Introduction
Features of Conington Castle include an entrance lodge, lawns, a former walled kitchen garden, fishponds, shrubberies, summer houses, a garden terrace and terrace walks.
The undulating parkland is crossed by a stream flowing east with several footbridges. The drive from the entrance lodge passes across the stream to the south-west corner of the Castle. To the east are stables which form a court with a central lawn. Further to the east, in a depression in the ground, south of Church Lane, was an extensive walled kitchen garden. The kitchen garden had a long, rectangular fish pond along the south wall, and shrubberies either side of the stream south of the pond.
The formal gardens were to the north of the house and bounded by a raised terrace walk. In 1798 stone octagonal summer houses were built at either end south of this terrace, in which Sir Robert Cotton placed antique stones, and a further fish pond was made in the lawns. To the north-east of the park is an ice house on a moated site. The fishpond and kitchen garden to the east no longer exist.
- History
This 16th-century house for Sir Robert Cotton (1586-1631) stood in parkland with an entrance lodge and gates along the Great North Road. It was visited by Ben Jonson who described the house as ‘one of his favourite country houses’. Between 1803 and 1815 the Castle was restored by Cockerell and the grounds laid out by Lapidge (a draughtsman employed by ‘Capability’ Brown).
Period
- Post Medieval (1540 to 1901)
- Tudor (1485-1603)
- Associated People
- Features & Designations
Features
- Ornamental Bridge
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- Stable Block
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- Garden Wall
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- Gate Lodge
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- Icehouse
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- Summerhouse
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- Lawn
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- Shrubbery
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- Kitchen Garden
- Description: The kitchen garden was destroyed in the late-20th century.
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- Drive
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- Walk
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- Fishpond
- Description: The fishpond was destroyed in the late-20th century.
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- Castle (featured building)
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- Key Information
Type
Park
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Period
Post Medieval (1540 to 1901)
Survival
Extant
Civil Parish
Conington
- References
Contributors
Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust