Conock Manor

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 The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Conock, a site of c 43ha, lies in the parish of Chirton, to the south-east of Devizes along the A342 between Wedhampton and Chirton. The site lies on a gently sloping mound, surrounded by farmland and bounded to the south by the A342.

Entrances and Approaches

The main entrance to Conock, established in the early C19, lies to the north of the A342. It is flanked by gate piers and an early C19 rustic lodge (listed grade II) and gives access to the driveway that runs in northerly direction, along the west side of Manor Farm.

Subsequently it runs past two early C19 cottages ornés (listed grade II) with to their east, two gate piers. Here the drive crosses the public road that runs north to south through Conock, after which it passes a second rustic lodge (listed grade II). This part of the drive was formerly lined by a thin belt of trees, as indicated on the Tithe map of 1844.

The drive continues in an easterly direction to the west front of Conock Manor, lined to the south-east by early C19 railings (listed grade II). It then sweeps around the north-west corner of the Manor to run along the garden wall and stable block, lined with rhododendrons. This section of the drive is shown on the Tithe Map of 1844 as a serpentine walk flanked by a tree belt to its north.

Some 200m to the east of the main entrance is another public road that leads to Conock, which runs from the A342 in northerly direction immediately to the west of The Grove, a house of c 1830 (listed grade II). This road runs through the centre of the settlement of Conock leading to the Old Manor.

Principal Building

Conock Manor (listed grade II*) is situated in the eastern part of the site. The two-storey manor house is built of limestone and has a slate roof with three dormers. The west front has a central bay which is set slightly forward, with a central door set within a portico supported by fluted Ionic columns and nine windows that overlook the parkland to the west. The east front has a central door and gothic windows from which there are views to the garden and stable block to the east. To the north and south are the early C19 wings designed by Richard Ingleman, which include an open loggia to the south and a thatched dairy with a verandah to the north. From the rustic dairy a brick garden wall runs in easterly direction, linking the Manor with the adjacent stable block (listed grade II). The latter, which was possibly built in the early C19 (VCH 1975; Cherry and Pevsner 1985), is built of brick and has a central lantern (renewed 1968) containing a bell.

To the north-west of Conock Manor lies the Old Manor (listed grade II), with an attached walled garden to the north. Built on an earlier site dating from the C15, the present building is of c 1710.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The main garden lies to the east of Conock Manor and its stable block, screened to the north by the brick garden wall and bounded to the south by a curvilinear brick ha-ha, with parkland beyond. The area immediately east of the house is laid to lawn with various trees, with a central stone sundial surrounded by four pyramidal clipped yews. To its south-west is a circular pond, indicated on the 1st edition OS map surveyed in 1885. Along the garden wall lies a border with various trees and shrubs, now (1999) partly paved with a black and yellow brick mosaic.

To the south-west of the stable block is a rectangular swimming pool built in the late C20. To the east of the swimming pool runs a straight grassed walk lined with clipped beech trees, leading in easterly direction along the stable block. Towards the end of this walk is an herbaceous border decorated with brick mosaic patterns (late C20).

Park

The parkland stretches out to the north, south, and west of Conock Manor, and is bounded to the north-west by a belt of trees. The parkland to the south is divided from the garden by a ha-ha, and further south it is crossed by a track, with the field known as Coster's Ground beyond it. In the north-east corner of Coster's Ground stands a large modern (late C20) farm shed. Formerly the parkland to the south had a series of circular tree clumps, three lining the track to the north of Coster's Ground.

The parkland to the west of Manor Farm and the Old Manor has a few mature trees. The western boundary of the park was lined formerly by a belt of trees, as shown on the Tithe Map of 1844, and there is a circular clump of trees to the west of the Old Manor. A public footpath, first marked on the Tithe map of 1844, runs through the north-west area of the park in a northerly direction, past the front of the Old Manor. On reaching the tree belt it divides, one path leading west towards Wedhampton and the other running east through the tree belt, passing the north side of the walled garden of the Old Manor and leading into the parkland to the north of Conock Manor. The north park has two late C20 rectangular-shaped tree plantations. Formerly the parkland in this area was surrounded by a belt of trees, with two oval clumps of trees in the centre.

Kitchen Garden

The rectangular kitchen garden lies to the east of the stable block and is bounded to the north by a brick wall, with halfway along a lean-to greenhouse, as shown on the OS map surveyed 1885. To the south and west the garden is bounded by clipped yew hedges, each with an entrance. The kitchen garden has recently (1999) been planted as an arboretum. To the east is a late C20 tennis court with an alcove and seat in the wall, and storage sheds beyond.

The brick-walled kitchen garden attached to the Old Manor dates from the early C19 and was partly reinstated in 1998.

REFERENCES

Country Life, 109 (29 June 1951), pp 2040-4

Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire X, (1975), pp 63-5

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (2nd edn 1975), pp 173-5

Maps

Tithe map for the parish of Chirton and the chapelry of Conock, 1844 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1929

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1885, published 1887

2nd edition revised 1899, published 1900

Archival items

Richard Ingleman's proposals for Conock Manor (including a ground plan, working drawings and an elevation of the principal front), 1817 (451/74), (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

Description written: November 1999

Amended: December 1999

Edited: December 2004