Chawton House

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Chawton House and its associated landscape of c 111ha is located on the south-east edge of the village of Chawton, 1.5km south of Alton. The estate is bounded by open farmland to the north, east, and south, and the road running through Chawton village to the west, with the village houses to the north-west and open farmland beyond the road to the west. Chawton House stands on the south-west slope of a hill which occupies the centre of the northern part of the park.

From the hill the ground falls northwards to Chawton village and gently southwards to the southern boundary of the estate and then rises again beyond the boundary. The Lavant stream flows from south to north along the west side of the park. There are good views from the House to the south, and from the higher ground in the north of the park, looking west and south over the park and pleasure grounds. The boundaries are mostly marked by fences and hedges.

Entrances and Approaches

The approach to Chawton House is from the village of Chawton to the west. A straight formal drive leads east-south-east for c 100m from the village road to the walled enclosure of St Nicholas' church, and then continues for a further c 80m to a gravel forecourt on the south-west side of the House; this approach was laid out by 1741 (Randall). A further drive from the west, c 130m to the north of the C18 drive, leads east for c 140m and then south-east to provide the access to the Home Farm buildings and to the Gardener's Cottage. This drive was laid out by 1870 (OS) and replaced an C18 drive from the north-west (Randall, 1741).

Principal Building

Chawton House (listed grade II*) stands in the centre of its landscape, with gardens to the south and east and park to the south and north. It was built in the 1580s and extended in c 1655, with several phases of additions and restorations in the C18 and late C19. The walls are of flint with stone dressings, topped by an C18 brick parapet and a gabled tiled roof. The main elevations are to the west (the entrance front, which has a three-storey porch) and to the south (the garden front, of two storeys and an attic, with three gables), the other sides of the building having a complex series of projecting two- and three-storey gabled units of various dates.

Chawton House Stables (listed grade II*) stands c 60m north-west of Chawton House. It has flint and stone walls with brick dressings and a tiled roof. Built as a stable block in the late C16, the building was altered in the C17 and again in the C20 when it was restored and converted into a dwelling. Adjoining it to the north is an C18 former dovecote and barn (listed grade II), converted in the C20 into a store and garage range.

The flint-walled St Nicholas' church (listed grade II) stands c 50m west of Chawton House, set within a walled enclosure bordering the entrance drive to the north and parkland to the west and south. Built in 1871 by Sir Arthur Blomfield, it replaced the medieval church on the same site which was destroyed by fire in 1871.

The C18 Home Farmhouse (listed grade II) stands c 40m north of Chawton House. It is a two-storey brick building with a tiled roof, extended in the C18 and C19. The late C17 brick Home Farm Barn (listed grade II) stands c 40m west of Home Farm and was converted into a house in the C20.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The garden front of the House faces south-west with views across open, sloping lawns to the south. The lawn is slightly terraced in front of the House and then rises to the east and falls to the south-west. There is a vista through a break in the shrubbery and along a lime avenue stretching southwards across the park. A ha-ha which runs along the south-west edge of the pleasure grounds continues to the north around the south and west sides of the churchyard. The south side of the lawn is backed by the Wilderness, now overgrown shrubbery and woodland.

Against the south-east corner of the House is the Library Terrace, below the east window of the library. The terrace is on three levels with three flights of steps and is laid out as stone paths and lawn, enclosed by a low stone wall. The terrace was built c 1905-06 on the site of an early C19 conservatory and is traditionally attributed to Edwin Lutyens (Wade 1996).

To the south of the Library Terrace is a lawn which is bordered to the east by a long terraced walk known as the Upper Terrace. This is retained along the west side by a brick wall with a balustrade of semicircular tiles and there are views to the west over the lawns and pleasure grounds. Along the east side there was a rockery and herbaceous planting but only a few rocks remain within the undergrowth of the woodland along the east side of the garden. The terrace was laid out in its present form in the early C20 but was developed from features existing in the C18 and C19. The walk leads south past the west wall of the walled garden and then continues into an area of overgrown woodland, the remains of a shrubbery laid out with walks in the early C19. The planting around the east side of the gardens is former pleasure grounds laid out in the early C19, now (2000) overgrown woodland but with some fine trees.

In the north-west corner of the pleasure grounds is the church and churchyard, set in a walled enclosure bordering the park on the west and south sides. There is tree and shrub planting within the churchyard on the south and west sides, and Church Copse surrounds the churchyard on the north and east sides and has some fine trees including ancient yews and an C18 lime.

Park

The South Park is pasture, bounded by plantations around the south and east sides (Noar Copse, Holm Wood, and Broadlands Row), and with the Lavant stream running north along the west side of the parkland. To the west of the stream the western edge of the park is planted with mixed shrubs with some trees, an area of ash coppice, and a stretch with small groups of oak. A late C19 lime avenue runs south from the pleasure grounds, across the park along a ridge of ground. This is continued at the southern end by a narrow plantation which joins onto Noar Copse. There are large C19 clumps of trees (predominantly beech with lime, ash with oak, or beech with pine), which were replanted or reinforced in the late C20. There are also some smaller clumps and scattered trees, mainly lime, oak, and chestnut, with pines and cedars in key positions. The ancient coppice row which runs north-east from Broadlands Row supplied Jane Austen with the setting for the conversation between Captain Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove, `in the hedge-row behind [Anne], as if making their way along the rough wild sort of channel, down the centre' (Persuasion, Chapter 10).

The North Park is pasture with large plantations around the north and east boundaries (Mingledown Plantation to the north, and Eastfield Plantation and Adela Copse to the east). Two large copses (Silver Wedding Copse (mainly beech) to the north, and Knickerknocker Copse (beech mixed with oak) to the south) stand in the centre of the park, with further small clumps and a few scattered trees (mainly lime).

A cricket ground lies on the level low ground on the west side of the North Park, to the east of the Lavant stream and within former parkland. Knickerknocker Field and Windmill Field lie on the higher ground on the east side of the park and are now in arable use (2000). The southern end of Knickerknocker Copse is an area of older woodland which includes the remaining trees of a C19 beech avenue, known as the Beech Walk. At the eastern end of the Walk there are good views east and the western end of the Walk leads back to the shrubbery walks to the south of the walled garden.

Kitchen Garden

The kitchen garden is laid out as a parallelogram, of which the external walls were built between 1818 and 1822. The surviving dividing wall, running approximately north/south, was added in 1909 when the walled garden was converted into a flower garden. During the second half of the C20 the garden was converted into an orchard and is now (2000) laid out as a lawn with a few remaining apple trees. On the inside of the north wall are the bases of the glasshouses and the remains of the potting sheds stand on the outside of the north wall. An outer kitchen garden lay to the east and this is now (2000) the garden of Gardener's Cottage, which stands on the north side. The garden is laid out as a lawn with beds and shrub groups.

Maps

• E Randall senior and junior, A map of the Manor and parish of Chawton together with Lands belonging to Thomas Knight Esq in the Parish of Alton, all in the county of Southampton, 1741 (Rms C17:32(54)), (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
• Isaac Taylor, A Map of Hampshire, 1" to 1 mile, 1759
• Thomas Milne, Hampshire or the County of Southampton, 1" to 1 mile, 1791
• OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1870-1; 2nd edition published 1897; 3rd edition published 1911
• OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1870; 2nd edition published 1895-6; 3rd edition revised 1909, published 1910

Archival items

• Description and notes by Sybil Wade, Hampshire Gardens Trust Research Project, 1998 (Copy on EH file)

Description written: October 2000

Amended: November 2001

Edited: January 2004, January 2022