into three closes on the mid-19th century plan, is shown as two closes, with clumps of trees in the southern close.

20th century

Marcus Wickham-Boynton inherited the estate in 1942. In the 1970s he employed the Bridlington architect Francis Johnson to design the rectangular ponds to the east of the house. Johnson also designed the garden house at the front of the hall, and in 1985 the swimming pool pavilion to the north-west, on the site of the aviary. (Neave & Neave, ‘Burton Agnes Estate', 41)

Following the death of Marcus Wickham-Boynton in 1989, Susan Cunliffe-Lister took over management of the hall and gardens on behalf of her young son, Simon. She transformed the old walled kitchen garden, which by that date was mainly grass apart from a herbaceous border along the west wall, backed by shrub roses. Her ‘New Elizabethan Garden' is a series of small gardens and includes a potager, central herbaceous border, fruit border, jungle garden, campanula garden, coloured games garden and a maze. (Cunliffe-Lister, The Making of a New Elizabethan Garden)

Detailed history contributed by Yorkshire Gardens Trust 31/10/2014

Type

Garden

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Domestic / Residential

Survival

Extant

Hectares

44

Open to the public

Yes

Civil Parish

Burton Agnes